We all HATE GEJ, and other stories…

I am saddened as I write this. DEEPLY. So I won’t put up any pictures with this post. The Dana Air crash just happened. And as plane crashes go, most likely you would know someone. Maybe not directly but you would find a link to someone. And even if you do not, the fact that plenty ‘Fellow Nigerians’ lost their lives, should be enough to sadden you. I’m sure you are sufficiently sad too. Probably have thrown a few curses around, especially to our favorite ‘bad dog’ GEJ. You have also shed a few tears. Maybe you have bawled your eyes out. You may have even gone on your knees to say a prayer or two. Or you have joined the bandwagon to get on different social media sites to tweet, RT, post, drop a note, etc. The point is, different reactions, same situation, DEATH.
The aim of this blog post is to teach us how NOT to mourn. I will be using Twitter and BBM as a case study. I am more familiar with them and I saw some blunders on both that made me go WHAT!!!! Permit me to start with “other stories’ and end with GEJ.
Let us start with the most annoying… BROADCAST WITH YOUR BRAINS. Trust me, when most people send BCs, they are not doing it out of love, ‘news you could use’, etc. Most just want to be among the first to BC and let others know or think that they too are abreast of the news. If only you would pause and think, you would realize that you DO NOT NEED to send that BC. All those CALL NEMA, REBROADCAST TILL IT REACHES THE MINISTER, bla bla bla are USELESS most of the time. Please note, I said MOST OF THE TIME. Granted, respite may come from your BCs but the odds of that happening are about one to a zillion. You sef check am, how many of those BC styled PROTEST/ACTIVIST messages have achieved A LOT. And like a friend of mine said, if you can’t respect me, at least respect YOURSELF and don’t send me BCs. It is a NUISANCE that is worthy of deleting the Sender when you get like 50 BCs on the same matter. I got about 15million BCs on the flight Manifest!!! Kai!!! Why do I have internet connection now? Or even LIB?
And just in case you have ever wondered why BBM increased the amount of words for your PMs, wonder no more. I will tell you for free. They expect you to put up anything you want to broadcast as your BBM PM instead. Simple!!! And if the gist is long, then put up a link that would take me to a webpage instead. If that info is really important, trust me, I would find it somewhere online. It is even more pissing when someone just BCs some WRONG stuff and then sends another BC that now says I am sorry that was a mistake and is not true. So many false Broadcasts went out about the plane crash fallout. Haba!!! Weren’t we sad enough already without anyone sending out even sadder info?
And while still on your PM, it is in bad taste, very very bad taste to put up names and pictures of supposed dead people unless you are very very sure, absolutely. People just did plenty plenty follow follow. They would see someone up on someone’s DP and then put the same picture of someone that they do not know ooo, and be saying stuff like awwww*insert sad or crying face*even this fine family/girl/guy. Haba!!! And suddenly you start seeing same people put up stuff like ‘sorry she is not dead’. #Godiswatchingyouguysooo. At some point that night, I was beginning to think that there was a monetary award reserved for BBM peeps that knew the highest number of dead persons. Twas just so confusing on my BBM that Sunday night when you would see a DP on one BBM contact saying RIP and another on someone else’s BBM saying ‘she is not dead ooo I just spoke to her”. I was so confused I turned everything off, prayed and went to sleep. Now what to do? Good. If you were unsure how to mourn on BBM, then you should have put up any of those pictures that had the candle and Nigeria, or a blank black picture and put #dana-153 RIP simple. Or even a teary or a praying smiley or something. You don’t have to put up personal pictures. Except of course in really rare cases. And don’t be in a hurry to send BCs out. Pause and think… Do I really have to send this? Will this change anything? And most importantly, ‘is this news CONFIRMED TRUE?’ I recall once listening to the Top Dog at Brila FM and he said that they at Brila are not so interested in BREAKING NEWS as much as breaking the RIGHT news. So they would rather carry a story later than rush to air sensational stories only to have to retract later and apologize. May we all obey the same simple principles?
The worst DPs were those of gory body parts from the site. GOSH!!! What did you hope to achieve by putting up severed or dismembered body sites? Haba!!! And people even took pride in changing pictures every minute. When did we become that insensitive? If you had to put up a picture, why not the less explicit ones? The ones that showed the plane parts or the black smoke? No we had to further sadden everyone up. You do realize that some TV stations in the past have gotten heavy fines for putting up such gory pictures unabashedly? Seriously guys, how low can we go in a bid to come off as STUPID sorry ‘informed?’
