Every new week, we do a quick round-up of the stories that dominated the social media space the week prior.
We do this because documenting recent history is so important. Duh!!!!
So here’s what Nigeria’s social media space looked like in the last 7 days…
1. Nigeria is drowning…literally. Beware!!!
Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria, is still counting the costs after torrential rainfall and the opening of dams yet again in neighbouring Cameroon, led to floods and the drowning of whole communities.
Lives have been lost and the death toll is rising daily.
There is no geopolitical zone that hasn’t been affected by the recent floods. Kogi, Anambra, Edo, Lagos, Jigawa, Kwara, you name it.
Farmers are counting the costs and refined petroleum supply chains have been disrupted, leading to the resurfacing of annoying petrol queues in most of the north-central states and in Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja.
Trucks are still trapped in the floods as we type this, and the traffic has proven hellish for motorists plying north and south of Nigeria.
The 2022 floods have once again brought to the fore Nigeria’s ailing, decrepit infrastructure and how a failure to plan means Cameroon will always empty its waters our way, without mitigating measures on our end.
2. Dangote’s fight with Kogi State Govt has been embarrassing
Last week, Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello and billionaire businessman Aliko Dangote, put on their boxing gloves and got into the ring.
At issue here is the ownership of Obajana Cement Plant located in Kogi and whether the acquisition of the company by Dangote followed due process.
Things got messier when officials and law enforcement of the Kogi state government moved to seal-off the plant and a face-off ensued between factory workers and law enforcement.
While the Kogi state government claims one person was shot during the fracas that ensued, the cement company claims that 27 of its workers were shot by vigilantes acting on the orders of the state government.
All of this as Kogi continues to sink from floodwater that is currently plaguing an entire nation; with the north-central region the hardest hit.
For all we know, Obajana cement plant could well go under water as well.
There’s always something about governments not getting priorities right in this part of the world.
Sigh.
3. Tinubu and his supporters made his return to Nigeria such a big deal
There really should be nothing grandiose about the return of a frontline presidential candidate to his homeland, after embarrassing disappearing acts that he or his team never bothered to explain.
However, as Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu sauntered back into Nigeria on the night of October 7 after a stationary bike-riding PR stunt that immediately backfired on social media, his supporters wanted us to roll out the red carpet for the politician.
It is 2022 and we shouldn’t really be talking about the fitness or otherwise of a potential president, given all the other more topical issues we are grappling with.
But here we are.
4. How’s Anikulapo not a movie about Fela?
One Nigerian movie dominated social media discourse last week. It’s called Anikulapo.
While I was readying myself and family to go see it, it turned out the flick had nothing to do with late Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti.
Nah, I’d pass. I’m an ’80s baby for a reason, please.
You wouldn’t have known that the movie has nothing to do with Fela from all the noise about Anikulapo on social media, though.
Congrats to everyone involved!!
5. MC Oluomo’s Lagos rally and everything in between
In an already charged and tense political environment, Musiliu Akinsanya aka MC Oluomo, who is the Chairman of the Lagos State Parks and Garages Management Committee, announced that he was going to shutdown Lagos with a 5-million man rally.
Look, we really aren’t into the business of verifying political rally figures, but MC Oluomo and his gang did shutdown much of Lagos by causing traffic gridlock in most parts of the mainland and in the administrative settlement of Ikeja.
On social media, the debate was about whether he should have, and whether his crowd was bigger than those of the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, which held days prior.
It’s the season of rallies, campaigns, over-bloated crowd figures, frayed nerves and social media gbas-gbos.
Again, congratulations to everyone involved.