Nigeria: Beware the Diet of Hate!

opinion

If you are a regular user of social media as I am, you cannot but wonder what has come over some of our people. There are more than 11 million Nigerians on Facebook alone. Other platforms are swarming with our contributors. I find the chat rooms and political fora most disturbing. Hiding under the anonymity of an alias, many of the contributors seize the opportunity to rain invectives and pour scorn on other ethnic groups. You would think there was a more hateful version of the Arab/Israeli war going on in Nigeria.

The kinds of words they typically use are not otherwise publishable; I could have illustrated with a few. Pure, undiluted hate for other ethnic groups based on stereotypes! The interlocutors are notorious for ignoring whatever issue is up for discussion only to dispense intense and extreme bigotry in the name of social commentary. It has gone beyond the stage of mere derision. I remember that I have had cause in the last two years to draw attention to the fact that the older generation of Nigerians seem to be handing over their traditional 'enemies' to their children in a classic case of trans-generational perpetuation of anthropophobia and naked primitive narrow-mindedness.

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