And Four Other Things…
Can you beat this? On Saturday, APC United Kingdom tweeted a video of the Nigerian presidential jet to announce the departure of President Muhammadu Buhari from London to Nigeria after a 103-day absence. On closer scrutiny, it was the video of former President Goodluck Jonathan departing Geneva in 2014. Curiously, while Buhari was away, it was a regular pattern for his old videos to be circulated on social media to create the impression that they were fresh. The videos of his appearance at Chatham House, London, in 2015, are regularly passed as his latest activities in 2017. Whoever is behind this sham needs to be called to order. Disgrace.
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo echoed my thoughts when he said hate speech would now be dealt with through prosecution. I don’t know if it should be classified as terrorism, as he seemed to suggest, but the time has come to tackle this menace. In advanced countries, such as the UK, you are not allowed to make racist speeches. Social media accounts are monitored by the police and offences are prosecuted. In Nigeria, the anarchy on social media allows people to write all kinds of hate against the ethnicities and religions of others. The time has come to tackle this aggressively. Crime without punishment is no crime, after all. Action.
My mind is so programmed that anytime I hear ASUU, the next word is “strike”. They have become correlative conjunctions such as either/or, neither/nor, and not only/but also. This is not to depreciate the legitimate demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) but I am just disturbed that for nearly three decades now, strike seems to be the only language spoken by ASUU — and the only language understood by the government. When these two elephants fight, we know who suffer the consequences the most: students. The nation regresses in the long run. All the issues have to be resolved promptly and comprehensively resolved for the sake of our future. Progress.
I was recently at the movies with my family to see the much talked-about Banana Island Ghost, produced by the marvellous Biola Alabi. I was really wowed. The storyline and the production quality were exciting. We enjoyed every second of it. Of course, I am not too surprised at the quality of anything coming from Alabi — a former managing director of M-NET Africa at that. When Nollywood was being criticised for poor quality years ago, my view was that with time and serious competition, the industry will attain maturity and the wheat will be separated from the chaff. I’m happy to be alive to see Nigerian movies like Banana Island Ghost. Classy.