For many, making a distinction between noteworthy hashtags on social media and what’s trending for the sake of it may prove difficult. But, when issues such as the abduction of hundreds of girls in a small village in Northern Nigeria appear on the social radar in any part of the world, it’s understandable why that issue would not only warrant a hashtag, but seek to preserve its social relevance and mission beyond the Internet by making the hashtag unique to its cause.
Yesterday, the Coalition for Women Advancement in Africa (COWAA) had to ask the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) to discontinue use of the #BringBackOurZariaGirls slogan in its campaign, as it was an irresponsible move to hijack the very sensitive #BringBackOurGirls movement, as well as an insult to the Chibok girls’ memories. For a second, it might seem that the quarrel is about a mere hashtag, but that’s not exactly the case.
To start a social campaign for change today, you most likely will have to create a hashtag. To keep said campaign alive, that hashtag becomes the name and identity of your movement. Now, in a number of popular instances, such as the Chibok girls’ abduction of 2014, the hashtag transcends the digital platform to take on a socio-physical form based on the gravity of the matter and the resolution of the people who suffer its sociopsychological effects.
Given the example just stated, the first question that would probably get asked is why the IMN can’t use a hashtag similar to that of the BBOG movement, seeing as the incidences do not necessarily differ in terms of what transpired. And the question is worth consideration. In December of last year, the IMN accused the Nigerian Military of abducting 50 of their girls in the clash between both groups which resulted in a massacre in Zaria, Kaduna state, and saw the arrest of Shiite leader Ibrahim Zakzaky.
If the abduction of the girls from Zaria did indeed happen, and at the hands of the military, then the matter is in no way trivial. Yet, it fails to qualify as a tangible reason for the IMN’s – perhaps unintentional – deviation from the narrative of the #BringBackOurGirls movement by ‘borrowing’ its two-year-old hashtag.
Again, this is not just about hashtags, but about how a group of people carefully developed and nurtured its purpose and relevance around a sensitive matter that resonates with societies far and near. In the case of the BBOG movement, #BringBackOurGirls struggles to stand in the face of barriers set up against it by the Federal Government and other members of civil society who doubt, belittle or outrightly oppose the intentions behind its campaign.
Therefore, a #BringBackOurZariaGirls campaign simply seems like a renewed attempt to strangulate the efforts of the BBOG movement. Firstly, it appears that the IMN was nine months late in realising that the 50 girls went missing during the 2015 clash. Secondly, the IMN either truly does not understand the point of hashtags where social issues such as the BBOG one are concerned, or it definitely plans to bank on propaganda to [insensitively] tap into the media renown that the BBOG hashtag possesses, as claimed by COWAA.
Both thoughts are harmful. However, if the former argument of ignorance is the case, the travails of #BlackLivesMatter is a living, breathing example of why it is dangerous and unacceptable to reduce the essence of a movement to a mere hashtag by duplicating it at will. If the IMN is indeed as confused and insensitive as the second argument suggests, then it needs to understand that this strategy is tantamount to shooting itself in the face. Not only would it succeed in significantly detracting from the BBOG movement, it would also succeed in failing to launch a separate yet equally crucial social platform to achieve its set objectives.
There are innumerable instances where it’s acceptable to use a similar hashtag, although all such instances serve to ultimately showcase and promote a singular goal by people whose visions align. As this is not what presently gives, the IMN could do well to lend its campaign more credence by creating its own, distinct hashtag.
