Nigeria, Kenya social media fight moves to Facebook

While the social media fight, which erupted between Nigerians and Kenyans last Thursday on Twitter,  have subsided, citizens of the East African nation have taken to Facebook to continue to slam Nigerians.

 An epic Twitter war broke out between Nigerians and Kenyans on Thursday over the alleged mistreatment of the Harambee Stars of Kenya in Lagos.

Soon after pictures of  Harambee Stars and their officials, who were in the country for the 2014 World Cup Qualifier,  showed them training on a dusty pitch in Ajao Estate Primary School, Oshodi, Lagos, circulated on social networks, there were thousands of bitter and hot exchanges of words on Twitter.

The Kenyans seem not to be tired of the brouhaha as the two major Facebook fan pages they created on Thursday and Friday had churned out more abuses on Nigerians up till Sunday evening.

The first fan page, Someone tell Nigeria, created on February 22, has 31,685 fans;  while  the second Someone Tell Nigeria (the only difference is in the capital ‘T’ in ‘Tell’), created on February 21,  has 31,224 fans  as at the time of filing this report.

However, no such specific fan pages could be directly attributed to Nigerians on Facebook.

One of the post on the fan page read, “It is only in Nigeria where  females  have more hair on their chest than the males while another post stated, “Someone,  tell Nigeria to come with an extra cargo plane because after the return leg they will carry back all their movies, songs.”

Kenyans started the social media ‘war’ on Twitter with a view to expressing their displeasure at the alleged mistreatment and employed the use of the hashtag, #SomeoneTellNigeria  to criticise anything Nigerian. Concerned Nigerians,  on noticing this,  reacted swiftly and started the hashtag, #SomeoneTellKenya.

It was the first recorded ‘war’ between Nigeria and the East African nation,  in which not even the United Nations Security Council could mediate,  as #SomeoneTellNigeria and  #SomeoneTellKenyan set worldwide trends on Thursday and Friday.

The tweet believed to have led to the Twitter fight was from Madre,  who uses the handle @kmaore, tweeting from Nairobi, Kenya. He tweeted, “Kenyans should start #Someonetell Nigeria due to the way they are treating our stars!”

An angry Kenyan, Sewe Matthew,  on his handle @Sewe450, tweeted, “#SomeoneTellNigeria we can throw stones from Kenya and break the African Cup of Nations Trophy.

Kenyans on the social network threatened that Nigerians should be prepared for the worst when they travel down to Nairobi on June 7, for the second leg of the World Cup qualifier.

Mothamaki Wa Sparta, using the handle @Kisenyajesse, was one of the first Kenyans who vented his anger on the social network.

He tweeted, “#SomeoneTellNigeria we are disappointed with the way they are treating Harambee Stars. Next time they (Eagles)  come here, they should come with their own airport to land.”

@obkerry replied #SomeoneTellNigeria:  They (Super Eagles) will train in Mandera (1,100km away from Nairobi) before taking a pick-up/truck to Nairobi.”

Responding to the tweets, A Nigerian, Muffy,  using the handle, @StarCashKiki, asked, “Who taught Kenyans English? That person should be blamed for this misbehaviour.”

No sooner had Muffy asked the question than the war of words soon became dirty as Kenyans attacked various phenomena that are Nigerian.

In what seems like an attack on the Nigerian movie industry, a Kenyan, Jim, with the handle, @JMOxQ, tweeted, “Only in their movies (Nigerian) will a woman put poison in her husband’s food and then tastes it to know if it’s enough – without dying.”

Another Kenyan, @Tego_Wolasa, stated, “#SomeoneTellNigeria that  we export Presidents to America, they (Nigeria) export thieves and con artistes.” Corroborating this, @ricco_oki said, “While Nigeria has Usofia in London, we have Obama in London.”

@carribeanq said “#SomeoneTellNigeria to name their artiste well – not mathematical squares and brackets.”

But Nigerians soon came out en masse on Twitter platform to fight the battle.

Leading the pack is Nigerian comedian, Gordons, whose  @GordonComedian, stated, “Ghanaians should rejoice, Kenyans are now the SI unit of darkness! Darkness is now measured in Kenyans!”

Another Nigerian, @ugwubiggz tweeted, “#SomeoneTellKenya, the only reason they win all those races is because they are promised food at the finish line” while @unstoppable55 stated, “#SomeoneTellKenyans that tourists come to Nigeria and go to the zoo, but they go to Kenya and stay on the streets and look at Kenyans.”

But while the Kenyans hurled abuses and denigrated anything Nigerian, they took time to pay their last respect to the widely-acclaimed “Father of African Literature”, Chinua Achebe, when the news of his demise broke on Friday.

A kenyan, The Shinski, @hersimohammed, tweeted, “#SomeoneTellNigeria We cry and mourn the legend with you. We, too, loved Chinua Achebe.”

Another Kenyan, Nancy Kachin, with the handle, @1africa1love, tweeted, “ Thank you #Nigeria for giving us #ChinuaAchebe. He is resting in peace, we continue the struggle. #someonetellnigeria.”