Former
Super Eagles skipper, Austin Jay Jay Okocha, on Saturday joined the
ranks of the few ex-Nigerian internationals — including Sunday Oliseh
and Kanu Nwankwo – on the micro-blogging site, Twitter.
The two-time BBC African Footballer of
the Year announced his arrival on Twitter at 3:17 pm on Saturday,
saying, “My people, how far now? Na Jay Jay o. Make you na no fall my
hand. This is my official Twitter account.”
Popular artistes such as Wizkid,
Basketmouth, AY, Tee A, Weird MC and Sound Sultan are among the notable
personalities who spread the news of Okocha’s foray into Twitter on the
social network.
Tweeting via his handle, @wizkidayo,
Wizkid described Okocha as his ‘big uncle’ and asked his 575, 875 fans
on the network to follow the ex-Nigerian international. “You all follow
my big uncle the legendary @iamokocha,” he stated.
Basket Mouth, who also commands a
following of over 230,000 on Twitter, also intimated his fans on
Okocha’s official Twitter handle.
He said, “Hello all. How’s the weekend
going? Jay Jay Okocha just joined Twitter today (Saturday). Let’s all
follow him and learn some football tricks.”
Okocha, who was in 2004 listed in
football legend Pelé’s FIFA 100 (a list of the greatest 125 living
players of all time), solicited the support of presenter and studio
analyst for the Super Sport television network, Colins Udoh, on the
social network.
Okocha called Udoh to inform him about
his Twitter account and to help differentiate it from a fake handle,
@JOkocha10, which had been created since May 2012. The fake @JOkocha10
handle had since garnered over 6,810 fans.
Confirming this on Saturday, via his
Twitter handle @ColinUdoh, Udoh explained, “Austin Jay Jay Okocha just
called to say he has launched a new Twitter account. It’s @IAmOkocha.
And yes, it’s real.”
However, with just one tweet, Okocha,
who describes himself as “The Football Magician,” on his Twitter Bio,
has attracted over 2,945 followers on the social service, depicting a
warm welcome from his fans.
Although his fans had extended a hand of
fellowship to him on the network, many of them have, however, slammed
him saying he joined the network a bit late. One of such is Oluwasina
Okeleji, who tweets via the handle, @oluwasina. He argued that Kanu’s
decision to join Twitter might have encouraged him (Okocha) to sign up
for the social network. It will be recalled that Kanu joined Twitter on
April 11.
“Obviously, he (Okocha) was waiting for Papilo (Kanu) abi lol?” Okeleji asked. An anonymous reader on lindaikeji.blogspot.com asked Okocha, “Na today day break? Welcome sha!”
Some yet criticised him for the tone and
language with which he used for the tweet. An anonymous fan said it
seemed as if the author of the tweet is an ‘agbero’ – a motor park
tout.”
Welcoming Okocha to the “bird family”, a
fan, Enebeli Jonas ( @Calljonas) advised him not to abandon his account
in the way Nigerian politicians do after elections.
Jonas said, “Jay Jay Okocha, great you
are on Twitter. I am an eternal fan. Abeg make you dey tweet o. No
abandon your account like our politicians do.”
While many of his fans see nothing bad
in Okocha asking Twitter users to follow him, some argued that it was
wrong for an ex-footballer in the standing of Okocha to beg accordingly.
One of such persons is Gladstone Awoniyi, who tweeted at Okocha via
@gladstoneawoniyi.
He queried Okocha for “begging” people
to follow him, arguing that his fans on the social network would
naturally follow him without him asking for a follow back.
