Kenyans, Nigerians wage tweet-war ahead of fixture

Kenyans and Nigerians taunted each other on twitter following reports that Kenya’s Harambee Stars had been denied a proper training ground and forced to train on a grassless compound of what looked like an abandoned school in Lagos.

Kenyan Sports journalist Odindo Ayieko posted pictures on Facebook showing the Kenyan footballers doing a jog around classrooms of a school he identified as “Ajao Estate Primary School in Lagos”.

“With the conditions I saw Harambee Stars training today; I think Nigerians are out to frustrate the boys,” wrote Mr Ayieko on his account.

“Nigerians decide to take their match with Harambee Stars to Calabar, 800 kilometers from Lagos yet they do not have connecting flights to the town nor roads.....Stars holed up in Lagos...,” he added in the Wednesday night update.

When the Kenyans on Twitter woke up on Thursday and saw what their national team had been reduced to, they unleashed their belligerence through a hashtag #SomeoneTellNigeria in which they protested about the way the Harambee Stars had been treated.

The Kenyan online army went ahead to tell Nigerians that they ought to show a little bit of respect to the Kenyans. They then had fun trying to tell off Nigerians – the way football fans from opposing camps would tell off and taunt each other. Only that this time, it was from art, politics, sport and the lifestyle of Nigerians.

“#SomeoneTellNigeria its only in their movies where one is shot in the head and bleeds on the leg” wrote Mox Mokaya via his account @Moxizme.

The Kenyans on Twitter even tweeted pictures –funny pictures that have been doing rounds on the internet—but with altered captions to fit the spat with their Nigerian counterparts.

There was one where a person had a coin stuck in the ear, and the caption read that it is a “Nigerian listening to (US rapper) 50 Cent.”

“ #SomeoneTellNigeria We can disfigure P-Square to P-Rectangle or even P-Triangle,” tweeted Julius Seizure via his account @Mayore.

P-Square is a Nigerian music duo whose songs took the Kenyan airwaves by storm a couple of years back.

Politics was also not left out of the equation.

Kahuna Papito via @kahuna_kahuna said: “#SomeoneTellNigeria We have a sitting President, a President in waiting, a President in hoping and Prezzo. Whadya have? Luck? Goodluck?”

“#SomeoneTellNigeria that for one to be President in Kenya, he needs 50 per cent plus one of the votes cast, but to be President in Nigeria, you just need #Goodluck...” another tweeted.

The Nigerian movies, usually derided as being popular with Kenyan house girls and watchmen, were not spared either. The Kenyan online army asked the Nigerians to “please treat Harambee Stars the way our housegirls treat the Nigerian movies”.

Myke via @mykeizme added: “ #SomeoneTellNigeria Its only in naija where tomato sauce is used in movies as blood. Kenyans use tomato sauce on chips.”

“ #SomeoneTellNigeria Only in their movies a woman puts poison in her husbands food. And then taste it to know if it’s enough, without her dying.”

With no response Josphat via @bluesoldier8_ tweeted: “If they are not responding to these tweets just excuse them it’s difficult to tweet riding an okada oga ou.#SomeoneTellNigeria”.

Okada is how Nigerians call motorbikes.

Nick Thiong’o took a swipe at the Nigerian accent with a clever jibe for the Nigerian government to “invest 90 per cent of their budget in speech therapy”.

Nigerians too came up with #SomeoneTellKenya. They had to remind Kenyans that “twitter is a place for fun, and not a place for queen’s English, because Nigeria has the best writers in the world”.

“#SomeoneTellKenya you know all our Nigerian stars, your TV stations show our movies, but we don't even know where you are on the map.”

“#SomeoneTellKenya Nigerians make people trend..they should enjoy the first cyber recognition in their history” tweeted @Abooh_Sirdeeq.

Phoenix Dada via (@DOlusegun added: “The Kenyans trended in Lagos today. That's as close to civilization as most of them will ever get. #SomeoneTellKenya”

And from the stories of hunger in East Africa, and the prowess of Kenyans in long distance races, the Nigerians coined a jibe: “ #SomeoneTellKenya no matter how far Kenyans run, they can’t run away from HUNGER."

It was just a perfect build-up for the match between Nigeria and Kenya at Calabar