A Reviewed Facebook Policy

By David-Chyddy Eleke

I had a very rigid policy on Facebook before now. If I didn’t know you personally, if you didn’t belong in same profession with me or had association with me, or associated with who associated with me, lived in same area, attended same workshop or seminar with me or even had good interactions with me on social media – I don’t accept your friendship requests.

That looks rigid, does it not? I have lived it for over 15 years of being on Facebook.

Despite maintaining one Facebook account since inception of this blue app, I hadn’t grown beyond 2k followers until recently. The reason is in the first paragraph. Truth is, I ignored friendship request a lot. I rarely send out requests too. I do only to people I know, people I look up to in my profession, people that I consider news sources that can aid my job through their posts. But you see random requests? E dey hard me till date. I always wanted to maintain a close knit group, but maybe things don’t work that way, so I have decided to review my policy.

To accept friends requests, I dig into account profiles. If you’re a dibia, iffa priest, babalawo or radical islamist, I declined your request. I even declined the request of extremist elements seeking secession for Igbo nation.

Another group of people I avoided their requests are sports bet promoters. I don’t also take requests from customs officers, whether fake or genuine. Infact, if your request showed you in uniform in your profile picture, I delete and block.

There are many others whose request I treated in like manner, but recently I was forced to rethink my decision.

Quite recently, Facebook notified me of the originality of the contents I post. It praised me for my writing prowess (but truth is that I write evwryday. I write for a living and most of my writings are rather channelled to newspaper publications, blogs and not social media. To me, social media is cruise, and I believe so till date, not minding that people earn here). Facebook also alerted me that because of the originality of my content and the fluidity of my writing, it will suggest my account to I diverse number of persons to subscribe to.

I confess that almost immediately, I started getting friend’s requests from all manner of people. Each time I checked the accounts, they didn’t seem familiar. They are mostly not from Anambra. They are mostly also not from my Ebonyi, or my Community; Oshiri. They are also not from colleagues in the media profession. In fact, some are not Nigerians, some don’t share any friends in common with me. I kept rejecting friends and it continues. Not even the notification of Facebook that I have been converted to a professional account, with a dashboard that can help me grow earning was able to make me change my rigidity.

Now, let me tell you what changed my rigidity.

The Mazi Ejimofor Opara and Kingsley Ubani Facebook war in favour of their principals – Charles Chukwuma Soludo and Senator Uche Ekwunife softened me. A jab from Ejimofor at Ubani for having just 3k followers jolted me back to life.

I checked my account and saw just a little above 2k followers, yet I had several friends requests I declined, and some followers who just bump in on me and whose identity I’m not so sure of – I just block them. I know Kingsley Ubani; a bright young, upward and mobile guy who has managed Ekwunife’s image. I also know Ejimofor Opara, a guys whose big knowledge is bellied in a small and fragile shape. Even though very deadly, he cuts the shape of a harmless chap and has managed Soludo’s image for about four years now, fending off attacks from him. Both guys are doing well, but if the measure of determining popularity of Facebook followership, why shouldn’t I jettison my rigid policy?

So, if you are one of such people I have rejected their requests, I apologize. Since last week, I have been accepting requests from all ekperimas, secessionists who promise me eldorado once Biafra is declared, customs officers who auction brand new Benz SUV for 100k, iffa priests who promise to make me rich without consequences, babalawos who display dollars with blood stained earthen pots on their profile, sports bet accounts who send me sure bet codes to win big and those who promise to help me grow a big penis without consequences.

I have accepted all of you, but I must warn that your stay is not permanent. I accept all, but I block those who become annoying. What is heartwarming is that from being an account with 2k followers just last two weeks, I have sharply risen to 4.9k followers. I have a few more requests to take after this post, and I may most probably jump to 5k followers.

I won’t stop, I will keep accepting friend’s requests from people of all shades. What will determine who I block is how you interact underneath the posts I make and the inbox messages I get. A few have already been blocked off.

Can Ubani and Ejimofor exactly escape being described as Gen-Zs? If they are within the range, permit me to join these Gen-zs in the chase for followers.