BY MICHEAL OBASI

In a very fast social media-inclined society like Nigeria, playing the victim card is one of the commonest ways to gain attention for both sympathy, traffic, and financial gains.

And this cut across all facets of society, from family, music, Politics, and Sports.

People have perfected the act of playing the victim card using the powerful instrument of social media to achieve their aims.

This epitomises the behaviour of Female footballer Fakiyesi Abisola who was recently dashed 6 Million Naira by Popular Nigeria Music Producer Don Jazzy.

Bisola painted a story of an abandoned player who desperately needed help to treat her knee injury in order to return to active football.

At a time when women’s Football is gaining more serious attention and followership in the country after the successful outing of the Nigeria senior women’s team at the FIFA Women’s World Cup this year, the player in question lashed out this to draw social media attention and sympathy.

Unfortunately, she got the attention she had pre-planned which was to raise money, draw traffic to her social media, and provoke Public Rage against her club, Naija Ratel.

Fakiyesi painted a story of being abandoned by Naija Ratel to put the club and management in a bad light.

This after fact-checking was discovered to be totally false and a misrepresentation of the truth.

When the player was injured, she was sent to the club’s official Medical Centre in Makurdi for better examination and treatment but the player left Makurdi at her own instance back to her base in Ekiti for reasons only known to her.

When her coach who brought her to the club in Abuja from Ekiti contacted her on what she is doing in Ekiti, she said she wanted to focus more on her education and she had to come prepared for her exams.

This same player has been on regular salary by the club despite her below playing quality which made her not to be registered for the season.

And as of the time the player went public to plead for help, she was still a member of the club’s official WhatsApp group where coaches, officials, and players interact and express concerns.

But the big question is when the player jumped to Social media to ask for help, did she ever post her concerns on the club WhatsApp group?

She claimed to have reached out to the club Chairman on several occasions but no response.

However, it was gathered she never informed the club about the scan she did in Ekiti state where she was told she would be needing six million Naira but swiftly went online to solicit help.

Further fact-checking findings also showed that Naija Ratel is one of the leading Nigeria women’s football clubs when it comes to players’ Welfare and Hospitality.

The Club has its own official hospital in both Abuja( the Supreme hospital ) and Benue state where it’s players go for both on and off-the-pitch treatments.

Several players have benefited and still benefiting from this even players from opposing teams that come to play against the team.

Beyond the club’s solid medical structure for its players, the club also has a strong educational incentive for its players where several players have benefited from secondary and tertiary scholarships up to date.

Be all that as it may, the club finds it totally shocking that a player went on social media to paint a scenario of being neglected to get financial sympathy so that the image of her club would be seen in a bad light.

And because we are in a society where people especially celebrities are always ready to lash out at anything to sell their Supposed humanitarian and philanthropic image nobody is ready to investigate any information being put out there.

No disrespect to the gestures of Don Jazzy to come to the player’s aide but people need to always double-check before jumping on any story being put out there in order for us to build a better society where both the less privileged are not victimized and the rich also is not being ruined by cheap blackmail.

Written by Micheal Obasi

Sports Journalist/Sports Affairs Analyst.

Convener; JFirst Sports International

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share