Verbal Combat on Nigerian Centred Online Fora
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
It can be most interesting reading verbal combat on Nigerian centred online fora.
There could be said to demonstrate two major forms.
One is conducted in deadly earnest, without any sense of fun.
Another emerges as an effort to ridicule your opponent, to make them look foolish.
The fascinating example quoted below is of the second type.
The action starts from the second post.
The third post is just too much for fun!
It achieves the quality of literature through its anecdotal opening.
It recalls Chinua Achebe's great short story "The Madman", which itself may be seen as building with the master's characteristic ironic force on the Igbo adage , "Even a mad man carries his bag of wisdom on his shoulders", that, too, based on a point of view expressed in another proverb, perhaps from Ghana, "wisdom is a goatskin bag, everyone carries his own".
The fourth post crows with happiness at the hit it sees the third post as scoring.
The reference to "sitting in the bush" in the second post evokes a long history of disparagement of that "bush" on the fora, a "bush" of which the person being criticised is rightly proud of as evident in the first post and his response in the third post,a history of disparagement and related controversy that would require a long and rich article or even a book to document and perhaps comment on.
To fully appreciate the range of verbal resonance of this conversation, one needs to visualise the scene described in the anecdote in the third post, enjoy the rhythm of the place names stated there and the absolutely entertaining and yet culturally powerful implications of the self description of the writer in the fourth post, whose user name is "cyberagbekoya", a name correlating the cutting edge of technological modernity represented by the term "cyber" with a rich motif from Yoruba culture, the "agbekoya" concept', the Agbekoya emerging into Nigerian history as a fearsome anti-government Yoruba farmers militant group, of whom tales were told of the fantastic magical powers and fierce daring through which they were able to fight armed policemen to a standstill in what is described by Wikipedia as the Agbekoya Parapo Revolt of 1968-1969.
Naming himself "cyberagbekoya" therefore, he identifies himself with that key period in Yoruba history, positioning himself in cyberspace in terms of the combative daring and political focus that characterised the Agbekoya, which still exists as a group, according to their Facebook page.
He signs off his post as "Oko awon Alhaja", the Alhaja image being another very rich Nigerian motif, an alhaja being the male equivalent of the male alhjaji, a person who has fulfilled the the Muslim injunction of pilgrimage to Mecca, the birthplace of Islam, an achievement that brings with it a significant increase in social prestige and association with economic power, perhaps on account of the significant material and logistical resources required to accomplish the pilgrimage and the opportunities the pilgrimage provides, alhajas being seen as women associated with a domain of power that expands even the scope of economic and social independence which may be seen as conventionally enjoyed by Yoruba women , the writer's self salutation being within a Yoruba context, as suggested by the agbekoya concept.
In describing himself as 'Oko awon Alhaja' he states he is the husband of alhaja in the plural, suggesting either an honorific salutation to one person or a description of more than one person. The implication here might be one of the power evoked by husbanding such a formidable entity as the alhaja, an achievement and status even more striking in being married to more than one of these figures.
Thread subject :
[OmoOdua] Re: NigerianID | An Update on the Nigerian Universites' Situation and ASUU Strike
[ASUU is the trade union of Nigerian universities]
Contributions
[Tribune and AIT are Nigerian public news media.
