We have for ages been huge admirers of Charly Boy.
With his unusual personality, decent music, and the healthy family man
status, he serves as a model for the talented, skilled and hopeful. But
what really seals the deal is that dormant intelligence peeking from
beneath his eyes. We see it and it teases us, although fleetingly. But
in this writ, it is here to stay So here he gives us strong opinions.
His words roll out like smooth divine molasses. Hitting the part of us
where noble humanity resides. Read it below:
“It’s unfortunate, this article is coming in late. This is
because I almost ignored the racket “My Oga at the top” generated.
However, because of some salient lessons in the whole joke, I have
decided to hit you with this.
Even though, my ways may be very different from yours, I still
believe we must be objective in our analysis, judgment, and conclusion
about others. The NSCDC Commandant, Mr. Shem’s experience in the hands
of Nigerians and the Channel TV personalities cannot be too different
from what many of us face on a daily bases.
Some of us have been arbitrarily judged, smashed, squeezed,
criticized, and battered for several years because we have failed to be
who they want us to be. Different darts and missiles have been thrown at
us because they chose to judge us from the first impression they
conceived about us. What insult haven’t we received? They will try to
judge you by the few words they hear from your mouth. When you use signs
and symbols to communicate national issues, they misconstrue every bit
of it as you are either tagged the head of Nigeria Illuminati, or they
may even try to put your sexuality to question. However, we still love
them, and still fight for them even when they don’t really understand
why we are here. Some have not even realized the need to hold on to the
reality that confronts them today, instead, they are committed to
producing gunpowder for the celebration of individual blunder, and they
swiftly push national blunder aside.
Yes, the NSCDC Commandant goofed, he failed to give the correct
NSCDC website, he wanted his oga at the top to announce that personally,
hence he couldn’t go ahead to announce it, as his oga may end up
announcing another one later. At first, it appeared to me as if he
didn’t understand the question until he got to the point of providing
the URL of the website, and then we all laughed when he was unable to
provide the web address as demanded. We all laughed at his little or no
IT knowledge, and not really because he is not competent enough to do
his job. We all laughed because he had displayed some level of
confidence right from the beginning of the interview till the point he
was to give the website details.
However, is it enough to have made it a trending topic on
twitter and on other social sites for days? I must say that we have all
failed by pushing aside the lesson and the message of the controversial
interview. If you don’t know, the message is simple; there is a systemic
failure. We have all failed our country. We have even failed to channel
our heavy online presence towards a more positive direction. We have
failed to understand that the entire system has no structure as it
stands now. If that is not the case, why were we not intelligent enough
to see beyond Mr. Shem’s failure and begin to reflect over leadership
failure, using the social media platform? It has always remained this
way, where only few of us can speak our minds in a country where
mediocrity reigns supreme. We have failed to see how mediocre now flood
the civil service , but all we are now looking at ,is just Mr. Shem’s
blunder. Why???
Members of staff in several organizations know little or nothing
about their organization. They can’t even tell ‘categorically’ like Mr.
Shem, whether they have an existing or functional website. How
effective are various media units that are scattered across different
Ministries in the country? NSCDC should even thank God that it was Mr.
Shem who failed, and not their media unit, because such would have been
possible. I know that majority of Nigerians that work in the civil
service are not up to date with the internet social world, as they
believe in doing things the old way. You won’t even blame Mr. Shem for
not being able to give the correct web address or not being able to add
dot.com, because the NSCDC Website, prior to the controversy was almost
dormant. How would you expect one to know a website that doesn’t exist
or non-functional?
But my pain is simply that we have all failed to tackle the most
pressing issues of the day, falling into the trap and deception of the
phrase “My oga at the top”. We have been so deceived and then became so
careless about our safety, laughing hysterically; with our eyes gazed at
“My Oga at the top” until the dreaded Boko Haram found a way to shoot
us with their arrows. We laughed until we forgot that we have urgent
national issues to address, and the faceless ones hit us hard again in
the city of Kano. What a shame!
While we were busy gossiping, creating cartoons, producing T.
Shirts, and cooking beats in the studio to ridicule just a single
individual, we lost millions of naira at the Murtula Mohammed Airport,
Lagos to some armed men who stormed the airport, harassing both
Nigerians and foreigners. I heard they had a swell moment at the
airport. You can’t just imagine that armed robbers could succeed even in
an International Airport. Where is safe then? “Yet, we were busy with
My oga at the top”
While we took the joke to another level, the Boko Haram
militants also saw our weaknesses and carefree attitude, and they hit us
hard, killing well over 60 people in the Kano bomb attack. They beat
all security apparatus in place in the volatile city, because, we
refused to watch our back as we were laughing at “ My Oga at the top”
In our usual carelessness, when some people were demanding for
amnesty for some faceless people, we kept mummed, because we were only
interested in “Oga at the top.” We refused to ask questions on why some
people should be advocating for this group.
As good, committed, and patriotic citizens, couldn’t we have
embarked on a campaign against violence using the social media platform
for that purpose? How many of us are willing to laugh at some of the
ogas in the North who have sold the future of our children in the name
of leadership tussle? How many of us have been able to tell the Northern
leaders that they have failed their people for giving some terrorists
the supports they really do not deserve? Yet, we still talk about “My
Oga at the top”
These are no time for such jokes as we have better and serious
issues to address as Nigerian youth and children. Enough of this “My oga
at the top” Stop the rubbish now! Let’s ask them some questions on why
we must continue to bury ourselves.’’
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