Do I have to suffer the feeble sensibilities of Noel Ihebuzor?

I am seriously bored with egotists

A few months ago, I wrote a piece titled Nigeria: Let's Do Twitter Sociology For Dummies in reaction to some apparently sociological piece written by a Noel Ihebuzor about issues with social media uses and hierarchies formed on Twitter to abuse and castigate the Nigerian government.

It was my view then that it was quite poorly written but more significantly, taking from his definition of sociology which I reproduce below, I decided by reason of the presumed power relations he identified to concentrate on the characters he created to buttress his views.

The easiest definition of sociology is that it is a study of society – how society is structured, the rules, the norms, codes and convention that govern it and the power relations which sustain it.

Long forgotten, now revived

Recently, even though he has blocked me from interacting with him on Twitter, he has visited that blog and first left a comment that I responded to and then left a treatise that I believe I should publish in full here as a blog.

The fact that he has joined cause with the risible article penned recently by Dr. Reuben Abati is to be expected but I am saddened that I find a seemingly intelligent and learned person unable to comprehend in any clarity what I was writing about hoping I will address the low-hanging and rotten fruit of his original piece.

Comprehension is a difficult thing

Constantly, I run the gauntlet of Nigerians unable to gauge perspective, context or drive despite their supposed knowledge of English, it is unfortunate, but I am quite forgiving. The way we are given to verbosity and the inability to be precise, concise and master some elements of brevity is amazing, I had settled into a coma by the time I got to the 5^th point.

Mr Noel Ihebuzor’s ego is bruised by my commentary, his argumentum ad hominem might assuage his pain, and I can’t really be bothered with his emotional state of mind. He simply forgets that comment is free and no permission is required to comment on what has been put out in the public domain. If he was half deserving of such courtesy, maybe, but I will offer his diatribe a space on my blog, when dirty laundry is aired, there is a possibility of freshness.

Would I respond to this? Unlikely.

A long read

The comments appear below:

Noel Ihebuzor: Good try, Mr Akin Akintayo! You successfully managed to by-pass the major issues raised in the article. The omission is deliberate and does not surprise. 08/26/2012 06:05 PM

Akin Akintayo: Mr Noel Ihebuzor, I do not think anyone including yourself should be in any doubt about what I had to say in this blog, your sociology piece was badly researched, poorly written and the only particularly clear thought processes you had in composing your piece were in the names you created of your characters.

I dare say, that this blog was much better researched than yours. 08/27/2012 01:46 AM

Noel Ihebuzor: Mr Akin Akintayo, I have just seen and read your reaction to my short comment on your blog article. I am tempted to ignore it but I will not. So here are few quick reactions:

1.    With regards to your initial article and your puny efforts to engage me in a discussion on Twitter following the publication of the article, let me say that I am still intrigued by how you so quickly came to identify yourself as belonging to the group I describe. Was this a case of a guilty conscience needing no accusation?

2.    The article describes the behavior you belong to and whose norms you clearly identify with. Your attempted rudeness to me on Twitter confirmed that such behavior to be your preferred conduct on social media. For you, such behavior was and is still OK. The article points out the inadequacies (social and strategic) of the same type of behavior, and this makes you feel uncomfortable. Your response is to attack the article and the writer. Such a reaction is understandable. But it is also sad.

3.    You devote 509 words in your blog article of 1303 words to the names I coined to capture the eccentricities of members of your group. Incidentally, these coinages are patterned after the Twitter names of a number of persons in this group you belong to. Please just go to Twitter and check before you commence contesting this.

4.    Let me acknowledge that your analysis of the names is on point for most of them. I am happy you understood what I was trying to achieve by use of those names.

5.    By the way, “air” and “hair” are not homophones. Neither are “head” and “ead”. It is surprising that someone who flaunts his English identity as you do does not know this!

6.    You miss the point on the significance in the choice of “Koko” too in your preference for surface readings. The significance for “koko” lies in its association with a place where toxic materials were dumped at a point in our history. Koko is therefore a metonym that represents the propensity of members of your group to emit outputs that are largely of a toxic nature.

