Motara’s viral video unites Nigerians and the French in anger, sparks outcry for empathy

Nigerian born influencer, Motara found her name atop French Twitter trends on Thursday, but not for reasons she would have loved, but rather a mistake that may haunt her forever.

The viral video of her distressing a little girl by teasing her with a soft drink and laughing as she begged for a sip has come back to haunt her. The video was uploaded on her Whatsapp, but found its way to Twitter where Nigerians immediately began calling her out for the insensitive stunt.

Motara later apologised stating that she made the video as a sort of joke, and it was meant to be funny rather than dehumanising. However, no one is seeing it that way, including the French.

The video seemed to have engaged French social media users every bit as much as it did Nigerians. More than being hilarious, it put in full display the lack of compassion that is often experienced in almost every society, and at the very least it showed that some of us don’t know where to draw the line when it comes to making jokes at the expense of others.

It is rather interesting that French people would feel the same way we did at the video, considering how far they are from poverty of this level. There are times where insensitive content made it past borders and it was received differently because of a difference in experience with such issues. Just like how Nigerians are unresponsive and insensitive to the plight of the LGBTQ community, and related contents do not get sympathy with as much as say; a content displaying racism.

However, the impact of poverty whether directly or indirectly is a problem that is felt everywhere in the world. It is a human problem not an Africa-wide problem and even those from a more privileged background understand that the poor, homeless and dejected are every bit as human as they are. The only difference would be a better standard of living.

This made it understandable to see them feel the same way about the insensitive video, as we did. Hopefully, we begin to see more separate social issues as universal, and unite to fix it.

It’s regrettable that Motara made herself a scapegoat for this united stand against lack of empathy, but she should have been more careful with her actions.

After the video hit French Twitter, her Twitter account was suspended. This is coming days after she was dropped as local soda drink company; Brother’s Keeper, the same company that produces the soft drink; Fearless energy drink, she teased the little girl with.

One comment

  1. Awwwww…! To tell you the truth, I was really angry when I saw that video. I felt she was really insensitive. But seeing the backlash from people….I feel for her now. ?What does this teach us?.. VALUES!
    This is one very important layer in the fabric of our lives that should be taught from cradle. Some people do not know empathy , boundaries or discretion. Nobody made them understand these things and the consequences that comes with it, so they end up being INSENSITIVE to a lot of societal issues.

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