Obituary: Papa Has Gone Home

How things change so fast. Last month, 25th of January, I wrote about the Nairaland Phenomenon. It is so sad that few days later, the head nigger in-charge there developed a nasty and acute case of Megalomania. I have since dropped all associations with them. He has systematically deleted most of my posts. However, this is the last one before I left.

This is to announce that this marks my last post on NL.

It has been a wonderful time since I came to NL on November 21, 2005, 07:30 AM. I have made few friends, plenty enemies and surprisingly, my perspective about life haven’t changed.

I am successful professional in my endeavors of technology, banking and technical writing; which sometimes make me ask myself what I am doing here. Up to this week, the fun of being with highly creative and lovely people here has been an overriding reason for sticking along. From an entrepreneur point of view, I really want NL to succeed and Seun to climb to the highest pedestal on internet grandeur. But like every beggars dream, I guess that is a wish.

This place is descending into hell. I don’t have a problem with people fighting (if people don’t fight, what else can they do?) but am particularly miffed at Seun’s autocratic and extremely unprofessional choke and hold on power. Man, you don’t know this people but they can, as a whole, make and unmake you! And just yesterday, someone called me a pervert. And I have a wife and baby girl at home? I can’t stick that. Never!

I have met people I will never forget here:
Timmy: cool dude, Treize: My baby girl. Daddy’s going to miss you, Hot-Angel: sassy and smart, thelastdon: I really like him. The fatwa is off your head, Miskay: we have a deal? Nana: You fashied an old man. Na wa o. And last but not the least, Snazzy: We know where to meet.

Children, be good. Live your life here in a way that wouldn’t make me to be ashamed of you. Seun, you ‘v got to grow up. If you continue this way, you could be another Bill Shockley. Find out about him.

Adieu

NB: Papa could be contacted in heaven at [email protected] (You have to figure that out!)

The Nairaland Phenomenon

It is unbelievable that this mega Nigerian online community has operated below most people’s radar for so long.  But for the more than twelve thousand Nairaland members, it is a towering monolith that keeps growing everyday.  Nairaland, an online forum for Nigerians founded by Nigerian webmaster Seun Osewa and could be found at www.Nairaland.com. And who is Seun? Seun has been in the online business since 2003.  He started out in web publishing with a weblog about life as a webmaster in Nigeria.  And then, in a bid to help with the GSM customer service crisis, he founded the Mobile Nigeria Forum, a discussion forum for mobile phone users in Nigeria at www.mobilenigeria.com.

Though Mobile Nigeria was quite successful, the insuppressible spirit in him would not rest or be satisfied.  In March 2005, Seun created the Nairaland Forum and that marked the start of a mega community.  With this feat, Seun is gradually inching his way to join legends such as Tom Anderson of MySpace mythology. Surprisingly, this article is providing more information about Seun than what he has on his personal website, www.seunosewa.com.
 
Nairaland is definitely the largest Nigerian online community and should also rank among the largest black online communities out there. And if I tell you that Nairaland is full of mad people, believe me!  Mad not because they are roaming the streets naked but because of the explosive creativity and hyperactivity that characterize Nigerian youths on the Internet.

Some outstanding hot jocks include hot-angel, a 16 year old who lives in the US. She spends practically all her life on Nairaland, and that explains her 15,000 posts!   Then there’s nike4luv and Queenzy – the peacemakers, layi and snazzydawn – the cynosures of all eyes on the land, WesleyanA, teenager with a 30-year-old mind, K2DaC the Photoshop lady and wife of Ramsey Noah, and alheri, a woman whose true life stories are very hard to believe.

The Nairaland borders are inching beyond cyberspace as members are turning into real life friends. Others are calling each other regularly. I bet some members will get married to each other soon and who knows, the marriage may be conducted online!  It’s interesting to note that while 3,200 members have been active on the forum, the top 10 posters are responsible for 31% of all conversations.  They must be basket mouths! (This writer can never resist a good opportunity to yab someone)

Nairaland is powered by a heavily modified copy of the Simple Machine Forum engine which is based on PHP and MySQL.  Without any advertising, it has picked up about 12,500 members, 4,850 topics, and 180,000 posts in about 10 months.  On a typical weekday, it generates 400,000 hits (50,000 page views) from 7,000 visits – very significant for a Nigerian website with no corporate backing.
 
On the Nairaland Forum, members discuss issues like Family and Marriage, Romance and Sexuality, Politics, Business, Career, Education, Health, Religion, Travel, Fashion, Books, Music/Radio, TV/Movies, Jokes etc., Poems, Sports, Games, Computers, Phones, and of course Internet.  There are sections for Developers, Webmasters, Job seekers, and a bulletin board for Adverts.

As the only moderator on the site, Seun often has to wade in to instill discipline as members, like everyday people, often can’t resist the temptation to get unruly. 

And where is Nairaland going from here? I don’t really know as that is closely guarded by Seun but based on his antecedents, it is probably something explosive.

So when you are less busy and you need to unwind; head to Nairaland and get yourself a citizenship.