Thread by @Dr_Clandestine

I saw something today that reminded me of a chilling advice for first-time visitors to Lagos:

IF SOMEONE CALLS YOU "THIEF" IN PUBLIC, CONFRONT THEM WITH A LOUDER AGGRESSIVE VOICE, UNTIL IT IS SAFE TO BREAK AWAY.

Deny in a 'gentle' voice & your life could end in 10 mins.

THREAD

If it is safe to run away in the first instance of the opening "THIEF!", run like Usain Bolt and be sure they can't catch you!

In the eyes of a blood-thirsty Lagos mob, running makes you guilty, even if you're totally innocent.

At that point, it's too late to defend yourself.

Sometime in 1997, an actual thief was escaping from a small mob. Thief ran off in a particular direction.

In the midst of the brewing commotion, some bystanders took off as well. Same direction. Ow!

Mob grabbed an innocent guy, mistaking him for the thief they were looking for.

Mob action is not unique to Lagos. It's a fact that it is nearly impossible to reason with a mob, especially after they've got you in their weaponised hands.

If you are lucky, by the time your screams of "No be me o!" gets thru to their ears, only a few bones & teeth are broken.

So, back to first tweet. When you hear "THIEF!" or "OLE!" or "ONYE OSHI!" or "BARAWO!" shouted at you in public, you have two quick options:

Option 1) Out-shout your accuser -- this confuses bystanders and delays / prevents the formation of a mob.

Option 2) Bolt like lightning!

Do you think mob action is evil?

Do you think mob actors are demons?

Do you cringe at the thought of a tyre hanging around a wo/man's neck, petrol dumped on them and roasted in a bonfire at a junction?

Nice to know you have a working conscience. But there's bad news.

Mob action is not limited to city streets or village squares. Thanks to technology, a new & more potent form of mob action happens more easily here on the Internet.

Cyber bullying is an act that many of us are 'innocently' guilty of, and that innocence is what makes it deadlier.

Our Comments and Likes and ♥s and Retweets are the new sticks & stones, tyres and petrol, matches and fire.

The 'trend' we create is our cyber bonfire; our hashtag is our new cyber junction, where we gather around to 'drag' & lynch & roast our invisible, but real, human victim.

Fact that we innocently contribute to all that violence and set them up for job loss, destruction of reputation, or even suicide, without ever realising it or feeling responsible, is what makes this cyber mob more diabolical than the street mob.

What if the person is not guilty?

At least, in a street mob, we are conscious of our deadly actions: we pick up sticks & stones; we hit & strike our victim; we actually see them cry & bleed.

But here online, all we need do is Like a post or Retweet a screenshot or drop a comment... Yet, same destructive results!

The shame, fear, and character assassination from a false accusation (e.g. fraud, infidelity, plagiarism, rape), amplified through cyber mob action, could drive the victim to the extreme, and we would have contributed to it.

Here's one example...

Courtesy @mrmacaronii.

We never hear them cry.

We never see them bleed.

We have full cognitive detachment from our actions and full emotional detachment from our victim.

With each Like and Retweet, we 'innocently' contribute to killing their body or destroying their life altogether.

Finally, the chaos of mob action -- street or cyber -- makes it hard to differentiate the guilty from the innocent.

Mobs aren't designed to think well.

If we can't help the victim, best we can do is to NOT join the mob.

And if we don't join the mob, soon there will be no mobs.

So whether you're promoting your logo designs or new music single or selling fragrances, real estate, bitcoin, bleaching cream or you're just 'new here', please think before you jump on that hashtag.

Wait to hear the other side of the story.

Don't be another demon in the crowd.

Dedicated to the "Aluu 4".

Four students, who fell victim to demons in the crowd eight years ago in Port Harcourt.