How, when and why ‘Calabar Rant Hq’ was shut out 10 months after birth

Insights into how Calabar-based social media community, the nineteen thousand populated-‘Calabar Rant Hq’, met its waterloo has surfaced NEGROIDHAVEN has garnered.

A handful of reasons into when, why and how the social media public group, Calabar Rant Hq, was taken off the radar on Facebook have been articulated: some have cited that the owners sold it, others have said the virtual community was hacked, while others have expressed stark ignorance as to how she met an unfortunate end. 

The founder Zeal Enoidem and Charles Offiong Obo-co-owned rant community,  which was created on 16th November 2019 but shut out on 14th September 2020, ten months after, was actually hacked down by yet-to-be-identified mischievous people. 

According to founder Enoidem of Calabar Rant Hq ‘I’ve heard so many tales about the story behind the deleted group, I only choose to keep mute …The fact is, my Facebook account was hacked and the criminal gained access through my account to hack the rant group.’ Enoidem further noted that Obo ‘… was robbed 2 weeks before my account was hacked’, but the thief did not use the account to defraud anybody but suspectedly attempted to ‘delete the community’, he said. So, when they may not have been able to rid the group, they came for my Facebook timeline. 

On why the group was shut off Facebook, ethnic discord, suspected unhealthy rivalry from competitors and allegations bothering on the group having outlived its relevance have been cited.

Citing tribalism, some sympathisers to defaced Calabar Rant Hq have opined that ethnic intolerance may have inspired the naysayers who brought down the platform. The logic is that why will Enoidem who is indigenous to Akwa Ibom be the one to create Calabar Rant Hq? To these lot, the right to found, own and/or manage such a social platform with the tag Calabar is being indigenous to Efik, Efut or Qua in Calabar. Albert James observed that ‘The truth is that Zeal is scared of saying it. He has been threatened many times to bring down the group that his is not a crossriverian am aware of that.’

Concerning unhealthy rivalry, the allegation is that creators and managers of other similar virtual rant groups who could not beat the influence of Calabar Rant Hq, polling over 19,000 fans, ensured that the account was hacked out of social media. The justification is that immediately the group was shutdown, the next day another similar group was created and promoted. 

Finally, some have said trivial issues dominated discussions on the group. For instance, one Emilia Eyo-Efa has this to say ‘They turned it into an all day continuous sexual routine page. Nothing important except all kinds of sexual connoted jokes. Many level headed people just left the page. It became nonsensical to say the least.’ Hope Ene corroborated Eyo-Efa thus: ‘They never approve meaningful post. Post about business for where, of it’s not gullible or vulgar forget about it.  Any platform that does not add value life is a complete waste’. On her part, Foodpreneur Firewoodgirl said ‘Truth. The essence of that group was defeated. First, to raise small hospital bill for a member, words were hurled at the poor girl. Next thing out of the funds so raised, she was given N27000. That group is best buried… I do not know how much that was raised but I know before I left that platform I saw a lot of persons asking for account number. I remember even Zeal Enoidem told me a different amount from what was given to the girl.’ 

But the Founder and co-owner of the social group, Enoidem, explained that concerning the said N27,000 referred to by Foodpreneur Firewoodgirl, that was the exact amount raised. He further disclosed that he even made available Calabar Rant Hq statement of account on the particular charity donation.

Calabar Rant Hq has a new version in Calabar Rant Hq Reloaded, the latter already boasting of 2,800 members and a 110 comments daily. The latter still retains the motto of the former —’…Calabar to the World’.