Months after the 2015 elections ended, Nigerian youths are still
hung up on those elections. Nowhere is this more obvious than
on social media which our youths have turned to a battle ground
divided into pro People Democratic Party (PDP) and pro All
Progressives Congress (APC) youths. So ingrained is this
animosity that each group targets elected officials and party
chieftains of the opposing parties and go after them just on the
basis of their party affiliation. Things reached a comical stage
when a youth attacked me for a tweet on Twitter and hours later
was praising a popular youth for his tweet. Unbeknownst to him
was the fact that the youth had merely tweeted my exact words
but had not credited me with the quote!
These shenanigans makes me concerned for our youth. Where
they should be getting closer and breaking down barriers, they
are holding a candle for politicians who in reality are not as divided
as they lead these youths to believe.
For instance, Senator Bukola Saraki is the Senate President and
Chairman of the National Assembly today. He could not have been
elevated to that exalted seat were it not for the votes of senators of
the PDP. What does that teach us? It teaches us that all politicians
are divided by a common interest which united them when the
conditions are right and temporarily divides them when they are
wrong.
I advise youths not to look at Nigeria from a pro PDP or APC
perspective. They should see the country from a pro youth
outlook. Their future is greater than a party. Nigerian youths
should not believe and act as if the only options available to them
are either the PDP or the APC. There is a third alternative.
This third alternative is patriotism.
I am reminded of the wise words of Mark Twain who defined
patriotism as “loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the
government when it deserves it”. Our youths have to imbibe this
wisdom from Mark Twain and refrain from saying and tweeting
nasty stuff about each other and their religions, regions, tribes and
ethnicities.
Those who engage in this do not understand that foreigners
follow Twitter trends and when our youths are disrespecting each
other’s ethnicities and religions, they must realise that foreigners
do not see us as Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo. They just see us as
Nigerians. I therefore advise our youths and indeed all Nigerians
to speak of Nigeria in a way that shows the world that we value
her. If we put a small price on Nigeria, we should be rest assured
that the world will not raise that price.
We should not come on social media to abuse one another on
partisan grounds. That to me is an abuse of the platform.
I am sure Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Evan Williams,
who founded Twitter, did not found it as a platform where we
come to outdo each other in raining insults on those on the
opposite political divide from us. Speaking for myself, I am on
Twitter to release my ideas for scrutiny and receive ideas of other
Twitter users for contemplation, because none of us is as smart
as all of us.
Our youths need to understand that we are living in an idea age
not an insult age. It takes interdependence and interconnection to
create the atmosphere that inspires brilliant ideas. Our youths are
short circuiting this interconnection when they alienate each other.
And I am aghast as to what to say to those elders who come on
Twitter and fan the embers of division amongst our youths by
retweeting them when they retweet insults and destructive
criticism against their political opponents. Even worse is when
they praise them by calling them intelligent for engaging in this
behaviour.
We really need to watch it. Nigerian youths are beginning to define
intelligence as the ability to come up with the most sophisticated
insult and criticism. We urgently need to redefine intelligence in
Nigeria. Mudslinging, cynicism and criticism are not acts of
intelligence. Ideas and creativity are. If you are truly intelligent, you
won’t be on Twitter lobbing insults on political opponents. Instead
you will be tweeting ideas that inspire solutions to Nigeria’s
challenges!
I want to urge these elders, who I have come to be aware are
called Twitter overlords, to remember that true elders plant trees
of peace even though they know they may never benefit from the
shades of those trees.
President Barack Obama, Senator Hillary Clinton and former
President Bill Clinton are some of the most criticised political
figures in the world, but they do not use social media to react to
the criticism they receive. Instead, conscious of the fact that their
role is to set good moral standards for the youths, they constantly
tweet uplifting and inspiring tweets which have the capacity to
unite people. That is what we should do as elders in Nigeria. If we
do not do this, we should consider that a time may come when
those attack dogs have savaged all our enemies, and having
nothing else to savage they may turn on us.
This is Ben Murray Bruce and I just want to make common sense.
• Senator Murray Bruce is the senator representing Bayelsa East in
the Senate
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/a-third-alternative-to-pdp-and-apc/213992/

Z

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I advise youths not to look at Nigeria from a pro PDP or APC perspective. They should see the country from a pro youth outlook. Their future is greater than a party. Nigerian youths should not believe and act as if the only options available to them are either the PDP or the APC. There is a third alternative. This third alternative is patriotism.

if only our youths would understand this...so many things would be right...

I think the only alternative you should talk of is the one that involves giving a better sanitary system that prevents kids in your village from pooing into water.

Following

vedaxcool:
I think the only alternative you should talk of is the one that involves giving a better sanitary system that prevents kids in your village from pooing into water.

is this the best thing u can come up with?

I

RobinHez:

is this the best thing u can come up with?

Oyibo is that you?

vedaxcool:

Oyibo is that you?

i no be oyibo o

RobinHez:

i no be oyibo o

Are u sure coz u name look like wetin oyibo go call himself for nairaland. Ohh

vedaxcool:


Are u sure coz u name look like wetin oyibo go call himself for nairaland. Ohh

oh abt the monicker? well it just came out of my fingers, after i discovered robinhood was taken....

...maybe am an oyibo afterall

RobinHez:

oh abt the monicker? well it just came out of my fingers, after i discovered robinhood was taken....

...maybe am an oyibo afterall

so you still haven't woken up?

Ada96:
so you still haven't woken up?

what do u knw abt me

RobinHez:

what do u knw abt me

I know you dream a lot n that you like orijin

Ada96:
I know you dream a lot

ok

RobinHez:

oh abt the monicker? well it just came out of my fingers, after i discovered robinhood was taken....

...maybe am an oyibo afterall

Interesting, guess u are.