7.    You were also totally clueless with regard to one other name because you were trapped in a mindset induced and conditioned by your primordial language loyalties. So, Mr. Akin Akintayo, how really well researched are you? 

8.    Let me now say that the choice of names was my partly way to reflect the aberrant conduct so typical of members of your group.  Clearly, this section annoys you but does this justify your devoting more than a third of your write-up to it? Or does it bring out realities of your group that you are uncomfortable with? Does it unearth some truths you would rather deny about the mental qualities and attitudes of members of your group? Denial is not unusual when persons are confronted with uncomfortable truths about themselves or groups they belong to. Are you also aware that some people in denial have also been known to accuse persons who present uncomfortable truths to them of being delusional?

9.    The other sections of my article receive scant attention in your failed attempt at a critique – I had expected you to contest the truth values of claims made in them. Should I read your read silence to mean that you accept that the claims I made in those sections are well-founded?

10. Mr Akin Akintayo, your attempt to defend the poor behavior of this group is not very persuasive, and the gloss in “a broad spectrum of expression from measured to intemperate“, though a clever effort to use language to cover up the known tendencies of the group you belong to for incivility is not successful.

11. Rudeness and activist fervor are two different things. Capacity/proclivity to insult and use hurtful language are not the same as courage. Courage has a different color. Activism and negativity are not the same thing.  You and the group you represent will do well to recognize these differences and apply them in your pursuit of your “activism”.

12. Since the publication of my article, reactions by members of your group as well as their activities continue to support most of the observations in the article. Only yesterday, Mr Reuben Abati did an article in the Guardian where he lamented the progressive enthronement of bad manners in the name of activism.

13. You say you see nothing dishonest in the use of the URL for the article as the web address on the profile of the fake Twitter account one of your collaborators created. I am not surprised. Our values determine what we see.

14. Not everyone who points out the deficiencies in the operations of your group is a government agent or a government propagandist. It may interest you to know that I live and work outside Nigeria.

15. We all want change in Nigeria but it has to be change built on the principles of mutual respect, politeness and self-discipline in utterances. Most Nigerians reject change built on a culture of verbal violence, distortions, bullying and intimidation such as you and the group you represent currently appear to be so prone to using and are clearly so proud of.

16. Behaviors by like yours give activism a very negative image. Increasingly more and more Nigerians of your generation are beginning to be fed up with the conduct and methods of your group. The question is now beginning to be asked – are these people really activists or just hirelings of the opposition? Eventually, the truth on this will emerge. It always does. When this happens, your group may be the one at the risk of being put in stocks and pelted with rotten eggs for concealment, dishonesty and attempted mass deception.

17. Finally, can I urge you to review your write up? Some sections will benefit from a re-write to make them clearer and less ambiguous – a good example is the first paragraph under “a sad day for sociology”. What did you want to mean there? Ask any of my former master’s and doctoral students from the early eighties and nineties, and they will tell you that I have always insisted on message clarity in their submissions and term papers. You also make some claims which beg for evidence to back them up. How does the article make a mockery of sociology, for instance?

18. I am not a sociologist. I simply applied tools from sociology to observe, describe and analyze the behavior on Twitter of a community of persons you belong to. I also made comments based on my observations. The fact that the comments are not flattering does not however make them untrue. The fact that you say that they are untrue does not also make them untrue either. To show them to be untrue, you will need to bring forth supporting evidence. I suppose you know that this is one basic principle in research. 

19. As for your claim that your blog is the better researched one, there is an expression that aptly describes such claims!

Incidentally, next time you do a rejoinder to an article, be kind enough to inform the person whose article you are reacting to. It is honest to do, to say the least! It is also in keeping with standard practice. Good afternoon.

Conclusion

By the time you have reached this point, I hope you have not yet called in the emergency services, that was supposed to be a comment but one thing is clear from all this, Mr. Noel Ihebuzor is quite lacking in appreciating the use of the Internet, the essential etiquette required, he is thin-skinned and is unable to engage in discourse that challenges his supposed erudite positions.

