ARISE News analyst, Dayo Sobowale, says President Bola Tinubu’s support for Nigeria’s push to secure fair revenue from global technology companies will help strengthen the country’s media industry and position it to compete in the rapidly evolving digital economy.
Speaking during an interview with ARISE News on Monday, Sobowale said the president’s initiative goes beyond financial relief for media organisations and is aimed at ensuring the long-term survival of Nigerian media in an era dominated by powerful technology companies.
According to him, global technology firms such as Apple, Amazon and other digital platforms currently hold enormous influence over the distribution and monetisation of news content, often leaving traditional media organisations struggling to generate adequate revenue.
“What he is trying to do is more than a rebate,” Sobowale said. “He is trying to position the Nigerian press for global competition and for survival within our economic space from the monopoly of the Big Tech companies.”
Sobowale explained that many countries are already confronting the growing dominance of major technology firms, noting that the global economic structure is increasingly being shaped by digital platforms.
“Somebody once branded the global economic system as a techno-feudal economy,” he said. “It has reached a stage where Big Tech companies control governments, markets and security structures.”
He said the president’s plan to introduce tariffs and other economic measures to reduce the cost of production for media organisations could help strengthen the competitiveness of Nigerian news platforms.
“What he has done is to start with tariffs to lower the cost of production for us and make us competitive,” Sobowale noted.
The analyst also called for stronger collaboration between the federal government and local technology innovators to develop indigenous digital platforms capable of competing with global technology companies.
“We have a Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology,” he said. “That ministry should liaise with newspaper and digital platform owners in Nigeria so that we can develop our own home-made technologies.”
Sobowale argued that Nigeria must focus on building local technological capacity rather than relying solely on foreign digital platforms that dominate global communication systems.
“The thing to do is to replicate or copy whatever these established technologies are doing,” he said.
He also pointed out that even advanced economies in Europe have expressed concerns about what he described as “technological imperialism” by major technology companies.
“Europe is complaining,” he said. “The European Union and the United Kingdom are worried about technological imperialism and colonialism just like the kind they once practised.”
Sobowale maintained that Nigeria must develop its own digital communication systems to protect its economic and cultural independence.
“If others teach you how to think and what to search for, it will influence your market,” he said. “You may end up being second-rate Europeans instead of Nigerians adapting technology to their own environment.”
He added that strengthening Nigeria’s digital ecosystem will enable the media industry to contribute more effectively to national development and democratic governance.
“We want to catch up with the world digitally in terms of communication and in terms of making the press contribute meaningfully to our freedom and economic development,” Sobowale said.
Triumph Ojo
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