by Japheth Omojuwa
I never at anytime say, insinuate or suggest that social media was doing more than Chief Gani Fawehinmi did. The video says it all.
Certain things happen so that we can put certain phenomena into perspective. Before perspectives though, stating the absolute truth is necessary especially considering the misinformation going around. The worst enemies of the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi would not have the effrontery to say in their private bedrooms that they did more for humanity than the late human rights activist did. I doubt any sane Nigerian would dare say that on national TV. The Channels TV headline that ascribed that blasphemy to me has since been corrected but I wish such headline never happened. This is a country where the headline is the whole news, where even the real news when read or watched doesn’t get put into perspective and essentially where biased hearts get to dictate the direction of the head. I never at anytime said, insinuate or suggest that social media was doing more than Chief Gani Fawehinmi did. The video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SZ1-ktGyvQ says it all but I should say a bit more.
Some have analyzed and intellectualized their bias into the video to suggest the previous Channels TV headline was true but such people cannot claim to be respectful of the works of the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi because if you care so much about bringing another man down enough for you to debase the legacy of a legend, you would have essentially betrayed your claims of respect for same.
Chief Gani Fawehinmi in the argument has been erroneously reduced to the word protests, which was the crux of the argument. He was more than protests. He was a philanthropist who used his money and profession for the cause of the poor. I grew up reading Tell magazine’s reports of his efforts and activities with the likes of the late Dr. Beko Ransome Kuti. These men were not known for just protests they were known for more. They achieved more engaging the military intellectually and strategically than they did just protesting. Kudirat Radio was not your conventional protest but it set Gen. Abacha up against the world powers. I said, “change is not just about protests, it is about everything. You put everything on the table when it comes to change.” I went on to say whatever achievements social media was attaining it could do a lot more and in fact went on to say a lot of what was happening on social media was a kind of “masturbation on nothing.”
This is Nigeria, where you don’t have to be wrong to be seen to be wrong, the wrong headline along with your name makes you wrong. As at the time of writing this piece, less than four thousand people had watched the videos altogether but over three hundred thousand people had an opinion. It is not hard to infer that most people, who passed their opinion on the issue, trusted the erroneous headline, which was bad enough for the otherwise respectable news platform to correct.
Did all the dead heroes of Nigeria’s so called democracy die thinking the fight was worth it? When we had a semblance of democracy, did Chief Gani Fawehinmi celebrate it or did he wish it was not a “civil rule” like he once even called it? I remember him in tears during one of the presidential debates. That was not enough for Nigerians to vote for him. That is not to say we are hypocrites or sycophants, may be to say we are just a special kind of people. If Chief Gani Fawehinmi was alive today, would he depend solely on street protests to salvage our dear country or would he consider other possible options to go with them? Did he use arguments on television, radio and the media of the time as other tools of change or did he stick solely to protests?
Why are we the way we are? Why do we pretend to worship people in death yet never considered them worthy while alive? How many times has Chief Gani Fawehinmi trended on his birthday or death day on new media? How many people even remember to tweet “RIP Chief Gani Fawehinmi” on his remembrance? How many even know his birthday? All of these noises about the video many have not seen are essentially not about these people’s love for the legend but the intent to hurt, an act to make another person look bad.
I’d never in my entire life compare myself to Chief Gani Fawehinmi. I am not writing this because it is the right thing to write even though it is, I am writing this because comparing myself to Chief Gani Fawehinmi is what I don’t have the ability to do. If I were his son, he’d pray for me to do bigger things than he did. If he were alive, he’d pray for me to rise above his successes. That is the way in Yoruba land where I come from. Older people pray for younger people to do more and do better. It is of course not in the place of such young people to claim they did if at all they do. Someone I considered a friend said I’d never be half the man Chief Gani Fawehinmi was. I took solace in the fact that Chief Gani Fawehinmi in death would desire more for me and were he alive would pray for me to achieve more.
Lessons have been learnt. Ours is a tiring society where those you assume are fighting a cause with you are only looking for you to get hit by a bullet so they can finish the job i.e. kill you themselves if you survive the hit. It is a funny society where those you take as enemies are actually friends who want the best for you. It is a society where people do not care about the memories of great men who have gone to the beyond as long as those memories are used as tools to take other people down. It is a society where a part of the press decides to take you down if you don’t pay or pay enough. It is a society where saying the press can do better, rise above junk gets reported as saying the whole press is useless.
