by Ovie Albert

A crusader should be sublime and live by example. There is no point in blowing up a can of worms, when in fact your motives itself doesn’t seem to be stellar. This issue ought not to have gone the way it went.

Many folks on twitter must have heard of Japheth Omojuwa, the self-styled social critic and crusader on twitter. One of the most characteristic side of him is the vitriolic words he uses to criticise the present Nigerian Government as led by GEJ.

Before I go on, I’d love to proceed to introduce him, by saying a little about his twitter profile along with the little I’ve gleaned of him on my favourite social media, twitter.

He has a Klout score of 71, and his twitter bio reads;

“I asked Google…guess what Google said… {Retweets are not endorsements}”.

Also, with over 38, 162 Followers, following only about 911 people in return, and 97, 911 tweets so far, he definitely enjoys a celebrity status on Twitter!

Twitter became abuzz today with multiple comments about Omojuwa’s iPad getting missing while he was travelling via Arik Air Nigeria. Gossips included that he had sued Arik Air for N50m, and in addition, his actions and the sensationalism he was giving the issue did not must call for it, especially from a self acclaimed saint-like crusader against corruption.

The bane of the matter

His iPad was stolen while travelling with Arik Air, and he subsequently reported the issue to Arik. However, Arik was unable to recover the iPad for him. This culminated in a break down of agreement between the two parties, with him claiming Arik was high-handed and careless while Arik maintained that the matter be settled as quietly as possible.

You can read about his side of his story on his Blog here. I must confess at this stage that several emails I sent to Arik Air Nigeria to have their own side of the affair have gone un-answered. I even called their customer care hotline but I was informed by the person at the receiving end that she didn’t have enough authority to speak on the matter. However, I’d update this post as soon as I get a response from them!

Back to the grit of the matter. I took time to go through Omojuwa’s Blog posts on same issue to see for myself his own side of the story. Something struck me as funny. For a person who was so full of criticism of Arik Air and even alleged that stolen items are the norms and not the exception on Arik Air, I found it pretty confounding that he still chose to travel via Arik that day, when he could’ve simply used another airline for that journey. That aside, it isn’t any excuse for his iPad to get stolen. And likewise, it also isn’t enough reason to derogate Arik for complicity in the theft.

Arik subsequently banning Omojuwa and 26 others from using their Aircraft is another matter that I don’t fully understand its relationship with the stolen iPad. I’d not go into it here but you can read about it here if you care to.

Excerpts from his Blogpost;

“Shockingly, after the police report had been secured, Arik Air came with a different tune. They needed me to sign an indemnity, that I’d not come to claim another compensation after they compensate me and that I’d not make the whole compensation process public.”

I’m not arguing that everyone doesn’t have a right to protest if he feels wronged. If you misplaced your iPad on a plane, it’s either due to your own fault and carelessness or maybe, perhaps the airline’s fault. And if the airline has agreed to take culpability of the whole debacle it could be hardly logical for you to expect that they pay you and at the same, you retain your rights to thrash them in public!

On Twitter, Omojuwa denied ever making any attempt to sue the airline, when in reality there was a subtle threat to do so. I’d quote his tweets and his website posting to put this in proper perspective.

@omojuwa: AT NO TIME DID I DEMAND ANY MONEY FROM ARIK AIR. NOT EVEN IN MY CONSUMER PROTECTION COUNCIL DOCUMENT.

Another Quote from Blog;

“To hell with secrecy! I just wanted my Ipad 2 returned and now that it is obvious they won’t return that, I will be returning to the Consumer Protection Council to file for a N50 million damage. That is the lowest possible worth of my ipad’s content. More on #ArikWhereIsMyIpad later. The Ariktivization has just begun”

What I got from his post was that Arik was ready to replace his iPad but wanted him to agree to a non-disclosure agreement and in addition, sign that he would not make another claim for same issue in the future. This isn’t the first time an airline would requests for a NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement). But I felt it was a little alarming that Omojuwa wanted to publicise the whole issue, considering his fame, he must have felt that this case was a recipe for a political point or a good laugh on social media. But at what cost would this be? Does he truly want his iPad back with the promised compensation, or he wants to get all these and at the same time humiliate the airline? Like having your cake and eating it! No corporate body in their right mind would allow this! Both sides needed to strike a compromise.

The quoted statement above looks completely true at first look, but it is better we look at it holistically. Omojuwa, even if he didn’t demand in writing for money or compensation in his ordeal with Arik, at least from the wordings of his Blog post above, he was considering asking for N50M for it, if Arik Air did not meet certain condition. Perhaps that was what misconstrued Tweeps in posting the rumour on Twitter that he was suing Arik Air N50M for his stolen iPad.

A Tech Lesson if you misplaced our iPhone

As a Tech Connoisseur, I’d quickly relate the Tech angle to this palaver.

Omojuwa and other users of iOS products should understand that their devices have certain security features ingrained per adventure it is misplaced or if its stolen. There’re 2 iOS services/apps that can help you mitigate an iPad theft crisis. This services ought to have been initiated prior to the theft! Be warned!

1. Find iPhone app

The name is actually a misnomer in the sense that it is useful for an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch! It is truly a nifty app and as the name suggests, if you misplace your iPhone, it can help you locate it on a map. You also have the option to either play a sound, send a message to your phone or to remotely wipe the iDevice!

So, in the case of Omojuwa’s stolen iPad, all he needed to have done was to log into the Find iPhoneapp on another iDevice or via web from any other gadget with GPS and locate his iPad on a map, and with the help of the police, he can effect an arrest to the miscreant who took it.

Caveats; This may however, only be possible with iOS 5 and below which still uses google maps. If you use Apple maps on iOS 6 to locate your iPad, you may just be as blind as a bat! The Apple maps on iOS 6 is appalling, to say the least.

2. Find my Friends app

Yes. This is another great app from apple. Like as I’m a friend of @Deoladoctor on the Find My Friend app service on iOS, all I need to do to locate him or inadvertently his iPad if stolen is to launch the app and I can point him out on a map.

Of course, the same Apple maps caveat also applies here.

ROUND UP

This is a Tech and Medicine site, so I’ve tried to explore the issue which is actually social and I’ve tried to draw extrapolations on its Tech ramifications. If I was the one who got his iPad stolen, I would as a matter of urgency, do a remote wipe with Find iPhone as a matter of urgency. I could send a sound or text message to the offender immediately. If he doesn’t respond, I’d wipe the device remotely. Then I’d try to locate it, if possible, with another iDevice running iOS 5.

If I locate the device or get a new one, whatever, I’d then restore the data and settings intact using my iPad back-up on my computer. That simple.

But for a Social critic, that’s another matter. His compulsion in the whole matter far transcends just recovering his iPad or getting it replaced by the Airline. He wants to get the iPad, be compensated and at the same poke holes at Arik on social media and score a political point. I dare say no corporation would accept those terms without a fight. And with Mr. Mobility criticising this action on twitter, I don’t think I’m much different in my opinion. A crusader should be sublime and live by example. There is no point in blowing up a can of worms, when in fact your motives itself doesn’t seem to be stellar. This issue ought not to have gone the way it went.

A social crusader ought to exercise a level of restraint and decorum in handling grievances with bodies in tangential paths to his ideas. The same yardstick he uses to criticise the government is the manner we’d use to judge him.

Surely, that’s not asking too much, is it?

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