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By Nduka Odo
Away from Nnamdi Kanu – Biafra agitations, away from the capacity of Buhari to remain President after spending four months in London out of six months of 2017 ; away from the politics of structuring and restructuring ; away from the fact that Boko Haram still bombs; and away from the fact that Nigerians are so elastic that the economic hardship in the country has become a normal way of life; Let us take a moment to look at the phenomenon that has engulfed the world: social media, and how Nigerians have turned the Web 2.0 into anti-social ballistic missile machine for firing out their ignorance of and hatred for one another.
It was a usual Nigerian evening where people jam-pack in buses returning home from workplaces or shops. The perspirations from commuters were already discomforting everyone; before my mind could drift into some sweet non-existing land (my usual way of enduring harsh commuting experiences), a transit evangelist or better called, bus pastor started, “Amen” “our Lord is good”. Very few voices responded “amen” and “all the time” respectively. Not that people were not Christians but the bus situation should have advised otherwise.
The bus conductor was collecting fares when two commuters started:
“Buhari is Hausa”
“Buhari is Fulani ”
” What is the difference between Hausa and Fulani?
From there, they jumped to another big man.
“Jonathan is an Igbo man.
“Jonathan is not an Igbo man”.
“Is he Hausa?”
“No”.
“Is he Yoruba?”
“No”.
“So if you say Jonathan is not Hausa and he is not Yoruba, where does he belong then? “. “Jonathan is Bayelsa”.
“So, are Bayelsa people Yoruba or Hausa?”.Jonathan is an Ijaw man, I chipped in after getting tired of hearing the uninformed conversation –breaking my rule not to join in arguments while on a public bus. When I heard, ” Ijaws are Igbo”, as a response to my chip in, I immediately regretted breaking my rule.
It would be wrong to use that single experience to judge all Nigerians but evidence abounds on how much ignorant Nigerians are about their fellow countrymen and women. We are so uneducated about one another. Many Nigerians will find it hard to believe that Muhammadu Buhari is not a Hausa man and that Bornu is not a Hausa state but of Kanuri. Much more would find it harder to believe that Goodluck Jonathan is not Igbo.
Recently, Nigerian youths and older ones have got more politically conscious. The social media such as Facebook and Twitter have granted Nigerians greater opportunity to air their views – an unprecedented freedom of expression. Anyone with any phone that can browse and with Internet data plan (sometimes, free MB as Nigerians call it) can create an account on Facebook and Twitter or even a blog and say whatever he or she likes about anyone or any government. That is why Facebook and Twitter users were unanimous in condemning the social media control bill. It is a far step from the 1980s and 1990s – Nigeria’s dark days in journalism and freedom of expression.
But, another devil is rearing its head through the same social media; I call it, the anti-social media behaviours and ignorance displayed by Nigerians against one another.
Social media has become the platform for Nigerians to pass hate speeches, call each other names, and make threats. If you monitor Nigeria social media sphere like I do, then you must be familiar with words like “wailing wailers”, “Buharists”, “Jonathanians”, “Aisha Rice eaters”, “PDPigs”, “APCshits”, “social media influenzas”, “aboki”, “nnyamiri”, “ofe-mmanu”, and so on. People now condemn hate speeches on Social media and in general, forgetting that Nigeria’s 2015 elections were won and lost in hate speeches. Its build up, its operations, and its aftermath were all couched not in subliminal but blatant anti-social terms and hate speeches. A sitting traditional ruler condemned a tribe to the lagoon should they fail to vote the candidate of his choice. A Reverend Father was called names by his own people for supporting a candidate. Femi Adesina boldly called Nigerians who criticized his boss “wailing wailers”.
The worst part of this is that Nigerians take their virulent vituperations against one another to global social media pages. For instance, whenever the BBC post stories about Nigeria on Facebook, go to the comment section and see Nigerians fire their anti-social, anti-ethnic ballistic missiles of hatred and ignorance at one another.
Similar to my experience in the public bus, Nigerians on social media cannot or do not care to tell the difference between the 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria, but they are very sharp at putting apart Nigerians into Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba. Anyone who posts something online is responded to base on which of the three tribes his or her name falls into or resembles most. So, automatically for these people in North east and North west and some parts of South west and North central, Eze, Ugwu, Chukwudi, Ese, Oghene, Ebelemi, Okon and so on are Igbo; but only three out of the listed names are Igbo. Those who know are aware that names such as Amadi, Ame, Onoja, Itodo, Ada, Ibe, Ogwuche, Obochi, and so on are shared by Igbos, Tiv and Idoma of Benue state and Igala of Kogi state. You might be insulted by those who think you are from the other tribe for answering names such as Ayo, Ife, and Oke; but these are shortened version of names which could be Igbo or Yoruba.
For the ignorant ones in the southern part, once you have one or two Arabic names and another name they know is not Yoruba but they do not know which other tribes such second name belongs – you’re a Hausa person. I know a man whose name combines Abubakar and Mohammed; he had to explain every day to his colleagues that he was not a Hausa man but an Igala man.
These set of people in these parts of Nigeria find it hard to believe that a Mary or John is Hausa or Fulani. These kinds somewhere else also get startled to hear that an Idris Musa is Igbo or of an Ibrahim Essien. If they don’t get startled, they might be of the opinion that such individuals are unfaithful to their region or not as good as themselves.
The most troubling part of this antisocial behaviour is that most of the ignorant Nigerians have attained some levels of education. This makes one wonder about the kind of education we are offered. Nigerian leaders banned the teaching of Nigerian history in schools so that dirt of leaders would not be dug out and taught to young ones.
What do you think will happen if Radio Biafra for instance reveals a secret that is considered implicating to a former leader but was stifled from being taught in schools — and a listener who never heard of such, picks up a phone and browses to confirm that what he or she heard is true? Or, someone with insidious motives becomes the first to teach a kid that Islam was brought into Nigeria about a thousand years ago by the Elkanem of Kanuri land? With skillful twisting, both will become watered grounds for penetration of propaganda and easy germination of hatred and distrust.
The direction of the premises is that we as a nation need to do more because ignorance kills. We need to make conscious efforts to know more about one another and appreciate one another too. Our beauty lies in our differences if Nigeria Federation becomes fair to all Federating units. Together or apart, restructured or not, separated or united, it would do us so much good to know about and appreciate one another.