We can do better as a people. We can elevate issues beyond looking to make others look small, disrespectful or unkind to the works of others. If protests alone could bring change Spain would not have one of Europe’s highest unemployment rates because they had about 3000 protests last year, Egypt would be a paradise today, Syria would not be in war and Tunisia would not be in a fix. There is nothing that cannot be improved upon. The essence of life is to get better and do better than the past. Suggesting to improve on the ways of the past is not saying those that lived in the past did less. It is saying those who live today can do better.
I have not written this for those who believed I made such a blasphemous statement about Chief Gani Fawehinmi – they will believe any evil about one anyway. Some were born to only hate on others who were born to be successful. Those ones had their opinion about me long before the erroneous Channels TV headline. I have written this to put it into the history of the truth; that I respect the works of the heroes of Nigeria like Chief Gani Fawehinmi. Some of us are able to do what we do because of what he did. If there is any radicalism in me, I derived from the living energy of the likes of Chief Gani Fawehinmi. I believe that as a people and generation we can improve on their works. Not essentially as activists because I’d personally not be one but as active citizens. I respect their memories and would never do or say a thing to denigrate such people’s works and memories. Anyone who continues to say I did is not out to respect Chief Gani Fawehinmi’s memory but only out to make one look bad. For these ones, they can say and do whatever they like, the most important thing is my conscience, my faith and my strength. You cannot bring down a man whose place at the top is not rested on your palms but God’s. This is for those who need to know the truth and this for me is the truth. Thank you and God bless.
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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.
I watched the video, initially I was enraged but had to go back and watch the video first before concluding. From what I heard and saw from the video, omojuwa actually meant what he said, ‘what did it achieved?’ he retorted, in his usual confrontational manner he perceived Ebuka’s question as an attack on his tweetivist activity, so the exuberant young man attacked the work of chief Gani and others, he was cut-short by the other young man on his side before spilling much trash about a man who is revered in Nigeria, the other fella had the decency to explain to the host that street and social media protest can be harmonised, in hindsight he towed the line. Like someone said, how can you compare your little skirmish with a corporate organization whose image means everything to it with a full fledge war against an AFRICAN government?
No amount of twisting or grammar here can cajole us from into believing what is not true, Omojuwa needs to calm down and don’t let his hallelujah boys and girls on twitter derail him, he is such and intelligent young man but when you begin to exhibit such arrogance people resent you no matter how nice you sound or intelligently you speak.
Omojuwa should learn how to take criticism, he gives it in full dose and should learn how to take a few. He tender a terse apology which sounds more like go f**k yourself am sorry.
One thing has been evident here, every one is talking about his arrogance, omojuwa and his apologist should actually seat back and listen for once, ‘The best of men is still a man regardless’ omojuwa needs to know he is not always right.
This piece isn’t to set the record straight, its to tell his real or perceived enemies to go to hell. Omojuwa is even setting a dangerous precedent for us the youth, if he continues this way, nobody will listen to us however how smart or truthfully we speak.
So far, he has not been a good role model.
@Mr James, it’s unfortunate that u summed up an opinion based on hear-say. Why not take ur time, watch d video and then make an independent analysis. I guess ur biased mind won’t afford u such objectivity. . .
Omojuwa is a nobody, yet his gaffe (real or imagined) has been trending on social media for d past 4 days. Such intellect u v displayed there.
Whether he came out for Occupy Nigeria or not is another thing. Street protest isn’t d only way to make a change, u know! It involves careful planning too. If all he can offer is behind the scene, he has played a role. What role did u play sir?
I’m not surprised at Omojuwa’s response to this, you have always exuded arrogance even in your words. If majority fault your statement, what does it cost you to tender sincere apologies through this article? When we apologize for something, it is not necessarily because we are right, but for our reputation and peace. It is unfortunate that some young people seem to worship you, when your sense of leadership is disgusting. My only advise to you is that you should go and work on your pride! You have not achieved so much, yet you exude so much arrogance! People have done much more than you think you have done and they have not splashed it on our faces. Even the article is more of being defensive and talking about some haters. Will people just hate you if you have not shown reasons to? There’s always some atom of truth in every rumor!
