₦airaland Forum

TikTok Mockery of Scholars: The Bigger Picture Behind the Laughs

By Wadzani Dauda Palnam, PhD

Habeeb Hamzat (born 10 May 2005), known professionally as Peller. This is not written to condemn you, but to clarify what your viral moment truly revealed.

You offered a ₦500,000 camera job and said applicants must have a Master’s degree.
They showed up. You filmed them.
Then you edited the footage and turned their presence into performance. The internet laughed. You trended. But the joke did not expose the scholars. It exposed a cultural sickness and perhaps a quiet insecurity masked as confidence.

You didn’t need scholars for a job.
You needed them for content.

You used the dignity of their degrees to lift the illusion of your own relevance. But success that depends on someone else’s shame is not success. It is insecurity with a spotlight.

You filmed scholars who wanted work, using tools invented by people who once sat through lectures, took exams, earned degrees, and chose to build.

The platform that made you trend, TikTok, was founded by Zhang Yiming, a Chinese software engineer who graduated from Nankai University in 2005 with a degree in software engineering.

The algorithms that gave you views were built by developers trained in Python, C++, machine learning, and data architecture. The camera you held was designed by engineers who studied optics and system integration.

The monetisation you enjoy is powered by business models drafted by analysts with deep backgrounds in economics, policy, and communication systems.

You mocked the scholar. But you owe your visibility to the very minds you mocked.

To the scholars who stood in line that day, you did not lose.

You came with courage. You came to work. You came in faith. And you left with your honour intact.

You were not props. You were people.
And history will remember who stood with dignity when the crowd was laughing.

To the custodians of education in Nigeria, the silence is becoming permission.

When scholars are mocked and no institution speaks, you give the impression that dignity is negotiable. Education cannot be a national pillar on paper and a national punchline in practice.

If universities will not defend those they trained, who will?

What you tolerate today is what your students will believe tomorrow.

And to students like Andrew, those studying in dim rooms, those waking early to walk to class, those sitting in crowded lecture halls with flickering lights, let this not discourage you.

You are not wasting your time. You are laying a foundation. Your effort is not invisible. It is simply not trending yet.

“A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.” — Proverbs 18:2

Education was never just about getting a job. It was about capacity. The ability to build systems. To challenge ignorance. To offer solutions. You don’t need to trend to be relevant. And relevance that requires someone else’s humiliation will never last.

Let this moment remind us. The world’s most powerful tools were built by people who sat in classrooms.

Mocking them will not stop their impact.

#RespectEducation #AcademicDignity #CustodiansMustSpeak #ZhangYiming #ThinkBeforeYouMock #Nigeria

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16xZof6PUr/
Nnnnn

No be this stupid boy again? Na so he use soldiers do content that time, hand go soon touch him, those applicants suppose to Sue him

Sad commentary on what we have become. This mentality has no future, it's on a self destructive course. A generation whose god is money.

Hmm🤔. This is very deep in thought, and a lot to swallow from your write-up

Who are the scholars? Nigerian phd and msc students is what you called scholars?

projectreserve2:
Let this moment remind us. The world’s most powerful tools were built by people who sat in classrooms

Those people that build the tools were not Nigerians. Alot of our msc,phd and proffs are usesless to themself, their family and to Nigerian as a country.

Nigerian as a country as unlimited problems we need brains that solve problems not those that seek employment.

The job seekers in question should hire a good lawyer and sue peller for the mockery maybe they might get some millions from him.

This generation parroting "education is a scam" is only laying the foundation for a future full of regrets.

telim:
Who are the scholars? Nigerian phd and msc students is what you called scholars?

Those people that build the tools were not Nigerians. Alot of our msc,phd and proffs are usesless to themself, their family and to Nigerian as a country.

Nigerian as a country as unlimited problems we need brains that solve problems not those that seek employment.

The job seekers in question should hire a good lawyer and sue peller for the mockery maybe they might get some millions from him.

I'm wondering why nobody is sueing him. With a good lawyer they can set him back a few tens of millions in naira.

We empower these guys to be the way they are
If not for a failed Generation, what exactly is the peller offering that made him a celebrity

When we enthrone mediocrity and lack of education we make a mockery of education and ingenuity

fattprince:
I'm wondering why nobody is sueing him. With a good lawyer they can set him back a few tens of millions in naira.

Nor be money them take dey hire lawyer?
The people get money na them go there go receive disgrace

Lol I don't have problem with anybody employing anybody...

But people attributing the poor economy to who's employing them is what I don't understand...


In the West there are Alot of uneducated folks employing people with first class...

If you can't think outside the box then you should be ready to apply for any available job so you don't turn to beggar...


Head to head sef a Carpenter, Plumber, Truck driver, electricians even Vulganizers makes more money than PHD and MSC holder in the West so all this noise about education is what I don't get..


we attribute education to everything in this part of the world.. that once you're educated you must have sense, you must make it, you must not suffer mk everybody Dey play.....

