GUARD YOURSELF

So there's this fellow who I've been acquainted with since 1993 but became friends with on Facebook sometime in 2011. I do my own thing which I think he knows nothing about and he's doing his own stuff with being a radio on-air-personality part of it.

Despite the length of time as friends on Facebook,  we had no posts in common until a few days ago. This meant that he had never engaged me and I had never seen anything he posted to interest me enough to comment. So he put up a post criticizing the president's choice of the United Kingdom for vacation instead of locations in Nigeria and his perceived silence on the Kaduna crisis. He also suggested that the president took every opportunity to travel abroad for medical checkup and asked who was paying for such.

I thought his submission was debatable so I asked him first of all if he spent all of his holidays in Nigeria?  He didn't take my simple question well and soon went on a rant about how I must have come to engage him and defend the president for the sake of seeking popularity and perhaps a political appointment.

I wondered why he was so intolerant to my question and so I asked him to come up with facts that the president had indeed shipped himself abroad at every given moment for medical issues.  He didn't answer me but mentioned that it took him 5 months of intense research to arrive at the few lines he had posted on Facebook which contained glowing tribute to the "medical strength " within Nigeria.

He thereafter attacked me that he knew I was an "I too know" and should not have thought that I would visit his wall and gotten away with saying whatever I liked.  In short, he posted "make you look face. " He suggested that I should block him if I was angry but I replied that I wasn't,  it's what I'm used to on Facebook especially from those who don't like their opinions questioned.

Soon his fans began to flood his page and he either joined or led them in talking about "that guy" who was seeking for government appointment.  I asked him why he felt right to refer to me as "that guy" and highlighted to him how inaccurate his comments were considering the fact that we had never engaged on Facebook prior to that day for him to arrive at his conclusions and tell one of his fans that I was a waste of time.

I noticed he began to delete my comments after I made reference to how inactive our cyber friendship had been and he did so three times after which he blocked me ending my quest for fame on his wall. 😂 😂 😂 I always take screenshots just in case.

Why did I go through all this preamble?  Why do I fail to mind my virtual business?

I have met and related with a few politicians in my short life and I think I have a fair idea of how to get a political appointment by pressing buttons and activating launch codes. My brief stint in Abuja in 2007/2008 brought me close to a few.  I almost accepted an invitation to follow a former commissioner of justice in Ekiti state to fàájì even though I was on call that evening.  I could easily have started off conversation with a few and even when a family member was in government,  I never requested for nor was I offered 5 Naira by him despite visiting his Maitama residence on a few occasions.

I met Governor Aregbesola at the Dubai international airport very briefly in November 2014. This was just before the APC primaries and I walked up to him and shook his hand.  I asked him what they were doing to ensure the right candidate emerged and he assured me that they were on track.  That moment gave me hope and hope was all I needed.

Let us not kid ourselves,  there was no other choice at that time who could have overrun the incumbent.  I definitely campaigned for the current president and I must state that I have absolutely no regret whatsoever. Could things be better?  Yes, is the presidency operating maximally? Definitely not. The current state of the party that held sway for 16 years is clear evidence that we were in a really bad place. Without the usual cash flow they were used to, many have decamped and 'Robeasts' from Ekiti and Rivers are now the face of the party parading themselves as 'Voltrons' with a certain 'Ben10' waiting on the flank to pounce.

Certain vested interests in the media, religious groups and some politicians aren't interested in progress. Some don't mind lying, generating fiction and setting fire to the nation while they dance thinking the fire wouldn't consume them and their families.

Many Nigerians find it difficult to keep up with reading and searching out truth so they will readily believe skewed stories and outright fabrications. It's normal to hear of herdsmen being accused of every crime in the country and IPOB youths getting killed by police during protests. I have seen in recent weeks images unrelated to Nigeria published as actual events in the country. Images of charred bodies from a tanker explosion from 2006 which claimed over 200 lives in Congo DR was circulated as carnage from Southern Kaduna just like other unrelated images were used to depict events in Agatu and Enugu. I also saw images of young men killed in Bamenda, Cameroon circulated as gunned down IPOB youths. These images perpetually remain in orbit without those sympathetic to them  raising any objections even when faced with the truth about the source of such images. The normal defense mechanism is to attempt to turn the tables around by accusing us of insensitivity and asking if we understood what it meant to lose anyone or people in the troubled areas. The irony of that logic is that these individuals usually do not have any such personal experiences. They must imagine that they are more human than all others.

Falsehood is a three course meal for many Nigerians as they allow fires to continue to rage. It doesn't matter if links to information capable of extinguishing these fires are provided, the arrogance and defiance of these Nigerians will probably prevent them from clicking to read. When they do click, they probably fail to comprehend or simply ignore the facts.

I don't need popularity or appointment,  I need the truth circulated as much as possible.

Many groups are lying and skewed narratives are given front page. Those whose responsibility it is to provide news and information should be advised that their default sentiments should be suspended when gathering and reporting news. They should resist the temptation to become arsonist and triggers of war.

I don't approve of foreign medical trips and I posted so in 2013. My former friend must have thought I wanted to say I approved it. The president to the best of my knowledge has gone out 3 times to see his doctor. February 2016, June 2016 for the ear problem and now January 2017. Is that really too much when one considers the leave factor? It may be to some no doubt. 

Opposition and criticism is very good but it becomes a joke in my opinion when one begins to criticize for example money given to states for primary school feeding. Like the biblical character Judas Iscariot, they will suggest that such monies could have been used for other more important purposes or that it will still get stolen by those ought to execute the project. In the Nigeria we have today, there is a real chance that some parents will plunder such funds instead of providing food for their children.

Nigeria is complex and those who really care should not add petrol to the fires we are still battling with. Read in between the lines, under it  and around if possible. Don't let opportunists and manipulators play with your minds any longer. Don't worship people and don't let people worship you. That's a major way to maintain your sanity.