Social media and My oga at the top

It used to be thought that newspapers were the main feral beasts tearing reputations apart and destroying careers. But compared with the immeasurable capacity of social media to pulverise and annihilate, newspapers are tame, friendly and adorable communication organs. In the few years since it became probably the most popular means for the creation, exchange and sharing of information and ideas between communities and individuals, social media has trumped everyone, in part because, like terrorism, it is not limited by borders. On social media, news and contents can be created and shared instantly. If the news is positive, and it goes viral, it can help an individual or community reap humungous benefits. But if the news and other contents are negative, the consequences to reputations and careers can be equally swift and destructive. Shema Obafaiye, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Lagos Commandant, is the latest to feel the merciless sting of social media.

Mr Obafaiye had on a recent television programme performed poorly in projecting the image of his organisation. Though he answered most of the questions posed to him very well and showed mastery of issues pertaining to Civil Defence, he flunked the rather simple question of what his organisation’s web address was. And as he hemmed and hawed, he blurted out a reference to My oga at the top, a pithy part of his wrong answer that would haunt him in the hours and days after. Indeed, because it has now cost him his position as Lagos commandant of the Civil Defence, it seems the reference to My oga at the top will haunt him for the rest of his life, and perhaps in the end cost him his job.

The gaffe was of course shocking, but not unpardonable. Web addresses are generally pesky little irritations on the memory, especially when they are not the simple dot com or dot co dot uk type. In the pre-social media days, a little gaffe now and again would not kill anyone, let alone bring a person to universal opprobrium. But Obafaiye has chosen to blunder in an age when all communication barriers have fallen, and when nothing is beyond the reach of the web or of the waspish pens and tongues of pernicious fellows. Moments after the Civil Defence officer made the gaffe and gave the public the memorable line of My oga at the top, social media took up the refrain and relentlessly lampooned him. The unsparing ridicule was followed by yet more merciless parodies, caricatures, clerihews, musical compositions, emblazoned tee shirts, and one-act drama pieces. A deeply mortified Civil Defence had to withdraw Obafaiye from his visible office and consign him to obscurity, perhaps to push files, run errands and clean the archives.

With social media becoming the leading activity on the web, it is now clear that no private or public person can even afford to tell a little, innocuous lie. Once he is found out, ubiquitous and pretentious Mozarts and Beethovens will produce instantaneous compositions to celebrate the lie. Nor, from all indications, can anyone even commit indiscretion bordering on spousal unfaithfulness. Imagine social media to have been very active in 2007 when Robert Mugabe allegedly videoed the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo and critic, Pius Ncube, romping with a married parishioner, Rosemary Sibanda. All borders have fallen, so never rule out what item will next go viral on the web. Today’s safe man may be tomorrow’s endangered man. Today, it is Obafaiye’s gentle gaffe; tomorrow, it could be something much more poisonous and salacious. Many governments have spent incredible amount of time and resources trying to regulate conventional media; let us see how far they can go with social media, where there is little adherence to ethics, and where regulations even by the most vicious governments have proved utterly inadequate.

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