Now to the jokes. Especially on twitter and even some BCs. Haba!!! No matter how you view this matter, IT IS NOT FUNNY!!!! People died!!! Breadwinners gone, almost a whole family gone, a couple gone, a friend, a sister, a fiancé (e), children, babies. Can you even imagine what was going on in their minds in those last minutes when it dawned on them that they would not have made it out of there alive? Think of those who lost their lives because the plane crashed into their houses. Sweetheart, however you view it, IT IS NOT FUNNY. Don’t make a joke out of it. Don’t say next time take EKENE DILI CHUKWU motors, don’t find a reason to laugh please. Imagine if you lost a loved one or loved ones in that crash. I doubt you would be cracking up. Mtschewwwww
And finally, not like I am running outta stuff to say but I have to end this… GEJ. Everybody HATES GEJ. He is the favorite person to blame for every last thing that happens to us including our tasteless food that we cooked. It is easy to blame GEJ yeah? Our fave fall guy. While I can understand that He is after all Mr. President, and so he has to take some heat, the bulk of the heat, YES. We don’t even know the aviation Minister. Personally I haven’t known that fellow since Kema Chikwe was Minister of Aviation. But we all know GEJ and he is easier to CURSE. But we have to agree that the rot in the Aviation industry is way beyond that one man. He can NOT clear it all in a hurry. No one can convince me that the plane crash was not a MAN MADE disaster. So it means that constant checks and stuff and implementing rules may have helped avert the disaster. But can we send a little blame the way of the Aviation Minister? The fact that these days, ANY decision, I mean ANY, the man GEJ makes meets with heavy criticisms. Haba!!! The man aint that DENSE now. Remember that he is even a Doctorate degree holder. I am sure you would ask what that has to do with anything. Basically my point is that if we cannot afford to give constructive criticisms to GEJ makes us seem a little err dense. I mean it makes me wonder if we are even any better. Hiss much. How would they ever take us seriously if we criticize any and every action he takes HARSHLY even when it doesn’t deserve it? What irked me the most were the unnecessarily stupid comments that trailed that picture of him crying at the site of the crash. People had on stuff like ‘he must have been laughing inside’, ‘what does this change?’ ‘He is just crying for the cameras’ ‘he is just pretending to be ‘a President that cares’. Come on people, what does he stand to gain by pretending to be crying? It is only human to cry. Anybody would cry when live at the scene of the crash now. Heck, even those of us that were not there but only saw pictures cried not to talk of personally seeing it. It was normal for him to cry. He would not be happy that people died now. So all the senseless comments just made me wonder what kind of ‘Yoot’ we have today. And while still on senseless comments and bashings, May I touch on the MAULAG incident a bit?
Yeah he renamed a school. Not just any school, a whole UNILAG. As in the very prestigious UNILAG. But go back in history some, aint nothing wrong in renaming a school or even any Institution in Society for that matter. Many have been renamed in honor of Great men. So kini big deal? All the ranting on Twitter was at best laughable. Very few made any sense. Sense in this case being that he did not consult the appropriate people before taking such a decision. Simple. The decision was not the problem, it was the way he went about it. Trust follow follow peeps on twitter and bb making noise about something that has happened and insulting GEJ saying all sorts of stuff including the fact that he is jobless if all he can do is to rename Universities. As if it takes a lifetime to do that. Many didn’t even watch the speech or read the transcript; they just went to social media sites saying trash only to join the bandwagon. The speech had so many other laudable stuff that if implemented would do a whole lot of us good, but no, we have our priorities wrong again focusing only on a trite issue IMHO.
Now let me end with this, I am not a GEJ fan. Didn’t vote for him. Always thought he lacked the charisma and drive every Leader esp. a President of Nigeria should have. In fact it has become more glaring the fact that he does not have all the basics at least that it would take to rule Nigeria. I also personally think he could toss some Special advisers and stuff and replace them with sensible ones. But GEJ is not totally STUPID!!! No he isn’t. Where he errs, please let us criticize constructively. And while at it, GET A LIFE. Outside of GEJ, Twitter, BBM and the ilk.
The end!!!
PS; I have to add this, especially because it is getting more and more rampant. People keep saying we like deceiving ourselves in Nigeria by praying, praying and praying. Especially all those twitter activists’ formers. Sweethearts, you better be glad some of us are praying. Things would have been worse off trust me. I personally think this country needs to experience the MERCIES of God in full supply. Maybe even overdose. So while you guys rant on twitter about how we are always praying, I would say keep ranting and let the ‘Pray-ers’ keep praying. I personally do not see what all the ranting and activism forming has achieved…