This guy – Omojuwa – can’t write, doesn’t seem to have the capacity to improve.
From what I could gather – he must have said social media has done more in activism than Gani (or he didn’t say it). But, he said it! And Channels carried it as a headline. He came under fire and he’s doing a disclaimer of sorts.
Does he need 1,300 words for that? Why doesn’t he stick to the point? Someone said I said something, I didn’t say that. This is what I said. I would never say that and this is what I believe to be the truth on Gani… And move on. In fact, it should be a footnote at the end of the piece.
He went on and on about enemies, haters, etc. Whereas, he is a hater himself. Omojuwa is a big disgrace to his generation and someone like him ought to be exposed for what he is.
He keeps on trumpeting Occupy Nigeria. The truth is that he never steps out of his house to protest fuel subsidy removal even one day. People kept on calling him to come out, he replied that “they are tapping my phone”! Which is the silliest comment ever. They are tapping your phone and so what? Who is even the ‘they’? Just a buffon of a fellow, is this Omojuwa.
Then, he has the nerve to attack the media which created this monster for all us. I blame Chude for putting this fool on his TV show and now on his website. People like this shouldn’t be mainstream at all.
Omojuwa – listen good and listen well – You are a NOBODY! Go and sleep at home!
This Omojuwa is the dirtiest person on Twitter! Period!
@ Luca. . . Sir, he apologised on Monday! Does he have to go back to Channels to do that.
If we do not fete people like Omojuwa, who should we fete? GEJ? Amaechi? Naah, I don’t think so sir
did you read this piece ?he was not apologising at all all he is doing is stating that he did not say these things and then going on a ranting match talking about his perceived haters and those preventing his greatness
that was the reason i said his arrogance is glowing through the article,he said gain would have prayed and urged him on to achieve greater than he ever did pray tell me what single political issue has omojuwa resolved with his social media profile? just one
if he expects gani to have prayed for him to be greater than him,invariably he is saying that mohammed gani’s accomplished first son is not as accomplished as he is,people who are gani’s extended family but still accomplished like the twitter handle feyi fawehinmi who single handledly took on dele momodu and humbled him with a single article are there hafsat abiola of kind alhaja kudirat abiola’s daughter is there o not only is she an activist of note she also has an international presence and many others pls let us be honest with ourselves and curb this guy’s unbridled arrogance
I said he apologised on monday via twitter. We have spent too much time discussing this ‘arrogant’ young man. I’m not exactly a fan of his, but humans should be allowed to make mistakes, even if they don’t admit they did. That’s our imperfection! Love him or not, JJ Omojuwa and Omojuwa.com have become issues in contemporary politicking, especially New Media. He is still like any of us though. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone
like i have taken the pains to reiterate which is patently obvious in my comments…omojuwa to all intents and purposes have been influential in contemporary political activism in nigeria amongst those who are active online #definitely
but if you ask the old cocoa farmer in my village who omojuwa is ,they have no idea but they know gani,they know falana not only because of the sacrifice those ppl have made but they have spent their own money in the struggle one of gani’s children went to FGC with my elder brother and i can tell you the man sponsors several on scholarships ppl like omojuwa are making money the likes of gani and co were spending their own money massive difference worth commending
his blog has also been influential as a platform for diverse although mainly pro el rufai political views
i have never been an avid admirer of his but again i guess the many thousands including yourself must see something awesome in him for you gys to be avid followers of his i won’t knock that
like you have stated my own grouse with him is as follows
1.he is a self serving political activist–case in point using twitter as a tool for hounding and bullying those opposed to him, the arik case is an example another one is sometime last year when he started to malign his landlady’s character on twitter without the woman being there to defend herself that is not a democrats behaviour in my opinion
2.he is way too arrogant which is a no no with me when people are arrogant then they become narcissistic and then suffer delusions of grandeur pls google the classic signs of narcissism and then compare it to omojuwas
3.he is still young compared to the ganis and falanas and i am sure if he doesn’t allow his moral failings to pull him down he will definitely go far but he has not gotten to that pedestal quite yet, i live and work in a western world where individuals are held accountable to their words and their acts and deeds we will celebrate him if he does good but we will definitely call him up on it if he doesn’t a conservative british politician just resigned simply because of some words he uttered in private which might embarrass his party, diane abbot a former british mp was under fire for a single comment she made also in an interview some yrs ago she was not only an accomplished black british politician she was invited to nigeria during obj and i think far adua govt she apologised and explained herself and everyone moved on she didn’t go on about haters or her greatness i could also pull up several more instances similar to omojuwas..theres a saying that it takes a great man to say sorry the reason being that saying sorry and admitting an error will test ones humility and how far a man is willing to capitulate morally
@ Luca. I must say I appreciate ur civility, which is uncommon in our society now.
