The social media is the battlefield for many unending wars; people fight over the slightest of things and it is escalated and blown over the top.
One would wonder what will happen if the warring parties meet face to face, but no, they do meet and it is mostly all smiles like nothing ever happened.
Some are politicals fights, some are sports-related, others could be entertainment or just some random fight that devil doesn’t even know about.
Beyond the fight parties, there are some groups that are more toxic and dangerous than the fighters; the E-RATS!
E-rats are fanatics of celebrities or politicians that fight dirty on social media space; you can akin them to the street fighters at Oshodi in Lagos, Beere in Ibadan, Sango in Ogun State, the ones that wedge dangerous weapons in Jos, if you can describe them with a song it will be “I fit die on top your matter…”
There is no bound to what they are capable of achieving.
But what baffles me is how they are recruited. Just after the popular Big Brother show, fans of a controversial housemate, Tacha, were adjudged one of the strongest world over. I mean, how did they even gather such energy?
Group of youths that should do more to earn a future, rallying around someone they never know, seen or have a direct or indirect relationship with, how did we go some extreme?
That is not even all that bad. It is how these set of people give themselves away in the public space that is more embarrassing for some of us that just read and watch from the sidelines.
I mean, how does one with just little over a 100 followers of the same cycle, or cult of e-rats tweet like though they run the streets of Twitter?
They give themselves away so cheaply and you’ll know they are only trying to earn a peanut from their paymaster. They fight the most on the social media, use unholy words, defend and come after you for picking a view different from theirs (Isn’t that what the anti-Christ would do too?)
How do you get recruited to abuse and insult people that are sharing thoughts just because you thought they crossed the lines on your paymaster?
You know what else they do? They give false believe of a strong fan base to their paymaster or whomever they are rooting for.
So many elections have been won on the streets of Twitter by candidates that not even win their parry tickets; they make the innocent politicians test waters with both feet and get drowned in the process.
Ask Abubakar Atiku, even Hilary Clinton. Their church audience on social media is more than some churches worldwide. They are the real ‘general overseers’ without a congregation that doesn’t pay tithe and offerings.
It is still a mirage, needless to emphasis on the cowardice of hiding behind a phone sell cheap popularity to their paymasters. How do people sleep at night, cowing people just because you can?
The flipside of the matter is that these set of people have a signature; they give themselves away with the style, choice and manner of approach to sensitive national issues.
They are uncouth, shallow and careless. Have you seen them talk about real emotional situations like life doesn’t matter to them? Maybe it doesn’t.
It is okay to be an e-rat, at least, whatever puts food on your table is what matters to some, but then again, fast forward to 20, 30, 40 years time, would you be able to tell your grandchildren you unsettled the peace of a nation to feed their dad? Or you paused the hands of patriotism and nation-building just to a 30-minute talking point on social media?
Whatever it is, there are e-rats and yes, they can also cause e-Lassa Fever.
