BY ABDUL OROH
In 1959, Canadian communication theorist and philosopher Marshall McLuhan predicted that the world would become a global village in which distance and isolation would shrink as communication technology evolves and the globe becomes increasingly interconnected.
McLuhan encapsulated his theory by asserting that the medium is the message. According to his aphorism the medium is ‘’any extension of our self’’as the message. In other words, any new technology of disseminating information reflects who we are as humans and the media is not just a tool, it has a significant social effect. These prophesy has been fulfilled in many ways thought impossible.
Because of this phenomenon, Nigerian athletes, actors, afrobeat stars and our culture have become global sensation, and projecting our socio-cultural advancement as Nigerians to the world. With a mobile phone, not only can Victor Osimhen call his relatives in Okhuesan, his dazzling dribbles, acrobatic headers (evocative of his Esan Igbabonelimi acrobats ancestry), banana shots, aggressive strikes, and his other exploits on the football turf, can now be transmitted live to a global audience on television, mobile phones or lap tops.
Like a gold fish which he has become, he can swim against the tide, run as far as he can, strike, jump, celebrate or do other theatrics after every win but he can’t hide in the global village. He can’t hide from football scouts, analysts, citizen journalists (more appropriately, para-journalists) and from his family in his Edo ancestral home or his friends in Olusesan Oregun.
His every move is watched and analysed in the social media and the global village, highlighting his identity, character and prowess. He is therefore, left with no choice but to embrace his destiny, from the roots to the branches.
Three shots from para-journalism has thrown him to the unsavoury aspect of fame and the mundane. Form his rants about his coach Finidi George which was seen as disrespectful by the football fraternity, to the innocuous question about his favourite dish which he said was Amala, the staple of the Yoruba which he inoffensively(but erroneously) identified as his ethnicity, a claim that raised storm in Esan and the Edo nation and the trending report by a para-journalist in pidgin from Eguare, the homestead of the royal family of Okhuesan, his ancestral roots, has highlighted the social relationship between fame, family mores, duty of care expected of successful people and what some commentators in the social media have described as the sense of entitlement by his relations.
The mobile phone recording of the rural landscape without fenced houses, electricity, satellite dishes, and other social amenities which urban dwellers take for granted, and faces of poverty in the appearance of his relation and their painful expressions; the decrepit structure said to be his late father, Patrick’s house, tell more than a story of neglect and lack of care. It evokes the reality of rural Nigeria.
From the less than two minutes video, we learned that Patrick went to primary school with his cousins and brothers in the same community; he then learned to drive, and headed to Lagos to become a professional driver. There, he met and married a girl from Ubiaruku in Delta State.
Without performing the traditional marriage rites of the Kwale people, he put the girl in the family way and they had several children, one of whom is the world famous football star. Stardom with the wealth that came with it, came late for the family. The woman died.
Patrick could not perform the burial rites according to the custom of her people without completing the marital rites. However, Patrick could not afford the financial burden of marriage and funeral. He reached out to his family in Okhuesan who, dutifully, rallied round their son. Marriage in their culture, is between families so Patrick’s problem, became the family’s challenge.
The conversation between the reporter and the relations also revealed a particular pain and distress: when Patrick died, his children refused to bring the body home for burial even when the family and members of the Okhuesan community in Lagos insisted that the body must be returned and interred in the royal family grave yard.
As is typical of social media, the children’s side of the story was not reflected. Patrick’s living brother was not interviewed. According to one commentator, the short report may have exposed members of the community to the peril of kidnapping plaguing the nation and the rural communities.
With upsurge in kidnapping and banditry across the nation, such fears are not misplaced, forcing another commenter to respond that if members of the family were kidnapped, it is not likely that Osimhen would pay a kobo as ransom. The social media image of Osimhen is that of a generous gentleman who has been assisting youths in Olusesan, the Lagos home he knew and had. Only recently he donated millions of Naira to Remo Stars players and coaches for winning an international trophy.
Another commentator advised Osinmhen to tread the path of Sadio Mane of Senegal who has invested in his rural village. With his weekly earnings, there is no doubt that Osinmhen can turn around the fortune of his family. That is a burden we carry as Africans. Family is infinite and our roots firm on our ancestral lands and nothing can change that.
The best thing to do, is to lift the next generation of Okhuesan youths, who see him as a role model, and key to escape poverty and ancestral anger, is to help them gain peace of mind, family reconciliation and prosperity. He can also start by rebuilding his father’s house and providing a cottage hospital for the health of the community and scholarship for the youths.
Osimhen and other successful Nigerians can’t hide from the social media. They will be trailed, and exposed for good or bad deeds.
The emergence of electronic media like the television and internet (and of course the radio),and satellite communication, the easy access to the mobile phone has consolidated the traditional media into one package, with the television, radio, the print media providing access to a democratized and globalized world.
This phenomenal development has reshaped and even revolutionized how humans communicate. The package could be a football, or a grenade. Both have devastating effects. The days of the telegram, message delivery pigeons, fax machines, posting of letters through NIPOST and postal agencies are long gone. In the global village, drones can do that better and without much human exertions.
Also gone is traditional journalism as we know it, with its ethical codes, rigours of ascertaining the truth and nothing but the truth, the eye for details to eliminate errors which keeps the gate keepers awake all night during production of the news; the separation of opinions, which are free, from facts, which we were taught are sacred; the respect for privacy, the protection of minors and the vulnerable from undue exposure; the well guided terrain of integrity and the expectation of society that the media would hold governments and leaders accountable; and to keep society safe from predators and other monstrosities, while respecting and advancing freedom of speech and free expression.
These concepts while still relevant are now sounding more like issues for academic inquiries. With untrained people either through mischief or errors spreading fake news or sensationalizing information, the new information age and open societies face new challenges worse than what hitherto existed.
The power of the press which can uplift societies, cannot be contained through repression but can be controlled with effective safeguards to protect citizens and the society. Podcasts, blogs, and other forms like one–man riot squads, are spreading information without constraints or restraint. The oxygen of publicity which drives terrorism is now as abundant and as potent as the AK 47 rifles and bombs.
The media in whatever form would still be expected to set an agenda, and even beyond the agenda setting role, the determinant of what flows from the internet, through the mobile phones in what is now called the social media, would still be a factor that would engender freedom, peace, human development and engendering a free and secure future for mankind.
The medium is now in the hands of citizens, not under the exclusive control of media barons and governments. It can be put to good use like drawing attention to the cries of the Osimhen family and the exposure of the destruction of Gaza and Ukrainian cities by war criminals, with everything reported real time in the global village. They would not be spared by history. Their evils will be reported by the social media and their bones will be interred with their crimes. That is the new world we live in our global village.