My issues with Davido's music video 'Dami Duro'

                           “Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.”  Saint Augustine


To start with, I know that this is just a music video and it is one of hundreds of videos with similar themes. However, my issue with it is very relevant to the present day attitudes of a lot of us young people and it is the most recent video that I have seen since starting my blog. This is why I’m choosing to write about it. 

Can someone please tell me what the first 30 seconds of the video was all about???!

Scene:

Poor waiter who unfortunately had to wait on a group of arrogant and self-obsessed boys made the ‘mistake’ of asking if they were going to pay for their drinks. The response he got was the intentional spilling of ‘expensive’ bottles of wine before having huge wads of cash slammed on his tray. 

The message?  

I am rich and I can do whatever I please no matter how egocentric I look. 

My Issue:  

I have a problem with the sheer arrogance portrayed in this video. I believe this is one of the roots of the major problems facing this generation. It is partly responsible for the current spate of scams, stylish or outright prostitutions and even armed robberies. A lot of young people involved in horrible things like yahoo, aristo (sleeping with older men for material gains) etc. mainly do it for this 'Big boy/Big girl' effect.  Yes there are other factors such as parental upbringing, environmental influences etc. that contribute to these but having the despicable behaviour glorified in music videos does not help matters.

Can we learn to care?

 

                           "Evil is always unspectacular and always human. And shares our bed...and eats at our table." W.H Auden

Hi guys, this is a sombre one. I’m in my room and the only true connection that I have to happenings in Nigeria is the internet. I have seen some horrible and distressing pictures of protesters that were murdered in broad daylight by the police (people employed and paid to protect the citizens of the country). Then I also saw the picture of a burnt individual said to be a Hausa man in Benin. He had tyres around his neck. So at the same time that protests against the oil subsidy are on-going, people fear that reprisal attacks for Boko Haram’s actions in the north are on-going.

Now what boggles my mind is how did we get to this point? A point where human life literally means nothing. Nigeria is one of the most religious countries in the world. Almost every street in the country has either a church or a mosque or both. In churches, we shout the loudest and sing the loudest but where are the results of these? What do we have to show for it? The different religions in the country all claim to preach and practise peace as well. As a Christian, the bible that I read really does preach peace. We are told to ‘love our neighbours’ and even expected to ‘bless our enemies’. So are majority of the population phony? Do we merely use religion as a cover and not believe what we preach and scream about? 

Is a united Nigeria feasible?

 

Hi guys, one of the things that has always puzzled me is that whenever I’m in England, I feel very Nigerian and then as soon as I land in Nigeria, voila! I instantly become Yoruba. I know that as humans, it is like our psyche immediately tries to align to a specific group whenever we find ourselves in different places so we do not feel left out. This issue of individual alignment brings ethnicity and racism to my mind. I have friends that are Nigerian (Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa), English, Italian e.t.c.  However, since I’m Nigerian, I can only talk about things that I have personally experienced or seen happen to people around me. I would try to be as rounded as I can, but if I have missed out anything, please add it in the comments section!

Nigeria's Clutch System

"Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear" Albert Camus

I am a Christian and I would like to think of myself as a committed and born-again Christian. However, there are times that I think as a nation, we hide behind religion be it Christianity or Islam. 

As a Nigerian child, one of the most important values I was thought was to obey and honour my parents and older people. Well even if I didn’t want to, they had the keys to my survival – food, clothes, housing, pocket money, school fees e.t.c. Most university graduates still depend on their parents not to talk of a child like me. I count myself as one of the few blessed ones as my parents have always been quite liberal and do actively encourage me to voice out my opinions and feelings. However, not all parents are like this and children end up finding it difficult to build opinions about issues and even when they manage to do so, they get repressed because they have little or no way of expressing them out of the fear of having people upset with them and losing benefits such as pocket money.  The effects of this repression play out in our adult lives. 

#OccupyNigeria Protest in London

Reading all about the protesters in Nigeria being maltreated and the two confirmed deaths so far is inspirational enough to make me want to go and join the protesters in London today..if only I'm not so frustrated with Nigeria and literally truly think of it as near hopeless. 

So far, on media sites, everyone (Christians and Muslims alike) is praying prayers that are based on parts of the bible that talk about how Isaac flourished in the midst of a famine - I interpret this as each of us praying to God to help us excel even with the struggles and I do not think that anyone really believes that the famine, which in this case is Nigeria's struggles, would ever go away.

I have faith in the strength of the Nigerian people to weather the storms and come out stronger but I have little or no faith in Nigeria 'The Country'...the corruption, the disregard for humanity, the resignation of people to situations they see as beyond their control etc is just so so deep :( 

Where do we start rebuilding? It is very easy to write the things that can be done on paper, but is there anyone out there that completely believes that these can be achieved? Are there committed people out there?

What do you think?

Welcome

Hi guys, it's Payme here. I'm really excited about starting my own blog and hope y'all can support me. As a lot of you know, I am quite opinionated x_x lool. This is my way of sharing my opinion with you and I'm looking forward to reading from you as well. I am very aware that there are different ways of analyzing every issue be it economical, social or political and I am just going to be writing about which side I lean towards more while also considering every available sides to the issues.  I would like it to be a fun and civil blog with nobody being rude to each other please. Enjoy!