Your degrees don’t matter nowadays it is that simple the boy is not mocking anyone intentionally

huptin:
This generation parroting "education is a scam" is only laying the foundation for a future full of regrets.

They are not totally wrong

Seunnnnñnmmmmmnnn
Nnnnnmmmmmmseunnnnnnnm

Zionmdde:
We empower these guys to be the way they are
If not for a failed Generation, what exactly is the peller offering that made him a celebrity

When we enthrone mediocrity and lack of education we make a mockery of education and ingenuity

I really don’t understand the impact that small boy is making that he has huge followers. It show you that Nigerians really have time for rubbish

[quote author=TouchNfollow post=136111964]https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16xZof6PUr/
Nnnnn[/quote

You failed to get the big picture even with your PhD? Wow! Why is everyone coming after peller from a place of sentiment and not sit down to figure out why the youth of the next generation will conclude that school is a scam?

There must be a reason and we need to fix that. Until then, these are just band aid rethorics. It's as simple as that.

Samueltemi337:
Nor be money them take dey hire lawyer?
The people get money na them go there go receive disgrace

That's why I mentioned a good lawyer. A good one will offer them a pro Bono service. The will charge a commission on the damages they will receive. That will even motivate them to finish him pata pata. Damages of like Us$100000

fattprince:
That's why I mentioned a good lawyer. A good one will offer them a pro Bono service. The will charge a commission on the damages they will receive. That will even motivate them to finish him pata pata. Damages of like Us$100000

Where peller see $100k 😂😂😂😂


Ohh seun ohhh suen ohhhhhh

He didn't mock anyone oh.......If a secondary sch graduate or dropout has 500k legit money to pay a master's degree holder... Then I see nothing wrong with that......
The only reason people are angry is because of his Age.....drop ego and go and apply of u need a job... D Prof that taught you during your msc is earning within dat range.....

Nigeria suppose Don better since but it's like all d ideas you have now when you're not yet the leader, you suddenly forget them when you see power and money.

TouchNfollow:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16xZof6PUr/
Nnnnn

So u rhino pella reads and understands all these things u wrote here?
Nigeria is sold and shared and it hurts.

Benekkk:
Sad commentary on what we have become. This mentality has no future, it's on a self destructive course. A generation whose god is money.

An apprentice in carpentry is more valuable than a master degree holder in mass comm in Canada. Make una stop all this degree nonsense. 95% of jobs advertised in Canada only require High school diploma. The key thing should be knowledge and training not these yeye paper that people can't summarise all they have learnt in a sentence

fattprince:
I'm wondering why nobody is sueing him. With a good lawyer they can set him back a few tens of millions in naira.

how are you sure that this content is not arrangement off camera. Him peller I know should know the implications if sue to court

I wonder what is happening in this country. One small boy will wear a woman's clothes and be saying gibberish. ...he will be making millions because people are viewing him....some will be working Their ass off almost to the point of death....yet they cannot pay their house rent.
Peller should know that he was fortunate because there is no special skill or talent he is showcasing that is making him money..infact many others better than him in the same social media space are not as lucky. He should remain humble and be thankful for what he has achieved rather than trying to discredit the hard work of others.

inoki247:
Lol I don't have problem with anybody employing anybody....



But people attributing the poor economy to who's employing them is what I don't understand...


In the West there are Alot of uneducated folks employing people with first class...

If you can't think outside the box then you should be ready to apply for any available job so you don't turn to beggar...

In the process of employing them, do they mock them? Do they use them for clout?

That's the difference.


I blame the masters degree holders.


I will never work for a goat who slaps a girls breasts just to get views and make money.

Never.

I really hope that boy gets punished for the nonsense

huptin:
This generation parroting "education is a scam" is only laying the foundation for a future full of regrets.

Attending University is what you call education abi?Someone like you go too suffer if you travel outside the country to a civilized nation.

Pellet il later be laughed at just wait n see. Life

Hmmmmmm quote author=TouchNfollow post=136111964]

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16xZof6PUr/
Nnnnn[/quote]

When this Peller of a boy issued this vacancy, I told some people that I wouldn't encourage anybody, under any circumstance, to apply for that "job". I explained to them that that so called vacancy is a MOCKERY IN DISGUISE. After that sham of an interview, they saw what I saw all along.

TouchNfollow:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16xZof6PUr/
Nnnnn

That is what will continue to happen until the intellectuals stand up and speak up and act for themselves...

blowjohn:
In the process of employing them, do they mock them? Do they use them for clout?

That's the difference.


I blame the masters degree holders.


I will never work for a goat who slaps a girls breasts just to get views and make money.

Never.

I blame them too but some kind hunger can make people to be desperate, but nothing justify that stupid boy's action anyway.

This needs serious freaking decibels

I've been saying this thing since. We are breeding a generation who can't use their brains efficiently.


Last last everybody will be subservient to AI. If you like no get sense.