The United States has finally shut down the thoroughly identified flying object, filled with a ‘lot’, that were hell bent on making the world believe that the very professional Nigerian army, had opened fire on unarmed protesters just at dusk– and had killed about 78 of them. The flying object has been identified as filled with a cross section of people who are known as influencers on social media, due to their large following; sometimes in hundreds of thousands, at times even in millions. They have a say and can readily influence public opinion. They can market a product or de-market it, and most times, their followers are gullible to a fault; and whatever the influencer says, is cast in iron! They are quick to type and tweet or post and share, and before you know it, their word on the streets is current news and everyone believes them. Should it turn out to be false? Nobody bothers, and the damage is done. Most times, two-thirds of the people that believed the earlier breaking of the fake news, aren’t bothered with the facts of the matter afterwards. The influencer never comes back to tell you that his/ her earlier post is wrong or fake. Well in any case, the US has finally put nails to the coffin of those spurious claims. I have always been wary of the kind of relationship the new US government would have with the Nigerian government, seeing that it was the Democrats in power before Trump, that refused to sell the Tucano Jets to Nigeria. With the US report on the fake massacre, and the continued efforts on the delivery of the Tucano Jets, it is safe to say that Nigeria and the US, are good to go.
Recent developments have brought the games, and the very bizarre and dangerous tricks that some people play, into public space. Gone are the days when people’s actions are driven by ethnic or religious motives, either truly, or as manipulations, to an end of self gain. If I want Northern votes for example, I play the Islamic card. If I want South western votes, I play the Yoruba card. Likewise the Biafra card in the South East. Those were the good old days when it comes to elections or propagating some form of violence. The digital world and the global village phenomenon has brought us to the face of greatly vile behaviorof some of the villagers. These members of our immediate global village are filled with selfish and unwholesome intentions.
These villagers have all sorts of tricks up their sleeves, which they have been harvesting for an untold period of time. One villager says she carried 7 dead bodies all by herself, not knowing that dead bodies are even heavier than a living one. She broadcasts to the world, and unknown to the world, she wants to ‘form’ running for dear life, which would qualify her for asylum and citizenship in Canada. For that reason, she is calling for an invasion of her country. Another villager is all over the place, abandoning an otherwise lucrative media business, and painting every bridge and road he sees, spraying one form of protest wordings or the other. The security agencies are no longer interested in arresting him, even after he has broken all there is to be broken; from his bail conditions, to his agreements with his comrades, both men and women, to breaking and defacing public property. Little do people know that his ‘madness’ pays, and money in the form of grants are sent to people that partake, or die, or get arrested in the protests. They paid to destabilise their country and nothing more. We all got a wind of it when a lady that was jailed, came forward to demand her grant, which was applied for, on her behalf. It is not clear if she was declared imprisoned, or dead in the application; but one thing is clear, she is making demands and the grant business is suffering a setback, even if temporarily. Just a week ago, tons of influencers were busy collecting 2000 dollars each, to trend the release of a wanted person by the US, which got their accounts suspended on twitter. They were the same lot that led the massacre-protest-gang that called for all hell to be let loose on their country. The behavior of these people, calling for the invasion of their country, so that it can be set back a century or two behind, beggars the question: who are these people? Are they Nigerians really? Who would ever want to pray and invoke fire and brimstone upon his father’s home? For dollars and citizenship? May the Lord have mercy on their souls.
Some chop off railway tracks that cost billions, just to sell of the scrap metal for peanuts. Some chop off roads that cost millions, just to make speed bumps. Others burn offices to cover up their fraud, while some eat their fellow human beings. Others kill babies for human spare parts, and some cut off the private parts of children for rituals. If you give one of them the share of everybody, they become everybody and of course keep the share. They invite foreigners to race for them in a local marathon and declare themselves winners even before the race finishes. If you are caught stealing bread, they burn you alive. They hate queues and every form of law and order. If you hear them crying foul, they are not part of those eating the foul. No matter how good you are, if they just hate you, you are of no good whatsoever. Those that are supposed to serve and protect, are the ones people need protection from, a lot of the time. So I ask the question again: who is a Nigerian?
Tahir is Talban Bauchi.
