A few weeks ago, a very close friend sent me a text, telling me that he came across my picture on Facebook and that he was advising me to “leave that sort of things to our children.”
I did not feel disappointed about his remarks, because I have known him to be more conservative in life than I am, but at the same time also know that I have an edge when it comes to doing the right thing for the society and for my country. I feel I have an obligation to use my friendship and the little influence God has blessed me with on the society to guide, protect and lead the youths to the right path. And there is no better approch to achieving such objective than to come down to the lower level, remove any ego or arrogance and join the social media.
The grey hair on my head since the age of 29 is certainly not in vain. I have been carrying the burden, worries and predicaments of my fellow Northerners for as long as I can remember. I always defended where the need arose and enlightened falks where necessary on all issues – hot or cold. I took on the mighty while others kept silent (that has siezed to be golden) in the name of political correctness or want to be seen as modern – which simply means accepting trash about the North so that you look good in the eyes of the southern elite.
Today, here in the North we found ourselves in this position because our elite determined the cause of things and our fate in general based on their own selfish progress at the expense of the docile majority. By the silence of our past leaders and their willingness to accept that the North is “nothing, but leach,” we became subservient to other people’s conscience.
Northerners have since the first republic been portrayed by a section of the media as the problem of this country and the trend continues till today and sadly, both our young and the old have come to believe in the propaganda. Not everyone is blessed with the ability to decode machinations and read between the lines. That is why I remain on socal media – to be able to rescue our young from accepting every crab they read from the other side. They should not take everthing hook, line and sinker simply because it is well written or well packaged.
Not too long ago, I have written on this page, an article about understanding political issues by age group in which I remnded us of the power of the social media and its impact on the society.
Information is now at everybody’s fingertips. You can receive or disseminate all sort of material, credible or false, decent or indecent and therefore it all comes down to user discretion.
As a media person I joined the social media phenomenon about 12 years ago, principally to get instant information about local and global current affairs that I would otherwise miss or would have to wait for hours to get through the regular print media or other conventional sources.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and lately, the WhatsApp platform have been my major sources of information as well as interaction with friends and acquaintances, many of whom I have come to know and even meet in person. We have become family.
Though these days I am less active in the practice of my profession, I take it upon myself to contribute, whenever possible, on local, national and international issues for the benefit of my friends, majority of whom are young.
According to a survey by STATISTA, only 9% of people in my age bracket of 55 – 65 years of age are on Facebook and far less percentage on the other social media platforms. The highest percentage of those on Facebook by age group are 25 – 34 that constitute 29% and a much more younger group of those in the age bracket of 16 – 24 who constitute 25%.
Precisely these are the two groups that I target for enlightenment in my write-ups, especially on politics, because they are the most vulnerable and easily taken advantage of by desperate politicians, ethnic champions and religious bigots.
Iyawa is Nigeria’s former Ambassador to Mexico
