I do not want to come across as an opportunistic blogger or an unscrupulous parasitic writer who will latch on to Mr. Obafaiye Sham’s unfortunate interview gaffe and the ensuing viral comebacks from the everyday Nigerian to gain readership, however I was left with no choice than to respond in my own way as the endless graphic posters, songs, skits and the almighty Blackberry Broadcasts (BCs) will not allow a man be.
It was on Tuesday last week when I received a link to a video of the interview from a friend in the UK, we exchanged a few smiles about it and life went on as usual, I honestly felt that was the end of it but then my feelings do not count when Nigerians are willing to exploit a situation for entertainment—and so it came to pass that in the next 48 hours the part of the video where the man kept repeating “my oga at the top” was on everybody’s phone and Tending on Twitter with over 2 million results on Google.
From watching the interview it was apparent that the man was a very confident man in a quixotic way and for him to have become the Commandant of Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps Lagos State, he must possess certain good qualities that may not be revealed in a morning’s interview, that said, the man also displayed among other unknown qualities that he is used to bossing people around by the way he shouted his interviewers down at every point.
The man showed us the personification of “kowtow” there was no question too big or too small for him to exploit as an avenue to acknowledge or praise his oga, a shameless demonstration of sycophancy which kept me wondering if he deserves that seat if at that status as the commandant of Lagos State he still has endless numbers of issues he could not handle without reference to his oga at the top.
By the weekend millions of Nigerians have responded, some for, others against. For a bit I was confused as to either join the train of those who plead for mercy for the man’s error or those who call for his head. After all was said and sentiments set in we began to carelessly pity the man that had every chance to prove his competence and expertise to the whole world, but rather chose the contrary path of exposing his bootlicking abilities and ignorantness. Yes, we all make mistakes, alas, not knowing the website of an agency you command was not a mistake that was a proper case of nescience.
The man does not have a right not to know the website address and no one has a right to request for a stop to the endless jokes. I laughed when I read the defensive essay for his forgiveness, the essay was as laughable as the interview itself; shouldn't he have apologized to Nigerians for misleading the populace by quoting a wrong website address on satellite television? Well, the youths rose to the occasion with a gusto alloyed with anger and idleness; they were angered that another of their leader has revealed his cluelessness and because they are unengaged they went into a frenzy of "my oga at the top" inspired ingenious jokes, which no doubt demonstrated the depth of creativity embedded in the minds of our youths. However we can only wish this kind of energy and passion could be vented on something more gainful and advantageous to us as a people.
In any case, we should not forget that "this too will pass" and very soon we shall have another of our oga at the top to laugh at.
With all due respect to our president, he has already given us a new reason to laugh out loud (perhaps roll on the floor too) with the Alamieyeseigha presidential pardon although we were yet to recover from the throes of the “oga at the top” laughs, I am sure very soon he will give us another one.
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