Can Africans in power ever get it right? They can but choose not to for reasons of venality and mediocrity and sometimes sheer stupidity.
I concur with the fact that resorting to insulting a President or anyone for that matter via social media, especially cheaply is an incorrigible practice. But what happens when a president brings untold shame and embarrassment on his people? Insults are still inappropriate but proper critique necessary. The #BringBackJonathan2015 hashtags is an exercise in the most extreme of follies. It is a classic if not memorable contribution to the derisory ontology of the African.
#BringBackOurGirls is a classic of success in the use of social media to promote or bring attention to a worthy cause.
The Nigerian government is habitually and perennially run with piecemeal “unsolicited proposals” and not “policies, strategies and vision” and now exposed the haplessness and folly entailed in this pervasive practice. These officials are in the business of brazenly stealing other peoples’ proposals to profit themselves, their patrons and clients. Thinking out what works or is best is outsourced by way of theft of ideas without considering the motivation, techniques, justification and enduring use of them. The Nigerian official takes the idea and changes only the name of the submitter of the proposal and makes it the idea/work of the person who will benefit from it. With this form of lowly idea stealing, they secure their positions in power, make money for their crew and take credit for other people’s thoughts and efforts.
#BringBackOurGirls via the spokespeople/media experts of President Goodluck Jonathan did what they habitually do while stealing the proposals of those who produce them, perhaps with a big nod from the man at the top. They cunningly replaced … OurGirls with …Jonathan2015 in the hashtag. These so-called spokesmen and media experts seemed to forget the sensitivity, demands and implications that produced, spread and sustained the famous hashtag. The habit of stealing the ideas of others for profit and praise though thoughtlessly, backfired this time big time! We now have a President, unfortunately, looking stupid and unworthy. How can anyone be happy that their Number One Citizen looks that way? And if the President looks so bad in the eyes of Africans and non-Africans, how will the ordinary African look? Those responsible take note.
The ontology of the African remains derisory.
Grimot Nane