I’m not exactly a fan of Omojuwa. I’m just pissed that people have nearly skinned him alive. He showed great character by apologising on TWITTER. It’s my pleasure meeting u though . . I tweet @sirlabzy
@bayo
you have hit the nail on the head..the guy doesn’t understand a fundamental rule of leadership and responsibility which is having the boldness and moral compulsion to say sorry when you have messed up..he hounded arik airline when they lost his iPad until they capitulated so i believe this concept of apologising shouldn’t be alien to him devoid of arrogant grand standing.
his crass ,hollow arrogance is glowing through every single line of this piece,i really wish i could see him one on one so i can take him up on the erroneous retorts he has made.
the likes of egypt syria and co ‘s revolution was not solely as a result of social media it was a build up of several years of silent abuse and resentment for instance we all know that in tunisia a protest had happened yrs before but was short lived,we also know that a man burnt himself alive which ignited the people’s anger and spurred them to protest social media helped in getting their message across to a new audience but it was just one vehicle out of several till today the real life protest has always go tten the job done irrespective of social media which can be seen as a complementary action..
when i see characters like this omojuwa being feted and celebrated over blog articles,tweets and public speaking i ask myself and wonder how low we have sunk as a people,in our quest to latch on to political activists with any moral platform we are ready to elevate anybody even those who have not spent 1 hour of discomfort in pursuit of democracy while we hardly remember those who have given their lives or suffered for it. i am sure that its only a matter of time when the wheat will be separated from the chaff and people like this will be consigned to where they belong
Truth be told, JJ Omojuwa was rather emotional in d Interview. Goes a long way to highlight the imperfections of every human.
Omojuwa is young (though older than some of us who may look up to him) so one should expect some level of exurberance. However, we r supposed to deal with people based on their strengths, not weaknesses. He remains one of the young men who revolutionalized Social media in Nigeria, and keep Reno Omokri and Ohimai on their toes!
he did not revolutionise social media,its like saying obasanjo government revolutionalized gsm technology..nigerians by nature are politically active even before social media remember the days when people will gather round newspaper stands and read free newspapers?
remember the times nigerians will sit down outside their houses,beers parlous e.t.c discussing politics? well that moved on in a natural progression to social media when twitter,fb and others came about if omojuwa was zuckerberg that created Facebook or he created twitter then i will agree with you.
he is one of several people who have used social media to highlight the obvious and speak out on what we all know and are complaining is wrong in governance he just happened to have built his own career and livelihood on social media good on him but pls dont diefy him yet he has not attained that status
Bros, we all agree that Nigerians are active. I didn’t say he activated Nigerians.
Back to ur example. Surely, Obasanjo revolutionalized telecoms by bringing GSM, regardless of previous attempts. In the same light, peeps like Omojuwa revolutionalized Social Media (Twitter popularity in Nigeria has increased exponentially in the last 2 yrs). Not like twitter just got to Nigeria, but with Omojuwa, Ekeeke, Omokri, Ohimai et al, there is always a reason to check up twitter, even for the high and mighty.
I don’t expect u to agree. My people have an adage; ‘Ota eni kii pa odu oya’ meaning One will not credit his enemy for a good kill, even if he hunts d best animal. Such is the case here sir.
