Oke Aruleba@Deprof
I am a habitué of AboveWhispers.com for the richness of its contents. The Loudwhispers’ essay entitled: “the WhatsApp Nostradamus”, authored by Her Excellency, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, apparently is loudest for its satiric but didactic content.
Erelu Bisi Fayemi’s subtle use of the rhetorical question in the essay entitled “the WhatsApp Nostradamus” tickled my fancy when she inquires:
“Mr WhatsApp Nostradamus how market?”
In other words, “the WhatsApp Nostradamus” is such a powerfully worded masterpiece , which lays bare the absurdity of the overconfidence effect: a well-established bias in which Erelu Bisi Fayemi’s Mr Whatsapp Nostradamus’ subjective confidence in his permutations of the yet-to- be conducted June 18 gubernatorial election in Ekiti was reliably greater than the objective accuracy of those judgments, especially when his confidence that APC would lose the June 18 gubernatorial election in Ekiti if it should field Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji was relatively high or overwhelming.
Erelu Bisi Fayemi’s deployment of rhetorical devices as well as her apt delineation of the character of Mr Whatsapp Nostradamus, via logic , no doubt, is nothing short of a perfect exposé of human miscalibration of subjective probabilities.
MICHEL NOSTRADAMUS Versus the WHATSAPP NOSTRADAMUS
Michel Nostradamus was a renowned physician. He was a French astrologer, and reputed seer, who is best known for his book Les Prophéties (published in 1555), a collection of 942 poetic quatrains allegedly predicting future events.
Most of his prophecies had recorded a high degree of accuracy.
Mr WhatsApp Nostradamus is most likely an Ekiti-born WhatsApp Electoral Future-reader. He is a far cry from being an astrologer or physician.
Peradventure, the Whatsapp Stargazer is just an attention- seeking cum gold-digging political pundit, who is well-versed in situational predictions that are chiefly based on social media opinions polls, or better still on antecedent political events, myths, political calculations cum permutations which are byproducts of sentimental fallacies rather than a reasoning hinged on contemporary realities on ground in Ekiti political space.
This pundit, prior to the June 18 gubernatorial election in Ekiti, was so sure of his predictions that he staked quite a fortune on his false predictions that APC in Ekiti State would meet its political waterloo if it fielded the Governor-elect, Mr biodun Abayomi Oyebanji, as the party’s flag bearer.
THE WHATSAPP NOSTRADAMUS GRIEVOUSLY ERRED
The uexpected happened. BAO finally coasted home to victory in an unprecedented and jinx-breaking resounding victory for APC which left the WhatsApp Fortune-teller and many “Iagos” of Shakespeare’s repute bare on the rack of disappointment.
Unfortunately, Mr WhatsApp Nostradamus’ Crystal ball had turned lurid, thereby returning a verdict of invalid permutations. BAO won the election with a wide margin!
No little thanks to God Almighty for making BAO’s VICTORY a REALITY.
Prominent amongst the secrets behind BAO’s victory at the polls which Erelu Bisi Fayemi gives a space in her write-up are: the CANDIDATE in whom Ekiti people have an absolute trust to deliver, the COMPELLING MESSAGE of CONTINUITY, the PARTY, who was able to put its house in order, the Indefatigable Ekiti WOMEN for their massive turnout before and during election and the well-structured and unique CAMPAIGNS.
RHETORICAL EXIGENCE
Rhetoric is the art of communication with an audience. For Erelu Bisi Fayemi, rhetoric means communicating with the readers using appropriate literary devices and compositional techniques.
Rhetoric plays an important role in the way she relays her message to the reader in ” the WhatsApp Nostradamus.”
She uses rhetoric in such a manner that her thematic concern in the essay resonates with the common people. Her style allows the average person to stay focused and have a better understanding of the overall message in the write-up.
Put simply, she uses the literary vehicle of rhetoric to exemplify the persuasive qualities of language as well as a potent tool of identifying the truth and creating a situation of mutual understanding amongst the readers from different standpoints.
The exigence or the real life spark that caused Erelu Bisi Fayemi to do the exposé of the Nostradamus of WhatsApp repute is to show in part, her cast-iron determination and tenacity of purpose in pursuing the values she believes in to a logical conclusion ; and largely, to portray a groundswell of the futile efforts of the WhatsApp Nostradamus to sway Erelu Bisi Fayemi from her errant political ways.
While Erelu Bisi Fayemi does not intend to demean the persona through her write-up , it is expedient to note that her use of rhetoric aptly brings to the fore the all-knowing airs of superiority displayed by the “Ekiti Whatsapp Nostradamus”, who unjustly annexed the WhatsApp space as a veritable tool to accomplish his fruitless and self-seeking naysaying cum astrological works.
THE RHETORICAL APPEAL
The pertinent question at this juncture is : does Erelu Bisi Fayemi’s “the WhatsApp Nostradamus” create any rhetorical appeal to the reader?
The answer is YES.
She is able to establish ethos by creatively deploying rhetorical devices which make the content of her write-up essentially credible.
Her use of appropriate and professional language is rhetorically quintessential.
The composition is adorned with African proverbs and aphorisms:
“No family plants its totem pole in the backyard of a rival family.”
Facts and statements are arranged with precision to build a logical argument in “the WhatsApp Nostradamus.”
Furthermore, in Her Excellency’s attempt to create a rhetorical appeal, a number of emotions are aroused when she writes:
“Success is good when it comes your way. No one sets out on a venture to fail. Yet, there is no greater motivator than failure. I know what it is like to fail. It doesn’t matter if it was your fault or not, or if you tried your best. The end result of failure is ridicule, insults, lies, betrayal. The ghost of 2014 and what followed haunted many of us for a long time.”
No doubt, she invokes a sense of fulfilment after she experienced a season of trials. The sun shines on her rubbles after the rain!
MOCK-HEROIC STYLE
In his own right, Mr WhatsApp Nostradamus is a superhero. Erelu Bisi Fayemi , therefore, mock- heroically lampoons him for crying wolves when there was none.
She creatively adapts the elevated heroic style to explore the trivial subject-matter of Mr WhatsApp Nostradamus’ false electoral prediction.
As a double-edged satirical weapon, Erelu Bisi Fayemi deploys sarcacism and innuendo to point up the unheroic character of the WhatsApp hunkster for his miscalculated electoral prediction when she writes:
“I hope my WhatsApp Nostradamus has learnt a lesson in patience and humility. No one is God. You cannot predict the outcome of a process simply because the beginning is not to your liking. You also should not cry more than the bereaved.”
“Political Skill is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.”
Simply because Mr WhatsApp Nostradamus falls short of his primordial role as a Seer, Erelu Bisi Fayemi subtly but derisively portrays him as a numero -uno Mischief- maker who , is ultimately caught in the web of his falsehood because he lacks the political skill to explain why votes rained massively in favour of APC flagbearer, BAO.
In the light of the aforementioned facts, Erelu Bisi Fayemi has been able to successfully deploy rhetoric to push home her message about the WhatsApp Nostradamus, who fails woefully in his self-seeking mission.
Oke Aruleba@Deprof
leorexinitiatives@gmail.com
08027906799