Now and again, a loud minority rise up on Elon Musk’s de facto public town square to drag people over anything from who owns egusi soup to whether or not Nigerian men can make women orgasm. When these keyboard warriors unite to roast and ridicule you online, nothing is off the table.
If ever your hot take scorches the timeline, or you offer an opinion that sparks an online riot, that’s the green light to get e-smacked by angry Nigerians, trolls, and reckless internet gangsters. It can be a really tough spot to be in.
In this article, five Nigerians share their cringeworthy, hilarious and sometimes painful stories of being a victim of mob culture on X.
Oyin*, 30
I get dragged for my opinions most of the time. I talk a lot, and sometimes, the dragging is well-deserved. Sometime in July, an account posted screenshots of my tweets about married men who like to cheat on their wives with single women. My tweets were totally misconstrued intentionally, and they set me up for dragging.
I received calls and a lot of DMs calling me a husband snatcher and really nasty names. I had to lock my account for days. The man I was seeing at that time broke up with me because he felt embarrassed his babe was called out for allegedly dating married men. It’s the only dragging I’ve never responded to. I had to lock my account. I didn’t deserve it.
Lola, 26
It happened in March 2024. A fashion designer in my church made a court wedding dress for a bride who’s also a church member, but it wasn’t good. The bride was in tears, and they had to get another dress that morning.
The traditional wedding was happening a week after, and the clothes came a few days to the event. They were too tight for the bride. She cried again. My friend, who’s the bride’s friend, sent me a video of the dress and told me they’d like me to make a new one. I’m also a fashion designer. So, I told them to send the already-made dress to me first to see if it could be salvaged because making a new one in a very small window means heavy expenses.
I told them I’d fix it and that I did. On the traditional wedding day, the bride posted a video of me fitting her in those clothes I fixed for her, captioned: “You saved my life. You saved my wedding.” I laughed, replied that she was being dramatic and moved on. Later, my friend who introduced the bride also posted the video on WhatsApp and the first tailor saw it and asked why they were thanking me. She said I didn’t make the dress. I replied that she made the dress, but I made it wearable.
The next thing this tailor did was look for my X account after she couldn’t get my number from my friend. She sent me a DM that I shouldn’t take credit for what I didn’t do. I told her that wasn’t the issue, but I made the dress better for the bride. The next thing I saw was a public post on IG, dragging me, my friend and the bride on the actual wedding day. Some church members also joined to drag us. They posted my pictures on IG, tagged my personal and business accounts, slandered my name, called me fake and all sorts.
I posted a reel of the bride’s fitting, explaining the situation about her dress, and then I totally ignored them and their antics. Calls started blowing up my phone to take down my post, or else I’d be dealt with. So, they extended the dragging to X. I told them they should meet me in church during the mid-week service if they’d bone to pick. The tailor babe promised to drag me for a week. After two or three days, she and others deleted their tweets and IG stories. Apparently, one of our church pastors had heard about it and called them. She called all of us to settle the matter and pacify us.
It’s so funny that during the whole dragging, I wasn’t moved. They all threw the same insults and subs, and it was boring. I was still working, still receiving orders, sending out packages. Money was still entering my account. In fact, I saw a rise in customers at that time because people saw my page during the dragging, liked my work and reached out. I benefitted from it, though I didn’t like that a lot. My church members found my personal account because I wanted to separate my work from my personal life. Till today, when they see me in church, I don’t hear pim from them.
Dolapo, 26
I’ve been dragged a few times on X, but the biggest one was a tweet about Ben Carson that made it to Instagram and TikTok where I also received dragging.
Someone tweeted his surprise that the first twins Ben Carson separated died. I quoted the tweet to give more information that one of them ended up being a vegetable for the rest of his life. The other died. The family never recovered. The dad abandoned the kids, and the mother regretted the decision.
That was all I said, and I didn’t hear the last of it.
Despite the dragging, I did not feel any type of way about the drama though. In fact, I understood why it pissed some people off because of the way I worded it. It felt like I was shitting on the man’s entire legacy, and I understand why it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Many Nigerians admired him and considered him a role model. This side of his story made them uncomfortable. But I didn’t feel bad at all. I’ve been on Twitter for eleven years, so I know how it works.
The only new perspective I got was realising how much Nigerians loved that man. None of the replies really made me think of him differently because I’ve read about that story and followed up on it, and I saw that everything I stated was exactly how it was. I didn’t exaggerate or say things that were not true.
Chikez*, 30
When actress Faithia Williams shared the news and poster of her upcoming film about Efunroye in October, I was surprised to see it was a film about a woman and slave trader, Efunroye Tinubu (Madame Tinubu). Her T-pain surname was an ultimate surprise, and that sounded like a good joke, considering the surname of the man currently running Nigeria.
I tweeted “Y’all would never believe what her other name is.” Then boom, the people who didn’t take my tweet well started dragging me and my family, saying that my grandfather, a former king, was also a slave trader.
People dragged me, but I didn’t respond to anybody because I’ve learnt over the years to separate emotions from Twitter drama. To me, it just shows how people can easily misunderstand things on that app. While the outrage is valid, I mean, in hindsight, slavery was horrible and should never have happened. But I never met my ancestors. So, there’s almost nothing I can do about their actions. I’m not even benefitting from it in any way.
Blossom, 24
In 2023, during the election campaign, Tinubu made a statement on Lake Chad during a flood situation. He talked about recharging Lake Chad. But Twitter people weren’t having it. They trolled the man.
So, I did some work at my former workplace. I broke down the news and what he meant by recharging Lake Chad in a video. The video was doing okay when it hit X. Then David Hundeyin quote tweeted it, saying, “Good job.”
That single quote-tweet opened me to more people, and the dragging started. People called me all sorts of slurs. Some even said I was looking for a sugar daddy. It got to the point that my work advised me not to read the comments, and log out for my mental health. It was crazy. I don’t even like that app. God will help them on that platform.