1. From: Mobolaji Aluko
To: USAAfrica Dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>; NaijaPolitics e-Group <NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com>; naijaintellects <naijaintellects@googlegroups.com>; OmoOdua <OmoOdua@yahoogroups.com>; nigerianid@yahoogroups.com <nigerianID@yahoogroups.com>; Ra'ayi <Raayiriga@yahoogroups.com>; ekiti ekitigroups <ekitipanupo@yahoogroups.com>; Yan Arewa <YanArewa@yahoogroups.com>; NiDAN <nidan-group@googlegroups.com>;
Subject: NigerianID | An Update on the Nigerian Universites' Situation and ASUU Strike
Sent: Tue, Sep 17, 2013 9:41:15 PM
To: USAAfrica Dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>; NaijaPolitics e-Group <NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com>; naijaintellects <naijaintellects@googlegroups.com>; OmoOdua <OmoOdua@yahoogroups.com>; nigerianid@yahoogroups.com <nigerianID@yahoogroups.com>; Ra'ayi <Raayiriga@yahoogroups.com>; ekiti ekitigroups <ekitipanupo@yahoogroups.com>; Yan Arewa <YanArewa@yahoogroups.com>; NiDAN <nidan-group@googlegroups.com>;
Subject: NigerianID | An Update on the Nigerian Universites' Situation and ASUU Strike
Sent: Tue, Sep 17, 2013 9:41:15 PM
| My People: In an almost four-hour closed door (but not secret) Friday September 13 meeting of the SGF Pius Anyim and HME Nyesom Wike with all VCs of Federal Universities which I attended (but not to the very very end!), a number of decisions were taken with respect to the ongoing ASUU strike: 1. August 2013 salaries to all staff, academic and non-academic (yet to be paid in September, and delayed due to the strike) will be paid immediately. 2. Statutory 2013 Intervention funds of TetFUND to all eligible universities will be paid immediately (now that there is an inaugurated TetFUND board). This is SEPARATE from the N100 billion fund of the Needs Assessment; that will not impact the statutory TetFUND intervention.. 3. A contact group of five VCs (of UI, UniLag, UniPort, BUK and the Chairman of CVC (VC of ATBU)) was established to engage ASUU Execo to discuss all matters. 4. Each VC should engage with ASUU on their campuses (where in existence) to assure of Government's efforts and best intentions to resolve the crisis. In my view, and that of many of my colleagues of VCs, it was a very good meeting with frank exchanges. One hopes that these confidence-building measures will help to ultimately resolve the crisis in the earliest possible time. Best wishes all. Bolaji Aluko |
| Sep 18 (4 days ago)  | | ||
| ||||
Bolaji, In government, the proceedings of closed door meetings are considered 'confidential' and are not supposed to be announced, with blissful equanimity to 'my people' on the Internet. If these people find out you are doing this, they might shut you out next time. By the way, why don't you let the press report the things you are so eager to tell an uninterested world if you think that these events are important to know? Or do work for the Tribune or AIT, too? Go write a bitumen proposal or something if you are bored sitting in the bush with nothing to do! Stevek. Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android Explanations |
'Bitumen proposal' alludes to Aluko's profession as an engineer.
'Sitting in the bush' alludes to alludes to Aluko's job as the Vice- Chancellor of the Federal University of Otueke, a university which he is leading the building from the group up in the Nigeria President's village, Otueke].
3. From: Mobolaji Aluko
Sender: OmoOdua@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2013 10:16:14 -0400
To: Stevek<avatarmd10701@yahoo.com>
ReplyTo: OmoOdua@yahoogroups.com
Cc: USAAfrica Dialogue<USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>; NaijaPolitics e-Group<NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com>; naijaintellects<naijaintellects@googlegroups.com>; OmoOdua<OmoOdua@yahoogroups.com>; nigerianid@yahoogroups.com<nigerianID@yahoogroups.com>; Ra'ayi<Raayiriga@yahoogroups.com>; Yan Arewa<YanArewa@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [OmoOdua] Re: NigerianID | An Update on the Nigerian Universites' Situation and ASUU Strike [1 Attachment]
Steven Kueberuwa:
Although you are a certifiably mad fellow, that does not mean that you should ALWAYS be ignored. This was a lesson I learnt when, sometime last year, my driver and I got lost traveling late one evening from Ado-Ekiti to Akure.
On that day, we did not take the straight and normal Ado-Ikerre-Akure road because of the bad road and delays in road construction along that path, so we headed for the alternate Ado-Ilawe-Igbara-Akure. But on getting to one Ilara-Mokin town, we reached a fork that we had no idea which further road to take, and so we stopped dead at the "city" circle ("round-ba-dout").
