Barbarians Have Taken Over Social Media – Wole Soyinka

Professor Wole Soyinka, a Nobel laureate, believes that barbarians have taken over Nigeria’s social media arena.

While speaking at a function in Ogun state recently, the Nobel Laureate stated that in other countries, social media is used as a means of interaction because of the intellectual content and reasoned engagements deployed by users, but in Nigeria, the opposite is true because those who ‘dragged it down have swapped the intellectual quotient aspect of it.’

He claimed that the situation has deteriorated to the point that even a simple disagreement in an election can result in one being branded on social media as having a phobia of others.

“In a situation where disagreement in an election can lead one being labelled something phobia or whatever. The social media is awash with accusations of one being a kind of ethnophobic. So strange to me but that is what we have been reduced to. And when that kind of accusation comes, there is no need or value in trying to say you are not. You just say, ‘Thank you very much! The complement of ethnophobia is ethnophilia.

“I’m astonished and flabbergasted that people are so power-besotted that they can’t even accept the possibility that they did not win an election. It does not matter whether you are right or wrong or they are right. It is just a question. Take your facts to the table, let’s examine them carefully, consider the possibility that we may be wrong or you may be wrong but you don’t have to descend into demonisation of the group to which others belong to establish your point.

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“I don’t deal in social media. As far as I’m concerned, barbarians have taken over social media and they have swapped the intellectual quotient which used to make and still make social media valid in other societies. Here in this country, social media has been dragged down to the lowest common denominator.

“However, I believe in the community of the intellect of minds and creativity to rescue us from the monstrosity that social media has become (in this country).”

A Gentle Reminder: Every obstacle is a stepping stone, every morning; a chance to go again, and those little steps take you closer to your dream.

Nnamdi Okoli