THE ALTERNATIVEÂ
 By Reno Omokri
Believe it or not, before 1987, Nigeria had a higher per capita income than China and India, but today, those same nations have left us behind.
How did they do it? You see, those nations realized something: if you cannot beat them, join them.
They realized that they could not beat the West in the field of science and technology and so they decided to join them by imitating them.
Their imitation game had them sending their citizens to study in the best schools in Europe and America and the vast majority returned home to transfer the knowledge they acquired.
This technological transfer led them to reverse-engineer products from the West and before long, there was either a Chinese or Indian imitation copy of anything in the West.
They copied cars, phones, planes, batteries, clothes and even music. And they perfected the art of copying that Western manufacturers now prefer to design their products in the West and make them in either China or India or the Southeast Asian tiger nations.
China and India have made such a huge success of technology transfer that their economies are now growing faster than any nation in the West and China in particular adds an economy the size of Greece to its Gross Domestic Product every three months.
Whereas they were at par with Nigeria per capita income-wise in the ‘80s, China’s per capita income is now over three times that of Nigeria’s.
However, rather than copying the West and Asia in science and technology, Nigerians prefer to copy and overtake the West in public indecency like #BBNaija where we celebrate youths publicly having intercourse in a toilet.
When I was a child, only animals had intercourse in the open for all to see. Now I am an adult, Nigerians call people who publicly have intercourse in a toilet, stars! If they are stars, it must be very dark over Nigeria! We have a culture. Not everything from the West is good!
Because of a chance to win a N45 million prize, our youths dehumanize themselves. What shall it profit a person to win N45 million and lose their soul? What can we give in exchange for our soul? It is barbaric. It is un-African. Animals not humans should behave that way!
And it is not as if the Buhari administration is unconcerned about immorality. President Buhari cares about immorality. Do not forget that his government cancelled a film village project in Kano because they considered it indecent. The only reason they allow the highly indecent #BBNaija to continue to air, in my opinion, is because it prevents Southern youths from registering with INEC and picking up their PVCs and Buhari has all but lost the little appeal he had in the South due to his inept and nepotistic handling of Nigeria’s affairs.
The thing is that instead of the Buhari government to monitor and clamp down on the public indecency that is going on in #BBNaija, they are monitoring social media to intimidate those speaking out against their misrule. Immorality should not be passed off as entertainment in a decent society!
Nigeria has lost her innocence and #BBNaija is proof positive of the collapse of the moral fabric of our society.
Our millennials must realize that they have much more to offer to the world than sex.
As I write this, I am in Nairobi, Kenya. I have just come from Mombasa, also in Kenya. Before then I was in Dar es Salaam and before then I was in Zanzibar. I love to travel.
One thing I noticed in each of these places is their love for the Nigerian culture.
In the hotels I stayed at in Mombasa, Nairobi, Dar (as the locals call Dar es Salaam) and Zanzibar, they played Nigerian music. I entered taxis in all these places and the taxi men play Nigerian music. At Mombasa airport, travellers are regaled with Naija music. Our millennials underestimate themselves when they behave like the BBNaija housemates who want to turn Nigeria into Sodom and Gomorrah. We have the ability to conquer Africa and the world with our culture, not with our bodies!
In Kenya and Tanzania (not so much in Zanzibar) Nollywood is more popular than Hollywood and I am not exaggerating.
Kenyans in particular know so many Nigerian words. As soon as I identify myself as a Nigerian, they start calling me ‘oga’. Even the soldiers securing Jomo Kenyatta International Airport called me oga.
I heard with my two ears a Kenyan shout ‘chineke’. I asked him what it meant and he did not know. As far as he is concerned, when he is shocked he shouts chineke!
Such is the power of Nollywood.
So when we have these means of positively projecting Nigeria, why will our millennials prefer to entertain a nation with dirty pornography in a toilet of all places!
I am ashamed of the housemates of BBNaija. They are not good ambassadors of the Nigerian youth. May we never have a generation who behave like them. What is it Igbo people say when they are disgusted? Tufiakwa!
What is entertaining about a BBNaija housemate boasting that she started having abortions at 16? No shame, no embarrassment, no decorum. Is that who our girls should look up to? Abortion at 16? What is the value in that? By the way, doesn’t Section 229 of the Criminal Code criminalize abortion? That girl should be answering questions when she returns home.
I mean, did the organizers deliberately search for the most morally bankrupt youths to spotlight? Is depravity now a virtue? If it is a virtue in the part of the world where the originators of BBNaija come from, we have a duty to ensure that it does not become a virtue in Nigeria.
And the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission does nothing as this show of shame continues to corrupt the minds of our youths!
If we don’t stop this perversion now showing on our screens and masquerading as entertainment, a time will come when our children go to parties to have intercourse in toilets and other unseemly places and then gleefully post such on social media in a bid to become instant celebrities.
Let me end by saying that the housemates of BBNaija are no stars. They are darkness. They are a blight on the nation, foaming in the mouth their indecency and Nigeria must not celebrate them at all. Not at all. Not at all.
Reno’s Nuggets
You may be broke, but that does not mean you are poor. Being broke is a physical phase. Phases never last. Being poor is a state of mind. State of minds lasts. Money will fix being broke, but it can’t fix being poor. A poor man will spend money instead of investing it. The only way to become rich in life is to develop your mind. Because the more you learn, the more you earn. Stop spending hours watching TV. Grab a book and grow your mind. The real meaning of GROWTH is:
Get Rid of Worthless Television Habits #RenosNuggets.
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