Children of Anger: How to Wage War on Nigeria by Other Means
Let us discuss a war that has been declared upon Nigeria long before the Nigér crisis brought ‘Nigeria’ and ‘war’ into the same sentence. But before we plunge into it, I first need to warn you. This discussion will involve your brothers and sisters. It will involve your heroes and celebrities. This discussion will be the story of your friends; people you can’t hear discussed without coming to defend.
I will make the discussion easily absorbable, I will break it down for you into small digestible bits. I will be meticulous in every step, exhausting every constituting detail before moving to the next. This discussion will start with the Children of Anger, and it will end with no one but them. But I can hear you already asking, “Children of Anger? Who are they?”
THE ORIGIN OF THE TERM
Around the year 2019, I was a very frequent visitor on Nairaland.com, Nigeria’s premier digital town square. I have long known the site to be full of superheated anger and bile, but it was particularly onerous at that time. In a way, however, this was unsurprising, because at the time, the raison d’être and the main target of the endless toxicity on the online platform was a Nigerian president whose personal and political mien was also getting unpopular among the Nigerian populace offline.
Thus, on the site in that year, the camp of commenters on most political topics became divided into two: those for and those against the president. Into the mix of toxic tribalism and ethnocentrism ever-present on the site, the president’s minuscule fans and legion of haters pour unimaginable venom on each other and the object of their rivalry.
In doing this though, nothing was really new among all the chaos except for the novel names the warring parties invented to describe each other. Many were forgettable, but one in particular stood out, coming from the camp defending the president. With increasing frequency, they started referring to their traducers (and traducers of the president) as ‘children of anger’, or ‘children of hate’, or ‘children of anger, hate and perdition.’ [1]
The term may have predated my frequent visits to Nairaland in 2019; but in that year, the name found justifiable bearers. For any neutral, objective observer on the site, two things are obvious about the camp that abhors the president: First, they are bitterly angry, and secondly, judging from their monikers, use of language, biases, and cultural projections on the site, they are majorly of the southeastern stock of Nigeria (but also with a sizeable Yoruba representation).
Moreover, there was a disconcerting demographic homogeneity detectable in their comments that revealed they are mostly youths; ‘children’ : Some insinuated they were voting for the first or second time in their lives; majority lack a troubling insight when comparing notes on political and historical events that happened between the early ’80s and now.
But most importantly, they are all terrifically angry.
So, their antagonists did not christen them “children of anger, hate, and perdition” out of malice. Their defining feature on the site is their preparedness to unleash torrents of curses on the president and everybody who professes to like him or supports his administration. No doubt, such sentiments can also be found on the streets, but it was not that brazenly displayed. Its concentration on a single website naturally left a poisonous cesspool of hate and anger whose maintainers can’t go scot-free without getting a name.
And yes, they did get a name. But those youths of 2019 poisoning the online space with livid bile didn’t suddenly wake up to political consciousness or get internet access that year, they must have been growing up and simmering among us for decades. Something must have nurtured them to their state in 2019, awoken them to a wrathful awareness expressed by their unparalleled rudeness, their undiluted anger, and unassailable hatred against anyone that disagrees with them.
THE ORIGIN OF THE YOUTHS
Never in the history of Nigeria has a generation of youths got most of its mentorship from musicians, comedians, dancers, perverts, skit makers and strangers on social media like those born between 1985 and 2008. I need to emphasize this because as someone that grew up among them, I have a clear-eyed view of the severe absence of many positive stabilizing influences in their lives.
Their elders are mostly irresponsible sachet-gin drunks who are corrupt at work and irresponsible at home, who wait for opportunity to steal from the government or fellow citizens at every turn.
Their parents are often not together, and even if they are together, they constitute part of the elders just described who have no virtuous guidance to give to kids.
They have been bred to distrust or be indifferent to religion since most of their religious leaders are bereft of principle, virtue, and righteousness themselves.
They grew up watching western (and increasingly local) music videos and films, where they are subconsciously trained that obscene language, fornication, and nudity is civilization.
They are conditioned to turn their mouth at positive aspects of our own culture that values respect, politeness, authority, and concern for our fellow man because Twitter made short, pithy, anonymous insults fashionable for them. They call it “dragging”.
They are not given to contemplation, calm, and sound thinking because content from our degenerate musicians, comedians, dancers, perverts, skit makers, and social media influencers are constantly on autoplay in their mind.
They pass through school without school passing through them because this society taught them certificates are all that matters — just get it by any means.
