Google Map Indiscretion -Festus Adedayo

Until a clarification came that it was a hoax, the hearts of many Nigerian patriots hung on the orifices of their mouths for hours upon hearing the news that the FCT Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mr Ayuba Gora, had said that thenceforth, the corps had decreed that driving with the aid of Google map was a serious traffic offence in Nigeria. Patriots were apprehensive because of the news’ tendency to be another volley of shame, in the league of many of recent, which hang on the neck of a hapless Nigeria.

As I speak, Nigeria is still trying to swim ashore from the river of global disgust at some pronouncements and policies of our government in recent time. While the Directorate of State Service (DSS) said recently that it was wary of releasing rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, from its gulag so that he would not be crushed by an oncoming vehicle, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi is also courting gross disdain across the globe for Nigeria because of a bill he sponsored perceived worldwide as seeking to criminalize free speech.

It is good that the FRSC denied this story, claiming that the official had been quoted out of context, otherwise, critical questions have started to be generated by this apparently less-than-deep statement. If it were not rebutted, we would have told the FRSC that the anti-Google map mindset was hostile to development and an affront on the ease that technology is providing to citizens of the world. In virtually all developed world, Google map is an aid which drivers deploy to navigate byzantine road networks and there has been no scientific linkage between its usage and road crashes. So, why would Nigeria isolate herself from the rest of the world?