Irresponsible Memes, Insults and Manipulations

Hi people. I realised it has been a long while since I put of a random post of different topics. I will just let you in on some things that have been going on in my mind

After the presidential elections, when the votes were being counted, even with the average percentage of turnout in the north, there were so many votes counted there. This is because the north is very large, and there’s a high population there, though low population density due to very large landmass. Anyway, someone thought it wise to create a picture meme stating that “with all the votes counted in the north, what exactly had boko haram been killing?” Unfortunately, many Nigerians thought it wise to broadcast this by putting it up on their DP, and laughing at it.

Source

I think this is highly disrespectful to Nigeria and the families of people who lost their lives to the insurgents in the north. It is sad that not enough is being done, and the families have not been compensated. People have lost lives, businesses, homes, and many people have been displaced. Yet some Nigerians are joking “What (not who) has boko haram been killing? As if people in the north are chickens.” What if any of us were the victims. The person who created that meme, and everyone who shared it on their status should cover their eyes in shame! Shame on you all!

Secondly, concerning the woman whose three sons were kidnapped by her new maid. Most people came out condemning her for hiring a maid in OLX. Someone even went on facebook, called her stupid, foolish, and unfit to be a mother. Let me not lie, that comment brought out unhappiness from me. We humans are quick to judge and condemn when unfortunate things happen to people (case of Job). Now, I am not here to debate the woman’s actions, or the rightness of hiring maids or au pairs on the internet. But why would we just come out and ignore people’s history (which we know nothing about), and then insult them because of their misfortune. If a woman loses her marriage, it’s her fault. If a man loses his job, it’s his fault. A child dies of illness, it’s the parents fault. People just find ways to blame the victims for their misfortune. Even though it seems risky, people have hired maids on OLX. Did we insult them? Just because this woman’s story went awry doesn’t give us the right to run our mouth and calling her names. Mind you, she is a mother of four boys (is it easy?). So many children have been kidnapped even with all the carefulness of parents, and so many children have been safe even with the carelessness of the parents. God’s grace comes to play a lot in these situations. Please, let’s dedicate our time to pray for this woman and her family, so they can go through this period with enough support till they get their kids back, and let’s pause on the insult. God forbid, if anything unfortunate happens to us, and people start blaming us in our misfortune.

Lastly, about underage voting. During the presidential election, there was a picture about a young guy doing accreditation that went viral. Some people also thought it wise to gather pictures of children queuing for immunization in the north, cropped the beginning and end of the picture out, and say it was underage voting. Also during the governorship election, there was a picture of a young girl in hijab doing her accreditation, going round too.

I am not partisan, and trust me, this is not a political opinion. But going by the pictures, I am not yet convinced that there were SERIES of underage voting. Maybe later, but not yet, and place emphasis on the word, series. Here is why. When I was 20 years old, I looked younger than two individuals in those 2 pictures who were accrediting. Basically, my face remained the same between 13 and 24. And since then, I would say I have only aged very slightly. If I take away my makeup and extensions (if I wear any), I look far younger than my age once I don’t open my mouth to speak. When I was about 15, a friend of my mother saw me and said “This is your daughter? This one won’t grow old o.” I teach teens in church. I regularly get comments like "we don't see any difference between you and your students. You look just like them." So what I am saying is you can’t say a guy is underage just because he looks young, if you have not seen his birth certificate. I am not saying there was no underage voting, I am only saying I have not yet seen pictorial evidences of series of the,. If we later see a lot of childlike-looking people coming out to vote in pictures (not the immunisation one), we will now raise complaint. But as for now, the only picture is of an individual (during governorship) and another (during presidential). I also think those people who doctored pictures of children on queue for immunisation did a very mischievous thing, and don’t have the interest of Nigeria at heart. Shame!

Anyway, that concludes my rant for now. Feel free to bash my head over or love me up in the comment session.