For every Nigerian who came of age between the 70s and 80s, the mention of Oyingbo Market must evoke memories mixed with a sense of familiarity with the bustling hub that once ruled the commercial landscape of Nigeria in an era of economic boom.
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Oyingbo Market welcomed thongs of vendors, merchants and buyers from diverse financial and geographical backgrounds, and her air was made heavy with smells, scents and sweats.
Her prominence was even alluded to in a line of Juju music; Ebenezer Obey sang: “Oja Oyingbo ko mo pe enikan o wa”, which loosely translates as “The absence of someone in Oyingbo Market does not diminish the market population”.
When many Nigerians signed up on Facebook years ago, their intentions were simple: to mingle, chat and indulge in delightful gossips circulating among friends and acquaintances.
Over the years, however, Facebook, has evolved like many other social platforms, and the purpose has shifted for many users.
So, in a virtual trades fair, Nigerians began to set up their digital stalls,adorned with engaging posts to draw in potential customers/clients on Facebook, akin to the use of billboard advertisements for offline business promotions.
Then, Zuckerberg sprinkled some magic dust into Facebook commerce with the introduction of paid ads.
Trusting him to give their businesses wider reach, many Nigerians poured their coins in his digital slot machine, hoping to get hundreds of Naira for every kobo dropped, like a farmer gets an ear of corn for one corn kernel buried in the earth.
Sadly for many, the terrain of Facebook advertisement was an uncharted course, and they weretransversing without compass; their missteps leading to loss of money, whereas a host of others who have learnt the ropes have continued to profit from Facebook ads.
In response, many self-acclaimed Facebook ad wizards emerged, offering their services to teach the secrets of successful Facebook ads or to manage campaigns on behalf of others for a fee.
Few years back, Zuckerberg started dishing out monetary rewards for diligent use of his blue app, with content creators profiting in other countries of the world.
Nigeria, renowned for her theatrics and a knack for trends which often find expressions on social media, particularly Facebook, appears to have recently impressed him; with millions of contents constantly being churned out from Nigeria, he has extended Facebook monetization to Tinubu’s kingdom.
The response of many Nigerian Facebook enthusiasts to Facebook monetization is like that of a hungry man who stumbled on a honey pot; waves of frenzy sweeping around,with many struggling for their share of Zuckerberg’s cake.
Many Nigerians who have hitherto grappled with the harsh realities of unemployment and underemployment are now turning to Facebook for income, and the desperation is almost palpable; emergency content creators showing up every day; everyone having opinion on every matter; and every issue, both germane and mundane, is now worth setting up the ring light for.
There are the skit makers, making comic gold out of everyday events; there are gossip merchants, converting to cash the pains and gains in the lives of celebrities; there are wordsmiths,enchanting people with their gift of orations; and there are the trend-jumpers, feeding fat on trending issues like a vulture eating carcass, from conversations around Mohbad’s death to Muyideen versus Agbala Gabriel Saga, and everything in-between. All for one goal: Facebook money.
Facebook is fast becoming Oyingbo Market in Nigeria, with vendors branded as content creators in their diversity – men and women, the educated and illiterate, the smart and the intellectually-deficient.
Perhaps the most disturbing dimension of Facebook content hustle is the portrayal of others in a negative life in a bid to create content.
This concept, which in Nigerian parlance, is tagged “dragging” has negative psychological effect on victims. A person can wake up one morning and find himself/herself painted black on the canvas of a content creator whose muses are on recess.
While some victims of “dragging” might possess the emotional resilience to response and launder their image, others may lapse into psychological distress which could spiral down into depression.
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To sum it up, Facebook market is growing like wildfire in Nigeria; in the manner Oyingbo Market, what someone feels about how they have been portrayed does not diminish the market population; it then follows that we all must develop thick skin to maintain a positive outlook even when someone’s content is aimed at stripping us of our dignity.
More importantly, one should stive to build a name with purity of character, which is not easily tainted by an alliance of mobile data, smart phone,ring light and lapel microphone, with a desperate content creator behind the scenes.
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