They are bred on moral decay, educational decay, cultural decay, and civic decay.
Give these kinds of youths an internet access and one or two faceless forums, and what you get is a loudmouthed, mannerless horde.
The Children of Anger have arrived.
REASONS FOR THEIR CONTEMPORARY BEHAVIOR
In truth, these kids are not entirely at fault. The failings of the government and the people of Nigeria actually gave them a fibre to chew.
If available statistics are to be believed, approximately 40–60% of the nation’s population have been people aged between 14 and 35 in the last 10 years. In January 2023, INEC claimed that the country’s young adults (defined as people between 18 and 35) make up 63 percent of its eligible voting population.
Under any condition, youths are naturally restless. But as we have seen recently, when the BULK of a nation’s youth population suddenly develop a political consciousness triggered by a sense of neglect and betrayal by those they held in trust, it creates a restless political situation akin to the bulk of the nation being at war against the rest.
By 2019, while we pretended nothing was happening, these angry children [2] were preparing for their own special war against the Nigerian state. They have coalesced around Segun “Segalink” Awosanya, a human rights activist who was leading a campaign on Twitter to pressure the government to ban the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) arm of the Nigeria Police Force. The SARS was a police unit notorious for employing flimsy reasons to arrest, extort, and even kill youths in the southern part of the country.
On Twitter, a youth-dominated platform, the Children of Anger found the perfect opportunity to react as a group. Twitter suddenly became the new Nairaland where debates about the underperformance of the Nigerian government resumed. Of course, the bile and anger of Nairaland was transferred here too. But mixed with that was a strident advocacy for SARS to be banned — a course specially taken up by these youths who saw the SARS shenanigans as a government-backed threat to their generation.
The EndSARS online movement, already simmering for many years prior to 2019, gained momentum from that time onward faster than anyone predicted.
Before we can say jack, in October 2020, the Children of Anger — erstwhile only known on the internet — trooped out on the streets. The unresponsive government has played into their hands. For two months or so, Nigeria knew no peace.
The EndSARS protest was born.
THEIR UNMASKING
It was during the EndSARS protests that we first saw the keyboard warriors in living flesh.
They were a sight to behold. We then realize that, all along, they have been our brothers and sisters, our friends across the street, enemies across social classes; they were our young celebrities and rising professionals, our barely educated thugs extorting at road junctions! All youths. For a moment, they set their differences aside, ironically to unleash their different version of angst against Nigeria.
Prominently, the ostensibly well-to-do and educated among them gathered at Lagos’ Lekki toll gate, singing patriotic songs and waving flags. Everywhere else, the poor and unschooled among them started looting and vandalizing public and private property.
Uh … We all know the rest of that history.
THEY MEET TO DISPERSE
If ‘Children of Anger -ism’ is a religion, Lekki toll-gate was their first temple [3]. It was at Lekki toll-gate that the disparate kids first met, formed a common front, and projected an ‘ideology’. Although, in the end, they achieved very little except to make more enemies for themselves — Lives lay dead and properties lay damaged.
Largely leaderless and relying on nebulous support from extraterritorial sponsors, they brought little to the table beyond slogans and uncoordinated incipient demands. A fact not lost on the government, which correctly judged them to be lacking in the wisdom necessary to take them on as equal partners in any possible pact.
Nevertheless, they managed to form a transient alliance and gave another meaning to what Lekki toll gate stands forever for — a monument to their cause. The aftertaste of their activity there is still being felt till now.
THEIR SUBCULTURE
For those who know where to look, a dawn of recognition followed those protests. The last covers of anonymity shielding the Children of Anger were stripped away. Prior to those protests, all we knew of them was their activities online. If they share any affinities, values, and behavior offline, nobody can say for sure. But after the protests, we can all point out a Child of Anger from a crowd.
Today, I believe that the “Children of Anger” constitute a fully-fledged subculture due to the presence of all the typical characteristics associated with one. I am quite sure of this because, similar to their online personas, it has become increasingly accessible to examine their offline lives as well, especially in the aftermath of their unmasking at the #EndSARS protests, which revealed that they are individuals we have been familiar with all along. Before delving into a list of defining features of their subculture, let’s begin by defining what a subculture is.
To use a definition merged from Oxford English Dictionary and Study.com, a subculture is a cultural group within a larger culture that differentiates itself with beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture to which it belongs. In this context, Nigerian culture [4] is the larger culture. The total expression of language, dress, social habits, behavior, ideas, and values UNIQUE to the Children of Anger and AT VARIANCE with Nigerian culture is their subculture.
