The generalisation here is not necessarily wild.

Despite conciliatory noises some of them are now making, truth is a group of APC online supporters burned whatever bridges they may have had.

They did it by moving from online activities into real life.

Let me tell a story. https://twitter.com/ose_anenih/status/1282433756939288577

Back in 2016, a friend of @sisiogelagos wanted to do a survey but did not have the funds to pay for the data collection by one of the big 4. So he mentioned it to her, and she recommended me.

Naturally, the chap wanted to meet me, so she arranged a meet where three of us met.

We met at a lounge in Lekki, had an extensive discussion about my work, our methodology, and how we analyse information.

By the end of the discussion, @sisiogelagos's friend said, "You are the person I've been looking for. Let's talk on Monday morning so we can get started."

Monday arrived, and I called. He did not pick. No biggie, we're all busy on Mondays.

I called in the afternoon, he did not pick, so I sent a WhatsApp message, which he read, but did not answer.

It must be a very busy day, no problemo...

Tuesday, I called again, he didn't pick. He did not respond to WhatsApp either. He'd read them, but he'd not respond.

By the time this drama went on for the third day, I let it be, after all, onye ndidi, an eli azu ukpo.

Thus it was that a week after, I ran into @sisiogelagos.

She immediately laid into me and accused me of not providing her feedback since, according to her, I'd started the job with this chap.

So, I explained what happened, and showed her the unanswered WhatsApp messages.

She was genuinely surprised, and insisted that her friend was not that rude. So she said that they happened to be scheduled to attend a party the next day, and she'd find out what went wrong, and she did...

The next Monday, she called me and began the conversation by saying, "Cheta, there are people out there who really hate you."

Then she began the tale.

In the party, she'd approached him and asked why he'd rudely cut me off, and what he said took her aback:

"Ireti, how can you bring someone who hates me for me to give a job to?"

"What? How?"

So he explained. Naturally, after we met, he called some people he felt would know me, and they played my CD for him - Cheta is an ethnic bigot who hates Yorubas.

He cut me off based on that.

@sisiogelagos was shocked and asked him the following: "Do you know the name of his wife?", "Do you know the name of his partner at work?"

They are both Yoruba, so how can you say he hates Yorubas?

The man was shamefaced, but the damage had been done. He told her his source(s)

FTR, the chaps who played that pirated CD are on these streets, and now that it is getting clear to them that they were never really in power, some have been making conciliatory noises.

You know what? Those bridges are burnt. To cinder.

There's a chap on here (whom I never met), but who kept shouting that "Cheta is a bigot that hates Yoruba people."

The same chap later sent messages to my wife, shocked as to what he had been sold. Still haven't met him, and I hold no grudges. Not to him anyway.

The people I'm mad at are those who were once my friends, but went around, because of political differences on social media, to actually sully my real-life reputation.

Working with such snakes ever again is a statistical impossibility.