It seemed Twitter Nigeria was on a meltdown, I had come out of a week of strategy sessions culminating in a press briefing, and I decided to escape to the animated world that is Twitter, but relief was not to be.

What I met was an atmosphere so charged that all I could do was try unfailingly to lighten up the tension by sarcastically adding #GEJIsNotComingBack to tweets of those who dared to question the motives and intelligence of those who jubilated at the news that the Economist Magazine had labelled Former President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan “an ineffectual buffoon”.

To be honest, after seeing screenshots of the excerpt, I could not bring myself to waste precious data and time to read an article clearly lacking in professionalism or courtesy, but I followed the conversation; reading tweets by intellectuals, pseudo-intellectuals and the odd overlord with 4,000+ Twitter followers who fancied himself an authority enough to attempt to lead public discourse.

What I saw was an alarming trend that I felt had become too regular for us that we had become to take it as second nature. What I found was that our public conversations had become not conversations, but condescending exchanges between those who major in sophistry.

I waited to see if perhaps the conversation would evolve into a general demand from Twitter Nigeria that the editorial team of the Economist tender an unreserved public apology to the people and state of Nigeria, but that was not to be. Save for a few outliers who were promptly shut down by the jubilant mob, the general atmosphere was one solidly in support of the Economist’s views.  You see, the Economist had not really done anything wrong as far as we were concerned, and if you will allow me paraphrase my fathers’ age long proverb, the Economist had only used our machete to clear feces because we left it outside and untended.

The problem is not just about what the Economist wrote, it was more about the fact that we have (perhaps as a result of the failures of successive Nigerian governments) taken it upon ourselves to help add tinder whenever a foreign media outlet lights a fire on our image as Nigerians. To so many it has become a knee-jerk practice of “If the oyibos are saying it, then it must be true”.

Many times, we even totally ignore local news and happenings till either the BBC, Financial Times or Al Jazeera pick it up, then we go into full clicktivist mode, creating hashtags and baying for blood. Totally forgetting that so many times, the media only jumps on Nigerian trending news to get eyeballs, and not necessarily because they care about your socio-political affairs or wellbeing. Oh we can be so predictable!

But that is not why we are here, the reason I have taken it upon myself to take a break from my self-imposed literary hiatus is to speak to those who Media Aide to President Buhari, Femi Adesina, had so brilliantly tagged “Wailing Wailers”. For the uninitiated, this is not a new age pop group, but a moniker for those of us unwise to still be following that party responsible for every single Nigerian problem since independence; PDP.

The man is not totally wrong I must confess, since the ousting of the PDP from Aso Rock at the hands of the All Progressives Congress’ Mohammed Buhari, all the People’s Democratic Party has done is nag and whine and wail. What I had expected was a party that would take learnings from its recent defeat at the public polls and begin to strategize on how to get back into the hearts of Nigerians.

What I expected was a clearly defined strategy that would seek not to aggravate an already hurt electorate, but one that would position the party as a suitable alternative anytime the APC falters, as it has become wont to. I didn’t expect a party that would continue to trend silly hashtags to win a share of the digital space that it fails to realize it has lost.  I certainly did not expect the barefaced lies and gossip-laden propaganda of those who style themselves social media directors of a party almost on the way out of style.

What the PDP fails to realize is that it squandered an amazing opportunity to create a narrative in the media that would have made it a near impossible feat for any other political party to seriously consider ousting it. What we got instead of a proper media strategy led by sound minds keen on advancing the image of Nigeria and that of the party was goof after goof by media aides who could not sell ice cold water to a dying Tuareg in the sweltering desert heat.

And even now that the baton of leadership had been snatched from the party and Nigerians have come to place their trust in another, all the PDP has continued to offer is a strategy more focused on waiting for the APC to falter so it can say “I told you so”. Pedestrian as that is, it doesn’t fully capture the fact that PDP is again sleeping on another opportunity given to it by the errors the APC has made to push its best minds forward and through them win considerable share of mind in the digital space.

Rather than employ the brains and charisma of the few lights in its dark corner to win the minds of those still straggling the fence and others already frustrated with the APC’s executive and legislative shenanigans, the approach of a party that once boasted to rule Nigeria for fifty years is to advance the cause of those whose ideas revolve around ineffectual hashtags, and self-aggrandizing photo-ops with any PDP politician still close enough to the corridors of power.

By this morning the attacks on the Economist had evolved into a narrative suggesting that Western media outfits are available at a fee to help African leaders throw shade at opponents. The question I have for those spreading this however is, why not sponsor you own narrative instead of nagging and whining hoping the electorate will pity you and offer you their ears?

If you must wail, at least wait with purpose, wail with the intent of providing an alternative where the incumbent government has failings, explaining how if given the chance you would have done things differently. Do not expend all your resources waging a lost battle when the war itself has been won by your opponent. Get back to you HQ and begin to plan how to relaunch your attack. Charm your way into the hearts of those you want in your corner, and forget spreading doomsday gossip hoping to elicit fear. The fact that it worked for the APC once doesn’t mean Nigerians will ever fall for it again.

And never forget, get over it #GEJIsNotComingBack.

#WeTriumphStill

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Edward Israel-Ayide is a creative industries professional whose fields of interest span politics, sports, literature, lifestyle etc.