Let’s now explore the defining features of the Children of Anger subculture. The following traits represent common actions among most members and potential behaviors for others.
1. They share a condescension for authority.
Illustrations:
- In 2020, they protested for the government to ban SARS, the President did so, yet their protest groups refused to disperse.
- One of them was recently caught on camera violently slapping a police officer on duty.
2. They are intolerant of dissent.
Illustrations:
- They have a penchant for turning on whoever doesn’t support any position they hold, even if the person was initially a supporter. For example, They cancelled Segun “Segalink” Awosanya when he backed off from using the #EndSARS movement as a platform for insurrection.
- The emotional terror unleashed by the followers of a certain presidential candidate from the east on anybody that disagrees with them online in the run-up to, and after the February 25, 2023 presidential election is still fresh in the mind of many Nigerians. Respected thought and religious leaders are not left out of their attacks.
- A Twitter celebrity claimed followers of the same presidential candidate threatened to harm his child for his criticism of their presidential candidate.
3. They place rash sentiments above cold common sense and national interest in judging public issues.
4. They are perennial trolls and ceaseless critics on Twitter (now X).
Illustrations:
- One prominent Child of Anger is an ‘award-winning journalist’ who constructed his career around character assassinations and exaggerated critiques of individuals and the government.
- Two youthful ministerial nominees of the current president faced hurdles connected to past tweets they had made. One of them had utilized social media to step on sufficiently powerful toes in the past that she was eventually dropped from consideration.
5. They easily adopt fringe behaviors as normal behaviors.
Illustration:
- They are united by their ability to adopt behaviors that were once considered fringe as normal. It is their generation that has normalized the wearing of dreadlocks, men plaiting their hair, men wearing earrings and nose rings, wearing tattoos, excessive public displays of affection, and drug use, especially drunkenness and cannabis use.
6. They are unabashed fans of all immoral shows, especially BBNaija.
7. They love frivolity and are easily bored by seriousness.
Illustration:
They are the dancing Tik Tok and Instagram stars.
8. They lack socio-empathy and shame.
Illustration:
- They see nothing wrong in Ponzi schemes or any scheme established to fleece others.
9. They have a penchant for aligning with international interests against Nigeria.
Illustration:
- One of them worked with international ‘watchdogs’ to spread a claim on western media that soldiers killed protesters at the Lekki toll gate, then fled the country to the West rather than stay to defend her claim.
10. They are often commonly involved in fraud and online scams.
Illustration:
- They are the Yahoo boys, social media hackers, and bank account hackers
11. They tend to groupthink.
Illustration:
- They create an alternate reality for themselves and expect everybody to believe in their delusions. They believe a massacre happened at Lekki even where there is no incontrovertible proof of it. Some refuse to believe the president that was sworn in on May 29, 2023 is the legitimate president of Nigeria. Some believe a certain presidential candidate from the east is the solution to all Nigeria’s problems, and woe betide anyone who thinks otherwise.
12. They like to hide behind insurrectionist movements.
Illustration:
- From the #EndSARS movement to the IPOB movement and the Yoruba Nation movements, all of these movements are driven by young members.
THEIR AGENDA
Consciously or not, our misguided horde of kids have an agenda. One may be deceived into thinking that given their lack of tact, deliberation, maturity, and wisdom, they are a rabble rousing mob incapable of forming an agenda. But actually, they do have one. And my fear is that their agenda may have been designed for them by the enemies of Nigeria without them knowing.
First, one of their goals is to be the spokespeople for Nigeria, in Nigeria and on the global stage. And this is unacceptable. Unwise, they want to speak for the wise of Nigeria. Ignorant, they want to speak for knowledgeable Nigerians. Impulsive, they want to speak for the tactical Nigerians. Kids, they want to speak for the elders of Nigeria. Confrontational, they want to speak for the Diplomaticals in Nigeria. Frivolous, they want to speak for serious-minded Nigerians. And they want to do this by hiding behind freedom of speech and their monopoly of social media. These are unacceptable.
We Nigerians, with all our faults, do not have a penchant for sleepwalking into disaster. We can be indifferent enough to walk into any disaster with our eyes fully open, and we can be sufficiently self-preserving to back away, but we certainly don’t sleepwalk into disasters. Least of all, the disaster that is the Children of Anger. Their shenanigans before and after the EndSARS insurrection have woken many up. We can’t allow them to ever lead us by the nose.
