This time last year, I thought Naij was a sick news blog. “If you marry these women, you may be unhappy in the family!” was the headline that got me wondering how Naij picks their editor and stories. They keep upgrading the level of mediocrity they portray each year. Recently Naij made a post where a white man was dancing to the beats of Nigerian music, nothing bad about him dancing but so what? Maybe to the editor, he is a hero.

My comment on that post showed my obvious distaste for this “slave mentality.” We do not need to celebrate any white, Asian or alien that participates in our culture. It is utterly distasteful and a symbol of underlying inferiority. For a news blog to peddle such as a worthy news item bothers me.

I made a post about this after someone on that news thread tagged me a racist.

https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.oladeji/posts/10213983585880885

We don’t Subscribe to this

Clearly from the responses I got, a lot of Nigerians are also aware about how wrong this attitude is. The problem is that none of this will stop news houses from using their platforms to exalt disdain for our collective worthiness.

It seems to these people that any gesture from either foreigners or politicians to “poor” Nigerians should be exalted. On the same day, Naij published a post “Governor Willie Obiano and wife cruise around Anambra state in ‘keke napep’ “

So what? I mean and so freaking what? This is the height of it. It’s obvious whoever Naij editor is does not only have a problem with lexis and structure, framing non-misleading titles and typos. They also have some sweet tooth for publicising mediocre ideologies and generally representing Africans as hero worshippers.

I served in Anambra as a Yout Corp Member, I know what Anambra is like. Anambra is one of the most progressive people I know in Nigeria when it comes to literacy, industry and innovation. The Governor may have done a lot to encourage the already enterprising people but he was a “noisy tractor.” Few months into the governor’s tenure, every street corner was littered with “Willie is working.” Even when the roads were in disrepair and tractors waiting for contract disputes to be settled, the signboards littered the highway.

Why this should end now

We are yet to see any significant difference in the state of things for the common man. In the years since I have become aware of what development entails Nigerians have only toiled with little to show. All we get in return are “superiors” foisted on us based on gender, economic class or race. It seems our colonial masters have only handed over to their cronies and protégées.

As far as our humanity is concerned, it is already time for us to show disregard for economic class, gender or racial superiority. We need to treat the black human with as much respect as the white human or we treat the white human with as much disregard as the black. And apply this too political braggarts too!

Read this post by Deoye Falade “The Penis is Not a Symbol of Superiority, even the Bible knows better.”