TheCable

By Anjuwon Oluwole

The level of hatred in the land among our millennials is horrible. One won’t imagine that at least 80% of us went to Churches and Mosques during the weekend to serve the Supreme Being, God.

Foreigners going through the comment sections of our major news sites on Facebook would wonder what type of being are we.

Our Social Media comment sections are like battlefield, with proponents of ethnic and religious leaning acting like electronic mobs ready to bounce on anyone who has opposing views to theirs.

This battle seems to be between the South and the North, and Christian and Muslims. What happened to all the sermons about​ peace we listen to and the wordings​ of the Bible and Quran we read so religiously daily?

Let’s take these few examples:

Example 1:

News Title: Buhari returns to Nigeria.

Comment:

Obi Okeke: Mr President looks lean, he needs rest. He should resign.

Adamu Mustapha (replies): You are really mad. Why can you tell him to resign? You this baby factor product.

Then more people join in the comment thread for or against Obi or Adamu.

Example 2:

News Title: Apostle Suleiman Sex Scandal: More women speak about past with him.

Comment:

Aliu Bako: This allegations are becoming too glaring. It is better for the so called Man of God to clear his name.

Timothy Adesanmi (replies): You this Fulani idiot, tell your Boko Haram President to leave Christians alone.

Are Nigeria’s Millennials so dumb that we cannot discuss issues with superior argument that would woo those with opposing opinions to ours, rather than dishing out vulgar words that sound childish and absurd.

I do wonder what would be going through the minds of our Political and Religious leaders when they read our comments? Sure they would see us as brainless and would continue to manipulate our reasoning prowess with ethnic and tribal discourse since they understand that our psyche are wired to these unpleasant behaviours our children must not inherit from us.

If those who lead and steal our common wealth engage in these attitude, we must not follow in their footsteps.

We must break the chain of oppressing those who explain and discuss nation issues with threat of intimidation by the use of swearwords. Rather we must battle superior argument with superior argument. Let’s allow the persons with the best idea win, not the person with the best abusive words.

This is how nations become great, not engaging in childish act of abusing each other.

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