I’m out
that is precisely my point,the gsm revolution would have come about with or without obasanjo’s input people were paying ridiculous amounts of money for the 090 nitel mobile phone hence the demand was already there, i remember a friend of my brothers living in ghana who brought a bag filled with fairly used mobile phones and was selling the ugly old phones for 20-30thousand each so really obasanjo simply tapped into a ready demand. same as omojuwa simply tapped into an already burgeoning social media interest.
bro,pls stop giving omojuwa accolades he doesn’t deserve, twitter was created in 2006 and became operational in 2007 many people even in the western world did not latch on to it and by extension nig and the rest of africa until 2011-2013 in fact the revolutions going on in the middle east popularised twitter in nigeria and people like omojuwa and others simply latched on to it..
dont get me wrong i am not disputing the fact that he is doing his bit for the furthering of democracy same as several others including you and i but lets not over state his contributions which is not special..
kudirat abiola ,mko abiola,the kuti family,gain fawehinmi,falana,ken saro wiwa yar adua and others too numerous to mention revolutionised political activism then after that the aluta soldiers like ogundamisi,sahara reporters sowore university of ife student union of those days and several others
how many times has omojuwa being jailed in a protest?
how many times has he been beaten in a rally?
It’s both ignorance and foolishness to think u must be jailed or beaten b4 being a hero. Such thought belong to the analogue times. The Save Nigeria Group led d agitation for the GEJ Presidency. Pst Tunde Bakare wasn’t beaten up. that doesn’t take anything away from the movement. . . Welcome to the digital era
i ll refrain from replying you in kind but will direct you to check out my bullet points and then ask yourself if i am the ignorant and foolish individual or yourself
all i know is that several great and awesome people have paid for the democracy we are enjoying and it is an insult and disservice to their memories and their contributions to utter in public that omojuwa is somehow in the same ball park..
again go and research into pastor tunde bakare’s background and find out whose chambers he started his law practise including his record in protests even while younger…go and find out about the antecedents of every single member of save nigeria group and the part they played in nadeco and fighting the military then you will quickly realise who is ignorant and foolish femi falana dr joel odumbakin who is female was beaten and thrown in cells,her husband yinka odumbakin was at the fore front fighting the military i could go on about the others in save nigeria group how many of them are active on twitter apart from el rufai who is pursuing his own cpc/apc agenda?
i am active on twitter and i know majority of them are not,their personalities drove the subsidy protests not twitter omojuwa and others quickly latched on to the obvious success of the rally to make a name for themselves i should know i am not only active on twitter i was present in the subsidy protest in london and witnessed the one in lagos
Brother, I didn’t set out to insult u or anyone else. I’m sorry if my comment was interpreted as such.
My point is, In as much as we appreciate the sacrifices of the aforementioned, we should not make a mistake of assuming that is the only way to contribute to Nation building. If Omojuwa.com came during the military era, he would have being picked up and jailed too.
We should not divert from the real issue. The furore raised by Omojuwa’s words show that people have been looking for a way to get at the young man. The ruling class are aware of the numeric and political strength of the youth, thus they are happy when young people attack each other on such trivial issues, instead of addressing the misgovernance in our land. . . Peace out!
lol guess both of us are stuck to our views,i will check you out on twitter..
honestly i am a very liberal person and it takes a lot for me to accuse anyone in fact, i am laid back and non judgemental it took me a long while before i decided that omojuwa harbours these negatives i agree with you that some people might be out for him but trust me the govt dont place him high on their list for him to say so is part of the delusions of grandeur i mentioned before doyen okupe has no idea who he is talk less of jonathan and his caucus the only people who can have headache over him are the likes of reno omokri..
el rufai,fani kayode ,melaye,bakare,buhari,tinubu and co are the ones jonathan can lose sleep over or bother about..
Started very well, then fell into the trap of blaming the press again. Dude, I watched the video. You messed up big time. Your words have been rightly construed to insinuate a belittling of Gani and an overestimation of your achievements and capabilities. These things happen and you could have sorted this out with a calm response immediately. Instead you went off on a tangent attacking the media houses. They have done absolutely nothing wrong here. But your handling of this unfortunate incident has left a whole lot to be desired.
Brilliant piece. Setting the record straight. Much respect!
Good one there sir! Here, we call a dog a bad name to hang it.