I stand by my original views; they are as well presented as they should be.

Nigeria: Let's Do Twitter Sociology For Dummies

A dismal apologia

The weekend brought interesting mirth when a blog link by Noel Ihebuzor, an apparently erudite sociologist was shared with the title - A first sketch of a sociology of the Naija self-acclaimed “social activist” twitter community [1]

On my first reading of it, I opined that Sociology had joined Economics as a dismal science but the content in what was supposed to be a study of sorts played out as if the writer had identified hierarchies that had coalesced around the ejection of the ruling party from power and the power dynamics within the supposed clique.

Hierarchies and overloads

Having been on Twitter a few years, there is definitely strident criticism and opposition to the Nigerian government expressed on Twitter with a broad spectrum of expression from measured to intemperate, leading to discussion, arguments and biases but the idea that there are hierarchies of clones and mobs validating each other in mass denigration of the government controlled by some overlord is as far-fetched to be considered delusional.

I immediately sought his Twitter account as people began to tweet about the piece, but for me, what stood out was the clear bias and assumptions from someone with such a modest following whose claims to balance almost made a mockery of the science of sociology.

It is a given that the government does not have much of a voice on the Twitter landscape and where they do, the people are given to vacuous witticisms with the occasional breakout of attack dogs sent to maul “the opposition.”

Characters in the mind of a sociologist

There are some valid points in the write-up but they are poorly presented, however, in trying to press his case about the so-called hierarchies, he created some fictitious Twitter characters and some thinking had to have gone into this, because he offered a definition of sociology which I reproduce below:

The easiest definition of sociology is that it is a study of society – how society is structured, the rules, the norms, codes and convention that govern it and the power relations which sustain it.

It would be easy to overlook what he was getting at and he might well dismiss this analysis, but the mind of a sociologist is ever present with the object of his study, the assertions he wants to make and the conclusions he wants to draw.

@Yabiswacko

At the top of the so-called power structure is @Yabiswacko, this no doubt formed of two words, yabis and wacko.

I found an interesting definition of yabis [2] - Not a ‘proper’ English term. A usage from ‘postcolonial English’ popularised by the Nigerian afrobeat maestro, Fela Kuti, in his recordings and live shows. In that sense of its most popular use it means ‘a playful insult,’ ‘light-hearted criticism’ or mockery.

Wacko [3] - A person regarded as eccentric or irrational or informally, a mad or eccentric person.

I suppose I can be allowed to say the Twitter overload in the mind of the sociologist is a mad, probably eccentric person and considering the tone of the study, definitely irrational, given to the maybe more than light-hearted criticism of the government, he makes a mockery of them and as for insults, he has a field day.

@Fineshineshinebobo444

This looks like the concatenation of three words quite recognisable in Pidgin English; I will suggest the numbers are added to conceal the deliberate activity that went into crafting these names as if to show they were made up randomly.

Fine in this context is a qualifier; it is the shine-shine that is more interesting because that will be the Pidgin English occupation of a shoe shiner. However, there is another definition [4] which puts together shine shine bobo to mean a flashy trendy guy. What is missing here is any allusion to the person's independence, intelligence, intellect or ability to reason and this reflects in all the other names.

@hair_ead999

I suppose it would not take long to see that this is a homophone of airhead [5] which is a slang meaning a stupid or simple-minded person; idiot. Surely, this is not an insult, inferred or intended of the assumed character in the mind of the sociologist.

@liteebrane001

Again, using a homophone, this is definitely light brain and could as well be a synonym for airhead. Another seeking direction.

@hemuty_kokohead0Y0

Homophones again, empty koko head, is no doubt, empty coconut head. By now, every claim to decency of the sociologist is rubbished. The feigned and affected cry of being mauled by Twitter should immediately fall on deaf ears, if you point a finger, it is most likely the other three are inadvertently pointing back at you.

@FyneGal789

This is a corruption of fine girl and considering the tone of the blog and the review of the preceding names, it can only be meant in the derogatory sense of someone who has beauty but no brains.

