What will Independence Day 2017 say for Nigeria’s history?

It’s almost Nigeria’s Independence Day. Nigeria has been through one of the toughest times of her history. Boko Haram is still rampaging the North, Biafra agitations have kept a lot of us awake all year. What exactly are we putting into the history books? Imagine, say, fifty years from now, what would be the fate of this nation in the history books?

Social media is filled with angry people, making inciting posts. We are unconsciously writing the history our children will read and charting a very violent future for our nation.

People make a lot of unverified, anger-filled posts while sitting comfortably in their houses. Sometimes there is the craving for social media buzz; more likes and shares. We are being short sighted and digging ourselves a shallow grave in history.

Sometimes it gets so bad you would agree that people should be arrested for impersonating news agencies. Are you a news reporter? Did you take pictures and video evidence of the post you just made? No!

People are now so willing to be agents of propaganda and confusion. This is unhealthy for any community that seeks to be progressive.

In the recent clashes between the Army and Biafran protesters, we have so many different versions of events that one can hardly identify which is false news. Most of us have not seen one single reliable news house carrying the kind of stories people have shared. There is a lot of misinformation.

One would think people would know not to share stories when there are no facts to it. You were not there to ascertain any part of the story but you are in a frenzy to write your own spiced up version.

Clearly, some part of the country is pushing propaganda to make northerners justify attack on Igbos and vice versa. Do we have to teach these things in school? People should not write what they are not eye witnesses to and readers should not read unverified stories. That’s why news houses are regulated and approved to publish news because they have an obligation to verify stories. You are neither a news house nor are you a reporter but you stay talking.

If you must write about the events in the nation, verify your sources. We are celebrating another year of freedom from colonial rule, we have been given liberty to write our own history. We owe ourselves this much, to write the truth and do something different for ourselves and for our children unborn.