By Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi
I just saw a five-year-old girl dancing at her birthday party on a thick carpet of dollars and Naira
Please stop!
That was after seeing the little boy of no more than four,
wearing a ‘Billion Dollar Gang’ neck chain, swigging from what looked like a
bottle of beer while his mother twerked and did her own thingPlease stop!
All those competing to spray with bundles of money at ever
increasing meaningless parties, we get the message that ‘spraying note by note’
is now for people not as rich as you arePlease stop!
All the half-clad slay queen bridal trains in increasingly expensive
Aso Ebi, desperately trying to outdo the bride in the hopes of
being the next one, in performances that look more like a music video than an
actual wedding ceremonyPlease stop!
All those who God has blessed with a nice new house and have
to go online to give people a ‘Pepperdem’ virtual tourPlease Stop!
Congratulations on the brand-new luxury car, we are happy
for you. Yes, it is bigger than that of your frenemyPlease Stop!
It is nice to fly to London, Los Angeles, Dubai, Turkey and
China, please spare us the non-stop photographs. We know you are having a great
time, travel safePlease Stop!
Well done on your latest
wristwatch, the one in town diamond encrusted Rolex and the heavy pendant with
your initialsPlease Stop!
All the local movies showing everlasting visits to creepy,
wretched fellows living in shantiesThe same fellows who give you the recipe for riches which
always involves the blood of the innocentPlease Stop!
The wretched fellows in the movies no longer exist in the
unimaginative imaginations of the movie script writers. They are real and are
dispensing horrifying instructions to truly demented young fellows who are now
on the prowl for the blood of every woman in their lives, even their own
mothersPlease Stop!
The songs, the dances, the displays of excess money, the
beautification of all the boys and girls in the hood who make drugs, booze,
random sex and illicit money sound coolPlease Stop!
All the online bullying, cursing, swearing and body shaming,
even from those who should know betterPlease Stop!
To the best of our
knowledge, sex has never required an audience (except for the royal families of
medieval Europe, to ensure the consummation of marriages) but now it seems to
be the norm. Turn off the video, we don’t need to see.Please Stop!
Life is interesting. So many things to see. So many places
to go. So many people to meet. Do we need to photograph and record EVERY single
thing, right down to when we fart?Please Stop!
Tuck it away and cover up! Yuck!
Please Stop!
Let children be children. Stop putting the images of minors
in public spaces, stop recording them eating, dancing, sleeping and just being
kids, stop sharing their private moments with total strangersPlease Stop!
All the parents recording videos of their little girls in
full make-up and hair, dancing like fiends, bumping, grinding and twisting,
innocent six-year-olds acting like 26-year-oldsPlease Stop!
And here we are, all shocked that a 17-year-old knows where
to go for money rituals, and has the nerve to slaughter a girl like a chicken.
Really? We are shocked?Please Stop!
We normalize excess, crassness, insensitivity, stupidity,
brazenness, and have created a cycle of generational foolishness. And we have
the audacity to be shocked?*Please Stop!*
Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi is
a Gender Specialist, Social Entrepreneur and Writer. She is the Founder of
Abovewhispers.com, an online community for women. She is the First Lady of
Ekiti State, and she can be reached at BAF@abovewhispers.com
