Reasonable people make the mistake of thinking that everyone on Twitter is reasonable. That's why they fall into the trap of arguing with people, wondering why they can't see sense. Do you walk into a market and start /sustain conversations with everyone?
When a stranger walks up to your car window and starts telling you your choice of music is crap, do you stand in traffic arguing with that person?
When your child's mate comes to your front door and starts shouting madly that you know nothing at all about something you're an expert in , do you try to reason with them?
When someone who is obviously drunk taps you on the shoulder to tell you that they don't like your outfit, do you stand and dialogue with that person?
Twitter is a massive market. Not everyone who seeks your attention needs to be given it. Not everyone will agree with you. Not everyone will understand you. Stop being shocked that there are ignoramuses /trolls/backstabbers/ silly buggers here. It's the way of the world.
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1/Been thinking of that 4-year old kid and her irresponsible father. And recalling another woman with a similar father. Sometime in the 2000s, after On Black Sisters Street came out, I interviewed a former Nigerian sex worker in Antwerp for a Dutch TV program.
2/She looked to be in her 20s, was married to a Belgian man who used to be her client, and hadn’t worked as a prostitute for a long time. She had come into Europe from Benin City as a teenager (via her father who lived in Germany and was married to some woman).
3/She hadn't seen her father in years before he picked her to come abroad( he left his 3 wives and children in Benin City and japa'ed to begin afresh in Europe) and she felt lucky he'd picked her. He'd also chosen her older sister (another story entirely)
1/ The comedian, Helen Paul, recently shared in a talk that she was born from rape. She also spoke of how, because of the circumstances surrounding her birth, she and her mother were treated as pariahs, not just by outsiders but also by those closest to them—her mother’s siblings
2/They would visit her grandmother, give the old woman money, and remind her that their money was not to go to "the bastard," for instance.
3/Paul’s mother, young and traumatized, hadn't even given her a name when she was born. Both her first name and her last name were gifts from compassionate non-family members.
1/ #BuchiEmecheta was born Florence Onyebuchi Emecheta on July 21, 1944 , in (Yaba) Lagos. Her mother, Alice Ogbanje Ojebeta Emecheta was a former slave girl, sold into slavery by her brother to a relative to raise money for silk head ties for his coming-of age dance.
2/When her mistress died, Ogbanje Emecheta returned home to freedom. Ogbanje Ojebeta, like her alterego in the novel she inspires, trained as a seamstress. She married Jeremy Nwabudinke, a railway worker.
3/Buchi’s parents moved from Umuezeokolo, Odanta, Ibusa ,(now Delta State), their ancestral home, to Lagos to seek their fortune. They had two children, Buchi and her younger brother, Adolphus Chisingali Emecheta.
1/ An hour after my father and other relatives wrapped up a family funeral in Osumenyi, my ancestral home, the ceiling of the church in which they’d been in spontaneously collapsed.
2/ I received the video via WhatsApp and the sight of the destruction gave me goose pimples. It does no good to wonder the many what-ifs but had it happened an hour earlier, it would have been catastrophic for our family. There certainly would have been fatalities.
3/We thank God that the ceiling held up for the duration of the funeral service, that it held up until the church was empty but what on earth is going on with some of these constructions in Nigeria?
1/
In April, a 48 year old actor, supposedly big (?) in Yoruba-language cinema , Olarenwaju Omiyinka aka #BabaIjesha was arrested for sexually molesting a 14 year old girl whom he had allegedly been assaulting since she was 7.He was caught on tape & he confessed to it.
2/ This month, a producer, #YomiFabiyi, released a movie about the case using the real names of all involved. His movie insiunated that there was a mutually sexual r/ship b/n the minor and Baba Ijesha (how sick) & that the latter was set up by the girl’s guardian, Princess
3/ Enough noise was made by right-thinking people and YouTube has pulled the movie, ‘ Oko Iyabo,’ and TAMPAN (Theatre Arts and Motion Picture Practitioners’ Association of Nigeria) has also apparently summoned Fabiyi to appear before the committee on 11th of this month
1/ On Tuesday last week, President Buhari tweeted that “many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War...
2/ ...Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.” This Tweet with its reference to the civil war, was seen as a threat by many against the people of the South East and so they reported it.
3/ Threatening a genocide against a people is a violation of Jack’s Twitter and therefore , the president’s tweet was deleted. Two days later, President Buhari announced a ban on Twitter.