When Content Becomes a Curse

By Nwafor Oji Awala

There is a dangerous rhythm moving through Nigeria’s digital space, and too many are dancing to it without asking where it leads. In the market of modern relevance, attention has become currency, and some content creators are willing to spend lives, both theirs and ours, to remain trending.

The recent arrest of a 20-year-old social media influencer, Habeeb Hamzat, popularly known as Peller, by the Lagos State Police Command is a mirror held up to a society intoxicated by virality. A young man, behind the wheel, driving recklessly on a public road while live-streaming his flirtation with death: this was not performance art, it was a public rehearsal for tragedy. And tragedy, as expected, followed.

In the viral video that led to his arrest, the road was no longer a shared civic space but a stage; other road users were no longer human beings with destinies but props in a dangerous drama. What mattered was not safety, not morality, not even sanity: what mattered was traffic. Likes. Views. Shares. The digital applause of strangers who would scroll past his obituary without blinking.

Our society must confront an uncomfortable truth: much of what passes for content today is pregnant with danger. Many creators are not midwives of ideas but gamblers with lives. Their compass is not conscience but algorithms. They are not asking, Is this right? but Will this trend? Not Who could be harmed? but how many will watch?

In the desperate race for relevance, moral boundaries have become speed bumps: ignored, flattened, and forgotten. Reckless driving, staged stunts, public indecency, and self-harm theatrics, nothing is too sacred, too risky, or too immoral if it promises engagement. In this new economy, outrage is oxygen, and danger is a selling point.

The intervention of the Lagos State Police is a reminder that the law still exists beyond the screen. Their warning to content creators is timely, but it also exposes a deeper crisis: when young people would rather risk death than obscurity, something fundamental has broken in our value system. When fame becomes cheaper than dignity, and virality more important than life, society itself is on a dangerous path.

African wisdom teaches that the child who dances on the edge of a cliff is not brave; he is ignorant of the depth below. Many of our digital performers are dancing too close to the abyss, dragging others along without consent. The road does not know influencers. A speeding vehicle does not recognise followers. Death does not ask for subscribers.

This moment should force a national conversation, not only about law enforcement, but about responsibility in the digital age. Freedom of expression was never a licence to endanger lives. Creativity was never meant to become a weapon against the public. Relevance should never be purchased with blood.

If content creation continues on this path, the question will no longer be who will trend next, but who will die next. The likes will move on, but the loss will remain.

In a society where everyone wants to be seen, we must remember that being alive is still more important than being viral.

Nwator Oji Awala 

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