@CAPO_ogbaegbe

The context of how this is used in the piece might help, capo has an Italian etymology meaning head or leader. “@CAPO_ogbaegbe to all who follow him.” The underscore definitely suggested this was meant to be two separate words. I think the ogbaegbe is two Yoruba words ogba meaning compound and egbe meaning club, team or following.

This could easily mean head of a group of people in a compound but one gets a sense of what is intended, a power structure that commands troops.

How it plays out

Putting this together through the eyes of the characters, what we have is a vocal Nigerian activist Twitter community controlled by an irrational eccentric madman who trades insults, levels criticism and makes a mockery of the government.

Under him are hierarchies reporting to group leaders as these tiers control mobs of trendy but stupid and idiotic people ready to do the bidding of their Twitter overloads. Interesting! As the English would say.

I honestly, did not see anything dishonest in the backlash that had some rather humorous person create a parody @Yabiswacko Twitter account inspired by the sociology piece with Fela Anikulapo Kuti as the avatar and the URL to the source of inspiration added to the profile. His piece gained attention, even notoriety and possibly opprobrium; a badly written sketch deserves accolades from the persuaded and brickbats from the unpersuaded, the author has to bear the consequences of his folly. He should stop belly-aching and read Twitter's Policy on Parody accounts.

They who sow to the wind should be ready to reap the whirlwind once the veil drops from our eyes about this being a study to what it was; a hatchet job on supposed and imagined critics of the Nigerian Federal Government.

A sad day for sociology

If this is sociology, I am impressed but I will not be taken by the assertion that this is the sociological study it claims to be. Having identified in context a whole leadership structure that affects our federal government with siege mentality, this offers concealed but deliberate academic leverage to insult, abuse and vilify the supposed constituents of the power dynamic this sociologist has identified, simply mirroring what he appears to be exposing.

The subtlety of this term paper masquerading as a sketch requiring improvement as claimed by the author is probably one of the most sinister uses of propaganda I have seen in a long time. The government might however find this study quite useful because it could really now formalise structures along the lines of this piece to take on the Nigerian Twitter community it has heretofore failed to understand, manage, bribe, cajole or bludgeon into submission.

As for Noel Ihebuzor’s service to sociology, in deviating from his normal fare to deign to this, sociologists risk being put in stocks and pelted with rotten eggs and waste for the shame of its lack of rigour.

Sources

[1] A first sketch of a sociology of the Naija self-acclaimed “social activist” twitter community - My take on events, life and living!

[2] Afam Akeh - yabis in the poetry of Esiaba Irobi

[3] wacko - definition of wacko by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

[4] shine shine bobo - Naija Lingo!

[5] airhead - definition of airhead by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

Outliers - Understanding our potential

An outlying book

I would not offer further analysis to the fact that it took me 5 days to finish a 154-page book and soon after I finished reading that I thumbed through a 299-page book in less than two days.

I had heard of The Tipping Point [1] and Blink [2] but the hype surrounding the publication of the books and the ideas in it left me thinking they were quick-buck books given advertisement oxygen that would soon run out.

In fact, I did not know of the author Malcolm Gladwell [3] until just about 3 weeks ago when he appeared on a news programme to talk about his new book Outliers [4] and espoused the view that the prevalence of air crashes with Korean pilots was one of cultural significance rather than pilot expertise.

Power-Distance in the cockpit

That seemed an absurd generalisation to make but there was empirical data to buttress the points being made and this lead to the Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions Index [5] and the consequence of a high Power-Distance Index on communication in the cockpit.

Apparently, because of the paternalistic nature of Korean society the First Officer always deferred to the Captain and even in danger situations the conversation was always mitigated never direct, however the Captain in his position would just give an order and expect it to be obeyed.

The cockpit is hardly the place where honest and direct communication should be lacking, in fact, there are too many cases of where communication breakdown in the cockpit has been the cause of crashes and it suggests that where the First Officer is flying the plane there is probably a higher level of safety than the other way round.

Essential new thinking

Outliers was quite a good read and it covered a lot of ground as to how the subtext we read about successful people hardly reads like the reality behind their successes.