Suddenly, a certifiably mad man, clearly mad to the non-clinical eye - every African village (like every African cyber-forum) has one, or else it is NOT African - appeared from nowhere. WITHOUT talking to us or asking us anything, he simply pointed in one direction and just said "Akure!" - and disappeared again. My driver and I looked at each other, and headed in the direction pointed out, and got to Akure true-true, but not before shouting our thanks to the madman at a distance. We must have been the millionth lost traveler that this madman had helped unsolicited!
I learnt a simple life lesson on that day, which I am deploying in the simple gesture of not ignoring you.
Moving on....
In offering my update of a closed important and official meeting over the university crisis that is consuming our educational system, I made a distinction between "closed" and "secret", which you have acknowledged. The whole purpose of the meeting was to leave it with some confidence-building measures in our kitty. Its closed-ness was to enable an atmosphere of frank discussions, without ascription of who said what; secrecy would have meant non-disclosure of both the meeting and its outcome. That may be a distinction with a big difference that is way above your intelligence grade.
In your maddeningly hackneyed and gratuitously adversarial disposition, Steven Stanley Kueberuwa, you opine that I be excluded from the next such closed meeting for revealing its outcome out of turn. Well, if that is the situation, then let those who gave me the job keep it, so as to make you and your evil confederacy jump over the moon over that, as you read the newspapers each day for such an eventuality. Water off my back, because I am confident of myself. I made my judgment not in a drunken stupor as many of you often are, and I will be very happy to live with that outcome.
Let me remind you: I was chosen as a VC "from the Diaspora" (along with two others out of 12 VCs of new federal universities), and even though I was not "elected" by any Diaspora voting (that desire to vote in elections in Nigeria from foreign perches appears some ways down the line), I have chosen to represent the SANER persons of the Diaspora. That excludes you and a few other mad caterwaulers (who know themselves). So, when I write "My People", don't bloody include yourself, and your blood pressure will not rise beyond the dangerous point that it already is when you read my name.
I am also resolved, like Clara Barton (founder of the American Red Cross) once said, to do a few things differently: "I have an almost complete disregard of precedent, and a faith in the possibility of something better. It irritates me to be told how things have always been done. I defy the tyranny of precedent. I go for anything new that might improve the past." This quote was pointed out to me just yesterday by Dr. Joan Oviawe, for which I express appreciation. I have Clara's spirit, and I will live with the consequences of my episodic judgment.
I am of course aware that you wrote what you wrote in your hackneyed way to irk me - like a few of you kindergartners do when you read my name - but in responding to your irksomeness this time around, I believe I have used the opportunity to make some points.
And there you have it. My regards to Madam(e)s - nothing too personal.
Bolaji Aluko
PS: In the time being, you can use the attached Internal Press Release at FU Otuoke as "evidence", to your heart's content. Silly fellow! :-)
4. From: <cyberagbekoya@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, Sep 18, 2013 at 4:15 PM
Subject: Re: [OmoOdua] Re: NigerianID | An Update on the Nigerian Universites' Situation and ASUU Strike
To: OmoOdua@yahoogroups.com
Cc: USAAfrica Dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>, NaijaPolitics e-Group <NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com>, naijaintellects <naijaintellects@googlegroups.com>, "nigerianid@yahoogroups.com" <nigerianID@yahoogroups.com>, Ra'ayi <Raayiriga@yahoogroups.com>, Yan Arewa <YanArewa@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Wed, Sep 18, 2013 at 4:15 PM
Subject: Re: [OmoOdua] Re: NigerianID | An Update on the Nigerian Universites' Situation and ASUU Strike
To: OmoOdua@yahoogroups.com
Cc: USAAfrica Dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>, NaijaPolitics e-Group <NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com>, naijaintellects <naijaintellects@googlegroups.com>, "nigerianid@yahoogroups.com" <nigerianID@yahoogroups.com>, Ra'ayi <Raayiriga@yahoogroups.com>, Yan Arewa <YanArewa@yahoogroups.com>
Wonderful, to be compared to a mad man is tough eh
Oko awon Alhaja
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone provided by Airtel Nigeria.
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