Some learned learned Nigerians have taken to social media to condemn the claimed controversial dismissal of the Deputy Editor of Brittle Paper, Otosirieze Obi-Young.

The dismissal resulted from an article he wrote talking about Hadiza Elrufai’s reaction when her son threatened to “pass” someone’s mother around to his friends.

Deputy Editor of Brittle Paper, Otosirieze Obi-Young had written an article criticizing Hadiza El-Rufai for her tweet which was perceived to support her son.

The post titled, “Novelist, Feminist & Kaduna First Lady, Hadiza El-Rufai, says all is fair in love and war after son’s gang-rape threat draws backlash” was published on the Brittle Paper platform.

On April 15, Otosirieze disclosed that he woke up to discover that he had been logged out from all Brittle Paper accounts.

He went onto reveal in the long statement that he had been fired from BP where he worked for 4 years.

He wrote: “The Founder called me and expressed concerns about my criticism of a Nigerian newspaper in it and the informal and strongly worded tone addressing said novelist.

“I edited the post, removing the relevant sections.

“The Founder called back a few minutes later and said she wanted to take down the report.

“That was unacceptable to me. I saw no reason why my post-publication edits, which removed my opinion and restricted it to reportage, were not enough.

“I saw no reason why her concern about my lack of objectivity was not something that could be fixed by her own edits or rewriting.

So I cut short the conversation: I said I no longer wished to discuss this report, that she should take it down if she wanted.”

So, the post was unpublished from the platform on April 14 with reasons that it does not meet the editorial standard of the its journalistic mandate.

He continued: “Removing me from Brittle Paper is part of the political agenda to subsume Nigerian literature and make it difficult to be an honest writer here. Their takeover is now complete.”

Brittle Paper released a statement after they pulled down the post. See their statement below:

Apparently, Otosirieze’s statement went viral and Nigerian writers took to various platforms to call out Brittle Paper.

Brittle Paper is known to be one of Africa’s leading literary platforms that inspires writers to freely express themselves.

They accused BP of silencing and censoring writers in Nigeria.

Some Nigerian writers went as far as revealing that they were boycotting Brittle Paper and some asked that their articles published on the platform be pulled down.

Chibuihe Obi, a contributor to Brittle Paper who also won the platform’s anniversary award, released a statement stating that he was rescinding the award BP gave him and asked that his works be pulled down from the platform.

“I am publicly rescinding the award Brittle Paper gave me in 2017 and will forthwith return the cash that came with the prize. i have written to ainehi Edoro to demand that my works be pulled from their site.” Chibuihe wrote on Facebook.

In any case, some people on SM have seen everything wrong with their action and have called them out for pulling down the article and subsequently, dismissing the writer.

Ainehi Edoro, the founder/publisher of Brittle Paper explained in another statement that  Otosirieze flouted editorial guidelines of the company “and was unwilling to make changes in the report.”

According to her, her problem with the article was that she “found the title inflammatory and unnecessarily incendiary”.

She said, “until I got to the last paragraph. It was then that alarms rang in my mind.”

Edoro said Otosirieze’s last paragraph “did not only sound strong but also criticised other Nigerian papers.”

This is the last paragraph the Editor was referring to:

Interestingly, four hours after backlash began to her response, an article appeared on ThisDay titled “Endearing Qualities of Kaduna First Lady, Hadiza El Rufai.”

‘It is exactly as shabbily-written as you would expect of a hastily assembled, face-washing gimmick. But it is not as unintelligent as the one on OperaNews.

‘There must be a name for this feminism whose reply to “Tell your mother I’m passing her to my friends tonight” is “I didn’t see any threats of rape.”

‘A feminism that agrees to raise men to be better but says “All is fair in love and war” when their ethnic-bigoted men-children threaten violence on women’s bodies.

Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame.

Do better.

Ainehi wrote in her statement: “It was not clear why he was accusing two Nigerian newspapers of writing “hastily assembled, face-washing gimmick” and another of being “unintelligent”.

“And why was the diatribe “shame! Shame! Shame! Shame!” being used in what should have been a plain reportage of facts and written statements and tweets? It seemed to be histrionic, inflammatory, even melodramatic and totally not in keeping with the seriousness of the matter he was addressing.

“I felt, and feel, Otosirieze’s outrage. I am both a woman and the mother of a daughter. Suggesting that a woman should be sexually assaulted is unconscionable and needs a hard and swift response.

“But in condemning such statements, it is important that we ourselves do not stoop to the level of those making them.

“It is important that we do not abandon completely all principles and ethics in how we write.”

She also faulted the use of “gang rape” in the title where she said, something like “lewd comments” would have sufficed.

She added: “Unfortunately, this all occurred at a time I had to prepare time sensitive lectures for my students, and without sufficient time to edit the post.

“The time difference between Nigeria and the U.S. also left me with little time to act quickly, so I pulled the post down as the exigent thing to do.”

She also revealed that “the ex-Deputy Editor hung up the phone when she attempted to have a conversation.”

She further stated that contrary to public opinion, Brittle Paper has never been funded by the Kaduna State Government.

Again, this response led to another mixed reactions online as some people supported her, while others still went on to condemn her even with a further explanation.

Also, Otosirieze took to Facebook amid the controversy to issue another statement after Ainehi’s response.

He wrote: “When you speak truth to power, when you dare refuse to be compromised, there will be consequences.

“You will be maligned, marked to be destroyed. You will be up against all their machinery, all lies to deceive the public. But if you can afford it, please stay true to yourself.

“Nothing is better than waking up with your dignity intact, being true to yourself. It is the foundation for a happy life.

“Remember what was said and what was done. Remember who did. In time, the truth will shine.