Why is hate so alluring?, By Wole Olaoye

Hate may appear alluring but it is cheap. Let’s try the good old system of genuine interaction based on a dispassionate assessment of where the rain started beating us, what our respective aspirations and frustrations are, the areas where we all need tweaking (Yes!), and then how we can navigate the treacherous waters of life in whatever part of the world we find ourselves as Nigerians.

In spite of digital civilisation and pretences to sophistication, man still prefers hate to love. Hate is as attractive as mortal sin. It was one of the building blocks of the Holocaust. Haters will tell you that hate is what makes the world go round. You hate me; I hate you; we hate each other, hoping that someday, we may be able to blindside the object of our hate and pound his skull to a porridge mess. 

Hate is so attractive. It doesn’t require any fine qualities, nor does it demand introspection. It makes no demands of your finer emotions. To hell with empathy! Logic be damned! What’s the relevance of that ancient admonition of doing unto others as you would want them to do unto you? Nonsense! The world is better served when man is beast to man!

… Don’t look farther than the United Kingdom to know exactly how primitive human society could still be in 2024. Between 30 July and 5 August, man, as represented by white supremacists, was beast to fellow man — in this case, people of colour. 

Primitive  

The descent to medieval beastliness was caused by disinformation on social media by a wannabe influencer. On 29 July, there was a knife attack at a children’s yoga and dance workshop in which three children were killed and eight others injured. There was incorrect speculation about the identity (nationality, immigration status, religion) of the attacker on social media, which was widely shared by far-right activists. An incendiary posting believed to have originated on the X platform of a well known racist falsely claimed that the killer was one “Ali Al-Shakati” (insinuation: Muslim; Arab or Middle-Eastern; illegal immigrant). The falsehood went viral when it was rebroadcast by a notorious fake news website called Channel3Now.

Protesters attacked the police and the mosque in Southport. Then the riots spread to other towns and cities. Immigrants were verbally and physically assaulted, their businesses attacked and looted, homes ransacked and hotels accommodating asylum seekers assailed. On 31 July, over 100 protesters were arrested in London. By 6 August, men and women of conscience in the anti-racist lobby took over the streets, outnumbering the far-right extremists and rallying to the cause of common humanity.

Once again, we have seen how social media can be deployed as a force for evil and social dislocation. With the new media, there is no longer any need for protest organisers to formally organise. The most they need is a chat group or dedicated website where they can share their prejudices and conspiracies, and schedule demonstrations.

Nigerians living in the UK tried to keep a low profile, as much as possible, but there was nothing they could do about the prejudices of the largely semi-literate, white, economically-marginalised horde who continued to believe that immigrants were the cause of all their problems. 

Premium Times reported the story of one Mrs Oyindamola who said the riots were orchestrated as a cover for existing grievances: “A lot of Brits are of the notion that immigrants come here free, get all the jobs, stay in five-star hotels and take all the benefits,” she noted, adding that she was comforted by her British friends who had condemned the ongoing violence. 

Genocide Advocate 

Shocks from that week of madness reminded the world that HATE is the oxygen that sustains far-right extremism. Unfortunately, the rude din of that alarm has not discouraged some of our countrymen and women from treading the same destructive path, as was witnessed recently in the case of Canada-based Amaka Patience Sunnberger, whose tribal tirade and threat against Yoruba and Bini people in Canada has gone viral and stirred passions. In an era when tribal fences are being mended by patriots who believe in our common humanity, this preachment of hate could not have come at a worse time.

It was offensive enough listening to the harangue once. I won’t desecrate these pages with a repost. Every platform that has featured the story has literally caught fire with the habitual Nigerian pastime of insult flinging. We shouldn’t fall into the traps of those who insist that the best way we can relate with our brothers and sisters is by treating them with contempt. 

Don’t Generalise 

The culprit in this case may have been Igbo but she was not speaking for all Igbos — otherwise we would be guilty of the same fallacy as America’s white supremacists who insist that every Black man is either a thief, or murderer or rapist.

Amaka’s mass murder plan, outlined and broadcast to give notice to the world that a serial genocidal war had commenced, is so hare-brained that I doubt her sanity. She is probably in more urgent need of psychiatric help than excoriation. 

We must all avoid the temptation of allowing this woman’s sick verbal effusions to poison the waters of amity between Igbos and their Yoruba and Bini compatriots, although I concede that there is a fertile market for hate to go round the respective tribal territories several times over. But that resignation to hate-for-hate would only expand the demonic attraction that fascinates our firefly to self-immolation. 

Some of us have consistently spoken up against hate whenever and wherever it reared its head because it always rebounds. In 1996, on Airport Road, Abuja, I was nearly shot by one of Abacha’s Strike Force operatives, a drunken boy of about 18 years, wielding a menacing firearm and wondering what a “Yoruba idiot” like me was doing in the FCT. If you experience hate once, you won’t desire it for your worst enemy.

When some Nigerians started the conspiracy theory that President Buhari was dead and that a body double whose real name was Jibrin Al Sudani had been planted in the presidential villa to complete Buhari’s tenure, I cautioned the rumour mongers that their pastime was a dangerous venture which could destroy the country if the hate behind it metastasised.

The same kind of hate was evident during the last elections when political “Oro” festival was introduced in Lagos, ostensibly with the intention of scaring non-indigenes away from the polls. Hate is hate, no matter who demonstrates it. I condemned it then; I revile it now; I will always denounce it.

Dangerous 

If the streets of major towns and cities in the United Kingdom could be set afire by just one targeted piece of disinformation on the internet which played on a real life tragedy involving the death of three innocent children, let no one underestimate the fallout that could be triggered by the insane video clip shared by Amaka Patience Sunnberger against whom, I hear, a Nigerian government agency has now formally protested to the Canadian authorities.

Did that hater spare any consideration for the fact that quite a number of her tribesmen and women have mixed Igbo/Yoruba, or Igbo/Bini heritage?

Hate may appear alluring but it is cheap. Let’s try the good old system of genuine interaction based on a dispassionate assessment of where the rain started beating us, what our respective aspirations and frustrations are, the areas where we all need tweaking (Yes!), and then how we can navigate the treacherous waters of life in whatever part of the world we find ourselves as Nigerians.  

Appreciating the goodness on the other side of the aisle will not be as easy as it sounds. But it will be worth our while.

Wole Olaoye is a Public Relations consultant and veteran journalist. He can be reached on wole.olaoye@gmail.com, Twitter: @wole_olaoye; Instagram: woleola2021)