“Oga at the top”… Comedy meets Social Comparison Theory

By dave Posted in Pondering 5 Replies

The past week has been an eventful one in the Nigerian webosphere. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, google the phrase and prepare to spend the next hour at least viewing pictures, videos and songs themed off the Channels TV interview. To talk about the responses to ‘oga at the top’ would require an entire blogpost which I don’t plan or want to write.

The real curiosity for me is why this meme, of all things, became so viral in Nigeria. Yes, I get it. Its TOTALLY abominable for the Commandant of the NSCDC in Lagos not to know his organization’s website url completely… or is it?

Lets continue the conversation on twitter...
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  • utukwa benedict

    Interesting reading my friend

  • Itodo Anthony

    Great article brother, thought-provoking.

  • http://chumaokoye.wordpress.com chums okoye

    Nice piece but I am angry. You never told me of a blog. Nice piece. Anger is gone

  • agogs

    another thought provoking reaction dave…Keep the grey cells working.

  • Ahmed

    I quite disagree with some sections of the article, David. Firstly, the statement that ” it is probably not THAT MUCH of a big deal” -it is quite the big deal when you consider the only reason he came on the show, in the first place, was to discuss the fact that there were numerous phony websites with the organisation’s name committing recruitment fraud. He was there to discuss how the NSCDC was combating this on-line menace and the very least he could come prepared with is information on the correct website for citizens interested in joining the service, if not anything else. Mere preparation would have saved the day.

    Secondly, the meme has gone viral, in my opinion, because of the level of dissatisfaction and disgust the 20 million or so unemployed, well-qualified youths who have all the time in the world to view and review the blatant incompetencies of persons in positions of “authority” displayed daily. When you consider Guy (a barely educated cab driver) who was wrongly interviewed on BBC ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5evS-ApSNQ ) due to a name mix-up, handling a topic he has little to no idea on with that much intelligence and improv, then you see why Shem, the President (especially with Isha Sessay) and the First Lady (God bless her, lol) should be made to understand that it is unacceptable to represent a country with this many bright minds look like a bunch of indecipherable fools to be mocked. It has been a recurrent theme in history, the masses have always used whatever tool they can to make authority understand their displeasure, in this case mockery is the word