By Koffi:
Often times I have had to ask myself how we
got to this point. A suicidal society filled with
bitterness and hate and jungle justice. Failed
judicial system and total annihilation of the law
and its orders.
I am no longer perturbed by the nonchalance of
our selected leaders. I am just a bit more
worried for the future of my kids. As much as
the Bible encourages me not to worry about
tomorrow for it will take care of itself, I worry
more because I see what has become of a
society that followed that principle and now live
in anarchy.
I watch the American way of life filter into our
system; its habits, merits and demerits. It
doesn’t look visible yet, but the future is dead
if not quickly arrested. The seemingly ‘I don’t
give a fuck about you’ attitude of the average
black loud mouth ghetto American has
influenced pop culture so much so that it has
become adopted by a lot of young people
across the globe as the norm as against the
more civil candour and calm of a cultured
Briton.
Our values and culture of respect and obeisance
is being repressed by the sudden free air of the
new age. It feels good to be young and hip,
hence, the reason for some older folks to still
run banter and attitude like a young rapper just
starting out.
The freedom of expression that most of these
guys enshrine comes from a certain confidence
from revolting. When revolution can no longer
be expressed with swords and bullets, an inner
fume of anger spills out through other
mediums. It has been established that some
entertainers take weed to go to that spiritual
place, inside, for inspiration. What no one is
telling the youth is that the lack of affection
and true love is the reason most people turn to
drugs for consolation and companionship.
The American way of life does not exactly
imitate our communal system of living. All man
for himself. Am I my neighbour’s keeper? Back
in the day, a family brought a child to the world
but the whole community trained that child.
Any elder or older person chastised,
admonished, exhorted and loved that child like
it was their own. No kid was neglected to the
point of having to search for happiness in
plants or other sources.
Nowadays, you can’t just punish anyone’s kid
anyhow even if they slapped you first, and a
schoolteacher might even lose his or her job for
flogging a child. We fail to realise that a child
that is not caged with a few strokes grows wild
and ends up in a prison cage; that is if they
don’t even kill you first.
This generation has adopted that American ‘free
me’ spirit. You can tell from their carefree
manner of public expressions in reality and
virtual space. The utmost disregard and
disrespect for older institutions. The older
generation have no choice but to start replying
on twitter so they don’t appear deaf and dumb.
Most of them have no real friends in the real
world; hence they throw their pain into the web
for advice from total strangers.
Love as we used to know it is dying. To make
matters worse, entertainment values are
deriding and further tearing empathy. For the
need to entertain the Internet, people no longer
run to save a life in crisis but rather bring out
their phones and film, then narrate how they
witnessed the doom then thank God it didn’t
happen to them. A few heroes who risk it get
laughed at for being foolish.
Everything is a joke to this ‘www. generation’.
The few thoughtful ones are scared to air their
honest opinions and would rather follow the
negative thread of comments on a post so they
don’t look odd.
We all need someone to talk to, to allay our
fears and insecurities, but when everyone is on
the grind 24/7, and there’s no one, the few
available responders online care-less. Who do
we turn to if not drugs? Drugs don’t judge or
talk back. They just take you to a place of
solace. Respite from the stress and hardship of
daily struggle to survive.
As I heard about a fully employed banker who
during his lunch break was caught in the midst
of ‘area boys’ under a bridge smoking weed
during a raid.
Drugs know no barriers, race, culture, hierarchy
or position in life as you can tell from the
expression and behavior of some high level
ranking officials in government. Unfortunately,
entertainers are gradually introducing the
bedevil solution to this love dead life through
their songs and dramatic expressions.
They no longer see weed as effective enough,
skuchis, and a whole variety of the hard
elements are being pronounced proudly to a
gyrating audience. I watched the drug drama
series ‘Narcos’ and got hold of the information
of how the drug infestation snuck up on the
American people gradually and destroyed mostly
the black communities.
We watch junkies in their films and laugh,
failing to realise the kid next door being
neglected is our future menace sniffing and
poking needles right now because no one is
showing him real love. Cocaine is already
common in the North, hydro, ecstasy and the
likes are gradually finding their way into the
crooked corners and veins of our next
generation.
NDLEA is still pursuing ‘Igbo’ smokers and fake
‘paracetamol’ peddlers. The high rate of codeine
through unprescribed cough syrup is no longer
new. Sniffing evostic gum or ‘suckaway’ fumes
to get high or mixing pawpaw leaves and
certain elements have become fashionable.
A lot of people laughed at Majek Fashek after
his rehabilitation instead of making him an
ambassador of drug awareness and take him
round the nation to awaken the youths on the
dangers ahead. Our looted funds are already
manifesting dangerously in the lives of some of
the kids of the thieves, but others don’t need
to travel abroad to get blown.
Everything is coming home to them at a
relatively cheap rate and the only thing that can
keep them away from this is slipping away.
“Love your neighbour as your self” was the
given instruction. Perhaps we all missed
Sunday School that day or that portion of our
Bible has been revised and adapted to a
standardised modern drug accommodating
version.
After all, if we can accommodate everything
bisexual and heterosexual, failing to realise that
most of those insecurities came from a lack of
true love and acceptance or initial abuse, what
is a little drug overdose going to cause? The
death of love is the birth of drug addiction.
Love someone truly, regardless of how less you
see them.
koffi‘Tha Guru’ is Nigeria’s most versatile
entertainer, comedian, actor, singer and author
of the book ‘Beauty of The Beast: The Scars
that made me a Star. #ComicTruthbyKoffi is not
a personal attack on anyone or institution, he
only writes about those/things he loves and is
passionate about. You can catch some more
honest opinions on his #KoffiweeklyDigest on
www. youtube.com/funnykoffitv
He recently released a new music video “Before
Before” featuring Bovi and Sound Sultan (Off
his forth coming 13th music album
#Colourborations
www.koffioutofcontrol.com
koffi.latenightgist.com
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