Obviously, there are many learned scholars who would view some of these analogies and allegories as over-simplification, but then, just because there are elaborate studies of certain human factors for success does not mean that the accepted norms are the embodiment of the complete truth.

I would hear Malcolm Gladwell out first because he breaks down complex characteristics and phenomena into manageable chunks and I can see where commonsense thrives over convoluted preserve of the elite.

The winners of the 2005 Nobel Prize for Medicine had to go against the accepted grain of knowledge in finding out that bacteria (helicobacter pylori [6]) can grow in the stomach and duodenum which causing ulcers and cancers – to think certain cancers could be cured by antibiotics – I am open to new thinking and Mr. Gladwell opens new avenues of interesting analysis, though one should not swallow it all.

Physical maturity over real ability

Malcolm Gladwell is not an anthropologist nor do I think he is a sociologist, but he gets you thinking and he puts together patterns and consequences from how the time of birth in the calendar and the selection processes based on the school calendar year is based on physical maturity rather than ability at childhood, going on to create sport professionals later on in life.

I could well agree that it was my higher physical development that allowed me to be a year below the class average age though it has not really perpetuated into great advantage for me, in areas like sport, that could make all the difference.

In my father’s generation you had to be able to pass your right arm over your head to touch the left ear to be admitted into the first year in primary school, just imagine how many age mates were unfortunately left behind because of that act of discrimination and separation, a few years down the line the ones left behind catch up and they are giants in a class of midgets along with the abuse that it could entail.

Work ethic and legacy

The real story of Bill Gates’ success is in having access to computers at the age of 13 and the thousands of hours spent learning programme and this was long before Microsoft in what he called the 10,000 hour rule.

Much as there are a combination of factors that made the Beatles a runaway success in the 1960s, he suggests that did all the graft work in Hamburg through long hours of practice and performance, I would suppose Tiger Woods and Lewis Hamilton come to mind as people who started very young honing the skills we now appreciate and celebrate – basically, there is no overnight success without the initial graft work.

He then covers the issue of background and generational influences that seem to endure even though we have moved on from those times, how the number systems of Far East Asian countries allows for them to be better at mathematics and how more time at school allows for children from seemingly poor backgrounds to perform well.

My early opportunities

Reading this book allowed me to understand even better why I still think my primary school education was the best gift from my parents and how having been in an very international setting albeit in Nigeria gave me a number of personality traits that allow me to be both respect authority and engage authority.

My father always said, I knew how to talk, I could make conversation with anyone if they are in the slightest interested in being engaged. No one could understand why I could sit for hours chatting to my great grandmother at the same time, I found I could walk into any office and feel comfortable without being enamoured by power or influence.

In secondary school, I found it strange that my other colleagues were scared of the teachers, what some might call disrespectful because of the very high Power-Distance Index meant that teachers never really got to interact in ways that allowed their passion for a subject to be infectious – in fact some teachers used their positions in sadistic domination of students.

Even in that kind of setting, I was able to make friends with teachers because there was no fear to engage them and what might have looked precocious was simply an inquisitive mind, it might have appeared smart but it was because I was not bound by the cultural encumbrances of obsequiousness and unnecessary genuflection – I think adults noticed it, engaged it and responded positively to it.

The gift of opportunity

There is much more in Outliers that gets you thinking about how our lives are shaped by circumstances that seemed to look like some destiny but the is fact we are gifted with all sorts of opportunities and where we have been able to grasp those opportunities we have been able to make radical difference to our lives.

It goes without saying that heaven still helps those who help themselves and as the Chinese saying goes – “Don’t depend on heaven for food, but on your own two hands carrying the load”. Outliers is a book that should have those who have suspended their intellect and God-given abilities for some system of false religion and fate to wake up and become Outliers too.

On the scale of Read – Skin – Toss, again, Outliers is a good Read.

Sources

[1] The Tipping Point - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[2] Blink (book) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[3] Malcolm Gladwell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[4] Outliers (book) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[5] Geert Hofstede - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[6] Helicobacter pylori - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia