If you use your keyboard and ring light as weapons to terrorise people
If you steal someone’s peace
If you launch unprovoked attacks
If you manufacture stories from nowhere
If you are in the business of smoke without fire
If you raid the integrity of an innocent person
If you bear false witness
If you destroy lives and reputations
If you hold the truth to ransom
If you wage war on people, simply for attention or payment
If it makes you feel good to mock someone’s pain
All because they went online to share their story
You are a digital bandit
You are a cyber-bully
You are an online terrorist

Must you say something?
If you can’t offer a word of understanding or sympathy
Why can’t you simply scroll on?
Yes, we were all there when Baba married the Beauty
We probably all had the same concerns
Yet, it was none of our business
Then things fell apart
The Beauty cried out
Not to the police, but to online in-laws
Baba had plenty of stories to tell too
There was a cacophony of noise
from nosy, abusive digital bandits on both sides

The banditry around this tale was still raging
When BOOM! There was another explosion
It was a long, messy story
It involved a woman scorned, money, polycules,
unpaid debts, corporate wars and cats
Now, there is loud silence over the scandal
Perhaps a lesson has been learnt
that nothing good comes from being a digital bandit

There is this young man
If there is someone who deserves to rot in jail for digital banditry
It would be this person
If any man posts about his forthcoming nuptials
This bandit will go to the comment section
He will claim to have ‘collaborated’ with the bride to be
and advise the intending groom to disengage
It will turn out that his claims are false and the said women have no idea who he is
He has done this to a few women
Till recently, he messed with the wrong people
He mocked a young couple based outside the country
They have been married for a while and they have no child yet
This is no one’s business
Yet, the bandit took it upon himself
To taunt the couple every time they posted something
Till the husband got fed up and travelled to Nigeria to handle the situation
Now, the bandit is behind bars
It is hoped they keep him there for a while
Scapegoats are hard to come by
So it is a good thing when we get our hands on one

Then, there is the sad Auntie
who crashed out after she was jilted by her Pastor beau
We need qualified Psychologists, Psychiatrists
Psychotherapists and Counsellors, to start advertising their services like Coca-Cola
Too many burnt-out, depressed and deeply unhappy souls
Are endangering themselves and others
Not only do they become digital bandits
Their actions fuel the inner bandit in others
The results are disastrous
My heart goes out to the Auntie
She should stay off-line and heal
She should not continue to be entertainment for the bandits
God Almighty knows who is truly his
Everyone will get their just reward or punishment

Digital bandits can be any and everyone
Shameless, anonymous trolls who hide their identities but their evil is in plain sight
The older bandits who are supposed to know better
and keep on dancing naked in the village square
The young bandits who have time and grievances aplenty
The misogynist bandits who are always ranting about ‘Feminists’
anytime there is a discussion about women’s rights, discrimination and dignity
The ‘Bandistas’ who sadly, do not see anything wrong
in adding their voices to the shaming and public lynching of other women

There is a new normal we are grappling with
People are lonely, frustrated, confused and disillusioned
They don’t trust family, friends, colleagues, counsellors and other relevant people
They prefer the strangers’ court of opinion
To them, privacy means silencing and chains
So, they overshare over and over
We listen
We are shocked
We are alarmed
We reprimand silently
We are entertained
We give advice
We analyse, within the limits of the one-sided information available
Sometimes, there is an opportunity to hear the other side
The moment we begin to judge, shame, abuse, accuse, curse, expose
That is when we become bandits
There is freedom of expression
There is also common sense, empathy, compassion and wisdom
We should all know this and know peace
Let our fingers, mouths and brains become best friends
Digital bandits are a menace to society
Try not to become one.

Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi is a Gender Specialist, Leadership Coach, Policy Advocate and Writer. She is the Founder of Abovewhispers.com, an online community for women. She can be reached at BAF@abovewhispers.com