[dropcap]A[/dropcap] bomb went off last night 8pm in Yola. 30 people were killed instantly and over 80 people seriously injured. It was detonated by Boko Haram in a night market.
As if to accentuate an earlier argument, I haven’t read anywhere so far on facebook, where the proponents of the French Flag on profile pictures have empathised with this new tragedy. There is an aloofness; a certain sneer. And that was my point all along.
How people select WHO they want to mourn and REGIONS they wish to mourn for; at the prompting of the press in the West. I just read Mark Zuckerberg’s update on this flag issue on his Facebook wall and he seemed to gloss over it but that doesn’t take away the fact that there’s still no Nigerian flag promptly put up.
I applaud those who took it upon themselves to put up Nigerian flags on facebook themselves. We must localise our pain first before we join the worldwide tears.
Charles Novia is an award-winning filmmaker. He is founder of November Productions and November Records. Connect with him on Facebook.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
