If you’re observant, you’d have noticed that hardly does any debate or
divergence of opinions between Nigerians occur on social media or in
the blogosphere these days without it turning into a tug of torrent
abuses and personality assassination.
Too many times, the comments on internet news sites and threads on
forums veer away from being constructive, intellectual and
solution-oriented debates into festivals of insults and blame-sharing
exercises. If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, head on to
Sahara Reporters or Nairaland and see for yourself. And even many
other Nigerian internet media at that.
Few days ago, a reader (whose Facebook profile says he’s a General
Manager at a firm) commented on a news item about Major Hamza
Al-Mustapha in The Vanguard. He said Al-Mustapha deserves to be free,
having wasted away in custody for more than a decade. Then another
reader dropped a sledge hammer on his skull: “Gutagi, first of all I
want to know who made you a manager of a company, before you open your
stinking mouth and say a killer is a free man. It means you need to
examined your brain. Mad man.”
In the first week of this year, a friend wrote a reflection on the
effects of the fuel subsidy removal one year after and published it on
Sahara Reporters. As usual, the comments were divergent: some
critical, others complimentary. One thing most of them shared in
common was unwarranted insults and curses. For instance, one comment
was, “You’re an enemy of GEJ, stop writing foolish, amoebic,
anti-progress, purposeless and subject matter-less articles.”
My friend told me he was unhappy about it. My response shocked him
more. “I was expecting this,” I told him. “If you don’t want your
personality dragged into the mud and smeared, you don’t express your
views to Nigerian netizens.” I’m not spiteful of Nigerians. I’m one of
them. But the ugly trend has become so commonplace and consistent that
it has lost its ability to appall us.
We also read comments on pieces published on Aljazeera, New York Times
and BBC. Many issues generate divergent views there too, but
submissions are mostly intellectual responses, made with respect – or
at least tolerance – for others’ views. As it turns out, others’
opinions can be respected or condoned elsewhere. Not in Nigeria. We
are too intolerant, too arrogant to appreciate dissenting views.
If you post frequently on Facebook also, you know too well what I’m
talking about. If you don’t, go check the Facebook page of public
figures like Mallam Nasir El-Rufai and see how uncouth and
disappointing the comments on most posts are. Is this how we hope to
foster national integration? Is this how we hope to live by our motto
of “Unity and Faith, Peace and Progress”?
This ugly trend is the rule rather than the exception on issues having
the slightest connection with religion or ethnicity. The gory pictures
left by the debates on Late Prof. Achebe’s There Was A Country and the
proposed amendment by the Senate of section 29(4)(b) of the 1999
Constitution are still vivid in our minds. But granted that religion
and ethnicity in Nigeria are potent kegs of gunpowder at which one
should never attempt a shot, it’s disheartening that even debates on
issues that damnify us in common like fuel subsidy removal, poverty
and unemployment also most often degenerate into verbal feuds.
I think part of the problem is that the internet allows for
discussants to appear faceless. So we abuse this to mean we can be
rude to and blackmail anyone and get away with it. We respond to
submissions by even professors and respected community leaders that we
dare not stand before and look in the face, with phrases like “You’re
an idiot!” “You don’t belong to this century!” “You’re a shameless old
bitch” simply because we’re covered by the screen of our PC or mobile
device. This is unfortunate. It’s not a way to live.
God knows best why He created us to be different. Cultures and
worldviews are bound to clash, leaving us shocked – sometimes
disillusioned to the marrow. But that’s part of the beauty of
heterogeneity, the very basis of human beings. God forbid that we
should all always look alike, think the same and hold the same views.
The world would be all too boring and monotonous. And when two people
always agree on issues, one of them isn’t important.
Begging issues and attacking persons is just disgusting and
uncivilized. Almost everyone has been guilty of this, however little.
The Internet has done us a great good – affording everyone a fair
opportunity to be heard anywhere as much as a Harvard Professor. We
should appreciate this and learn: that we can disagree and still be
friends. Insulting others does no one any good. It only injures the
feelings of others and attracts counter attacks. Worst still, the
points being passed across, however noble, would end up in the thin
air as no one likes to listen to insolent people.
This is a big challenge for us all. Our strength as a nation is in
appreciating and maximizing our diversity – harnessing our different
potentials, values and resources to improve the lots of all. We can
choose to efface the menace now and engender mutual respect and
national integration – or choose to make it our culture and be
consumed by what the ugly consequences will be.
*Muhammed Abdullahi Tosin is a freelance writer, writing coach and the
author of the free eBook, “HYPERLINK
“http://naijawriterscoach.com/your-right-to-write/” Your Right To
Write”. Find him on Twitter HYPERLINK “https://twitter.com/OxygenMat”
@Oxygenmat.
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