Opinion: Of social media activism and the big three menace

by Adeyemi O.J

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Lest I forget, the Minister who wept about the deplorable state of our roads, have since expended billions of Naira on a private jet, in order not to ever experience that kind of embarrassing moment again.

Just like The New-Media, the slogan; “New Nigeria” has been on our lips for quite sometime now. The noise is loud, it is resounding, it is deafening…. but guess what? It is EMPTY. This slogan is a mirage, no more no less.

A lot of people have said 1999 marked the dawn of new beginning in our lives, quick question; new beginning of what?. We cannot say this is a New Nigeria, not when we are still confronted with interrelated problems of Conflict, Inflation, Urban decay, Poverty, Corruption, and a Climate of Violence. Issues we could have solvedindependently have now merged into a social crisis.

Our youths take solace in the BIG THREE of New Media; Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. While our dear country battles a more formidable BIG THREE; Corruption, Insecurity and Darkness. The rivalry between New Nigeria and the BIG THREE has been on for a while.

Let’s talk about Corruption, the boss, which happens to be the foundation of most of our challenges in this country and has been left solely to the Government to tackle, forgetting that we are the government.

A father, who has been in the “retiring soon” category since I wrote my common entrance, who paid for special JAMB centre for his child to pass, bribed lecturers throughout, paid N300,000 so that the child could also get a civil service job, will come out of his balcony at half past 10 on a Monday morning with his Global Receiver Radio and curse out the government for being too corrupt.

The lecturer cum activist, who charges N10,000 for a ‘B’ in his course will come on radio to lament about the deteriorating state of education in Nigeria, while cursing the government for sacking some of his colleagues, who were caught slacking.

The vibrant youth, popular jingo on Twitter, who would rather sit on his Timeline and complain about not getting a job but follow celebrities who are following their own dreams, will connect with his ‘smart’ friend who will show him the easy way out, “become a hired twitter activist or die trending album titles for up and coming artistes”. So, he becomes that prophet in the bible, who was hired to curse Israel.

We shouldn’t even talk about those women (whose children are probably home because of ASUU strike) but chose to become Iyanya’s protégé, dancing Kukere all over the streets of Abuja. Most of these women probably lamented about the current affairs of this nation, weeks before the macabre dance. My Twitter-activist friend, It is okay to be forever sad if you were on Twitter, cursing the government while your mum was dancing round streetlight poles on Yar’adua expressway.

Lest I forget, the Minister who wept about the deplorable state of our roads, have since expended billions of Naira on a private jet, in order not to ever experience that kind of embarrassing moment again.

All these aforementioned characters are the people who constitute the government. If we don’t change ourselves, the slogan; “New Nigeria”, remains a mirage. So, when next you want to lament about corruption, ask yourself few questions.

To be continued……..maybe

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Adeyemi tweets from @Ojaysays

 

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

One comment

  1. How sad ,it could be for a leader to fail his people by forgeting his responsibility .The very person who purpot to represent them, turn out to contradict himself to the extent. It leaves people worndering .

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