Randomly scrolling through twitter on March 2, comments were littered all over the timeline on how patient and articulate a certain Claire was. Now here’s the thing with Twitter trends or conversations – you would always feel completely lost if you didn’t follow through the conversation from the beginning leading up to making it popular on the Twitter streets; well on some days you’re lucky enough to catch up on it by going through random tweets on the matter or you may just be pushed deeper into confusion on what the main subject is. For this particular conversation, the name Claire would definitely make you think first of the influencer couple ‘Akah and Claire’ who are mostly known from their YouTube channel and maybe Akah from TV, having starred in some Nollywood movie and some cringe Nivea ad.
The first thing anyone would probably do – which I did, was to check out the YouTube channel if a new video had just been uploaded but apparently not. Next was to check their Instagram which happened to be where the tea was – a 15-minute-long raw conversation between the couple on the struggles of getting adequate breastmilk for their new born child which there weren’t seeing eye to eye on. It stirred up various conversations on the matter and obviously, people had different points of view. Now there are a lot of take-home messages from their conversation but first, let’s look at some takes from Twitter which got us here in the first place.
Those who believe that Claire should be head of the United Nations Security Council for conflict resolution;
Those who believe Akah was largely just trying to save face in front of the camera;
Those who didn’t miss the opportunity to educate men on the need to be actively involved in preparatory activities for their new-borns;
And the majority who couldn’t ignore how articulate Claire was in communicating her grievances throughout the conversation.
For context, Claire had been having trouble with producing adequate breastmilk to feed the child and also equally pump to be stored for future purposes thereby reducing how much formula the baby had to take. In Akah’s opinion, she wasn’t making enough effort to pump as much milk their daughter needed and was bent on them coming up with a strategy to solve this issue. What Claire felt and heard was that she wasn’t doing enough for their child, which is totally understandable because what else would any nursing mother going through the physical, emotional and mental struggles of nursing a new child hear from such a statement? She became defensive as expected which made her tell Akah that as a solution going forward, he would have to pump for the baby as well.
For anyone who watches the video, you would notice that there were so many points in the conversation that Claire would have erupted but she always managed to navigate her way through it with so much eloquence. At the end of the day effective communication will always be a tough nut to crack but being willing to try is always the better step.
Watch the video here: bit.ly/akahandclaire
By
Chika Nnawuogo