A doctor, Chinelo Megafu Nwando hardly shared personal opinions on Twitter, rather she retweeted posts by others.
“I come here to retweet stuff mostly.” That was how she introduced herself on her Twitter page.
But when the late dentist made her own tweet the day her life ended inside the ill-fated Abuja-Kaduna train, many Twitter users trolled her.
As she slowly bled to death after the gunshot from the terrorists who attacked the train, she made one quick tweet.
“I’m in the train. I have been shot please pray for me.” She tweeted exactly at 9:43 pm on Monday 28 March.
Not long after, she started receiving replies, especially from those who thought she made the post to denigrate the Nigerian government.
Government apologists have been promoting the railway system as the safest means of transportation delivered by the Buhari administration.
So a Twitter post by Chinelo was perceived as condemning the government investment in rail transportation and its effort to end insecurity.
A young man called Abolore with Twitter handle@ysone2 replied to the tweet six hours later, asking the dying lady “Are you dead now”?
Since that tweet, Abolore himself has been inundated with messages telling him “she is dead now, I hope you’re happy?” He is not the only one who expressed insensitivity to a distress call by Dr. Chinelo. There are others.
CREDIT: Twitter
One of them is Olamilekan Idris@iSHOW_007 who described himself as someone who “tweets for fun”. “You should be able to record and give us video evidence since you still have the strength to tweet,” he posted.
But not many of his 1,890 followers interpreted his tweet about Chinelo as a fun tweet.
Barely an hour after Chinelo’s tweet, a fervent Buhari supporter and military apologist, ABD@ishakaa, replied: “You are shot and you can tweet, please help us with the pictures of your gunshot wounds, but seriously speaking where (sic) you traveling to Biafra through Kaduna or what?”
There is also a Twitter account owner whose name suggests he is a bearer of good news. His name is Nwa Abasi, he tweets at @Ed_Goodnews. For him, Chinelo’s dying post was a lie.
“Like Eminem & Rihanna sang, I like the way you lie sha. Nice try,” he tweeted.
Abasi is in good company with Big Dave @OdogwuPanther who tweeted that: “I don’t understand. Why would someone believe this? You got shot on train instead of calling for help the next thing is to come on twitter and say we should pray for you. Who does that. And moreover none is on the train with you, Brother Shazam.”
Similarly, CapriconQueen @irenedontoh ‘a dog lover’ could not believe that a dying human could tweet, and so she replied to Chinelo’s tweet: “Somebody who has been shot, had the strength and time to tweet. Tales by the moonlight and storyland Combined. Hmm.”
When she learnt that the dentist has died, she showed some remorse but not without correcting the dead.
“Please let us learn to use the right channels for emergencies like this. You have been shot, and you are tweeting. I feel sorry that she died and all the pain she had to go through, but let us learn to use the right channel for the right emergencies. What she did was not right.”
Not many people on Twitter found her subsequent tweet more kind. Someone, in fact, described her as ‘Oga judge’ who failed to realise that social media is the 911 for Nigerians.
A lady with Twitter handle @yettieShuga appears to be the most sarcastic and caustic. “Won’t you tweet today? They said you’re travelling on Friday. You didn’t wait to tweet “welcome to a new dispensation” oh dear! I‘m having a mental breakdown.”
Pappy @The Barigaboy expressed shock, but he also threw a sarcastic jab at the dying doctor.
“Which train? From where to where? You’ve been shot and you could still tweet? Hope you’re safe?”.
There was also Jaegermeister @Umejiegodickson, who described himself as God’s son on Twitter, but spared no scorn for Chinelo’s call for prayer.
His tweet: “You’ve been shot you still get time find your phone, dey tweet???… Mgbada!”
The ICIR observed that most of the trollers have deleted their tweets without apology, except Abasi who had tweeted his regret.
“My apologies to everyone here & all who I offended with my tweet(deleted), particularly the lady Dr. It was insensitive/hasty of me, I take responsibility for it &accept whatever drags/insults I get from it. I’ll take correction & react better henceforth. Again, I’m truly sorry.”
In fact, Big Dave @OdogwuPanther has deleted his Twitter account; notwithstanding his tweet lives on here.
Ajibola Amzat, Managing Editor at The ICIR. He can be reached via aaamzat@icirnigeria.org
and @ajibolaamzat on Twitter.