THE BEATIFICATION OF AREA BOYS/THUGGERY
I often wonder how and when we got into this state of affairs in Nigeria and still cannot find answers neither can any immediate solution be proffered. Perhaps it is reminiscent of the Italian mafia of old where there were godfathers in almost every nook and cranny of the state, and you had to pay reverence to each one depending on the kind of service one required.
It seems and more likely so to be a perfect waste of time to bother attempting or even actually deciding to pursue a university education in Nigeria now most especially in the south western states of Nigeria because the motor park touts or war lords as we may choose to label them now run the show at every given and available opportunity. Politicians and the sweat of the everyday transporters have made them stupendously rich that they don’t even know what to do with money again. A few of them though have really invested in businesses and most especially their children with their kids attending schools abroad especially in the UK and US. They live in the best houses in the choicest areas of town, ride the best of cars with gun totting, blood shot eyes mobile police escorts and the best of ladies albeit the very beautiful local ones and sometimes the very well educated ones are at their beck and call. I am sure you have a fair idea of these ladies being referred to here. Some of them even place bets on going after the so called “big girls” and end up with total disregard for the institution called marriage.
There’s the story of a friend who once went on a journey outside Lagos recently and came face to face with one of them who calls the shot in his area and he kept staring at him expecting him to pay reverence (what is referred to as Twaile in local and street parlance) but my friend ignored him while he kept staring. When he related the incident to me, I found myself in a confused state telling him that was a wrong move on his part. Was it wrong to have ignored him?
These guys sit with the high and mighty in the society and at social functions while they have their praises being sang by musicians while they just sit and pretend to be gentle and of good behavior and instruct their lieutenants to dish out bales of cash to such musicians. Their presence as a matter of compulsion must be recognized otherwise there might be trouble for the MC not necessarily sanctioned by them but from their overzealous hordes of followers who go as advance party to events. Educated elites and even illiterates scramble to take selfies with them and later use it on their social media handles and I ask myself, for what purpose? Obviously for name dropping and influence peddling purposes. It is often said that we need their acquaintance as they are a veritable source of security when the need arises and for protection from external aggression.
Politicians especially are the major cause of this beatification that has gone on for long and has eaten deep into the fabric of our society. When these guys cause mayhem in town, police commissioners and governors invite them to roundtables to iron out solutions that will ensure lasting peace to make the authorities guarantee their hold on power.
Our society has a lot of work to do to place the youths of today on the right path of life where hardwork is the bedrock of their thinking and orientation. Government must set in place policies that will make them irrelevant and make their lifestyle unattractive to citizens.
This should be food for thought for us Nigerians and for those of us in the south western part of Nigeria in particular. Is thuggery more rewarding than education?