Secondly, their agenda is to infect everyone else with their brand of patriotism — or the lack thereof.
Although, I doubt if any generation of Nigerians has waved more Nigerian flags than them, these kids have a shallow understanding of patriotism. To them, patriotism is heckling the government at every turn and drowning every administration in criticism (they say they have the best interest of Nigeria at heart) or attempting to foist an unpopular person on the prime seat at the Nigerian presidency (they say he is their choice candidate). Patriotism, however, isn’t correcting Nigeria by throwing ‘sense’ away. Patriotism isn’t forcing a candidate on the nation. I say patriotism is working and praying for the success of ANY government in power.
Their third agenda is to be a ready platform for those waging war on Nigeria by other means. Knowingly or unknowingly, they have established political platforms and movements to assist this. Their political platforms, hidden behind any name and free to transmute into each other — #EndSARS, Yoruba Nation, Obidients — all share this agenda. Their lack of patriotism, intolerance for dissent, and romance with insurrection made them an attractive bride to all those who do not want to see the country succeed by any means short of war.
HOW TO STOP THEM BEFORE THEY SNUFF US
The Children of Anger are the late fruits of a society that has long embarked on a self-destructive path. Indeed, they started on that path from where their parents stopped, and picked up the race!
It is imperative we stop them before they race forward to destruction and bring it back to us. It is time all tempered and reasonable Nigerians strategize on how to neutralize their threat and build a sensible, durable stratagem to replace theirs and take the nation forward.
They are a pliable tool in the hands of the enemies of Nigeria, within and without. They have swallowed countless self-destructive ideologies without giving it a thought. It is our duty to reform them, or if they are unreformable, to chart a course of national repentance from our own self-destructive past, so that His mercy might stop us from continuing to reap from the evil we have sown.
Here, I will do my part. I will suggest four or five moves we can make to get out of this. My suggestions won’t cure us of our children, but they may likely cure the anger in them. They are not meant to stifle them of their voices, but I hope they will help transform it from an evil hoarse of anger into a sonorous crooning of positivity.
Firstly, they can be remolded. By this, we can make the study of history and religion compulsory in all pre-tertiary schools. History instills a sense of calmness and deliberation in people, and it makes them feel anchored. It is hard for people familiar with history to feel lost and hopeless, a problem many of our angry kids are suffering from. History gives the present a bearing and lessens shocks. Religion does the same, and it even does it in a better way. It encourages patience and kind treatment, and respect for your fellow man.
Secondly, they can be placated. By this, the society and government should engage with them. They should admit some of their grievances are legitimate. They should teach them dealmaking, specifically how to make peaceful, fruitful deals with those in authority and with more experience than them. They are our children after all. They must be taught how to make compromises for their society and government, and the society and government must learn how to make compromises for them.
Thirdly, they can be disabled. Pardon the word. But the most virulent among them must be deplatformed and/or locked up. We must admit some of them are already a danger to society, bad examples for others. For those that fall into that category, their ‘meeting houses’, online or offline should be dispersed. An example should be made out of some of them for others to learn how not to behave.
Fourthly, we can have a rebirth, literally. Let us consciously start giving birth to new children that we will rear differently. Our society must admit that a lot of the so-called Millennial generation are damaged. We already identify many of the factors that transform these children into the alt-normal entities they have become. Let’s eliminate these influences and change our ways too.
The Beautyful ones will soon be born.
>> Gbolahan Yusuf Hammed | Buy my books: https://selar.co/m/gbolahanyussufhammed | Email: conquertheyussuf@gmail.com | Say thanks! <<
Notes:
[1] A Nairaland user with the moniker ‘MANNABBQGRILLS’ appears to be the most frequent user of these terms. He probably invented them too. I have not been able to trace the use of the term with any notable frequency exceeding that of ‘MANNABBQGRILLS’, or outside Nairaland.
[2] They are not angrier than the rest of Nigerians. But while older Nigerians are already adept at playing ‘the patient dog eats the fattest bone’ with their government, the kids naively think anger and violence can translate into durable results.
[3] After their unmasking during the EndSARS protests, they also became known as the ‘Soro Soke children’ or the ‘Soro Soke generation’.
[4] Some will argue that Nigeria has no true national culture, but can we all agree that it has several genuine sub-national cultures? For example, the Ijaw, Igbo and Yoruba cultures. As different as many of Nigeria’s sub-national cultures are, they are now united by another culture lower in the hierarchy — the Children of Anger subculture adopted by their youths.