By Assin Godstime  

This essay by Assin Godstime is based on his 2020 book with same title. It laments the prevailing decadence afflicting the Nigerian society and sundry issues:  

What a Generation of Mad People! Ours is a society engulfed with different kinds of temperamental and intellectual capacities, and different kinds of behavioural attitudes.

Although it is expected that everyone in such a society must not be well conducted, some must be mad and ludicrous, all in a bid to keep the society moving. The good and the bad as well as the hot, the warm and the cold make the society what it is.

However, a society saddled with the responsibility of affecting this generation positively has become flippant and toothless, like the dog that barks and doesn’t bite – unable to tackle (large scale) indiscipline. This is a society bestowed with several talents, but are being rendered ineffective. We are in a society where people behave like animals.

Even though Aristotle opined that ‘man is by nature a political animal’, this is not to be construed as human exhibiting animalistic tendencies, as some do. The assertion only symbolises that we are different from other animals. It’s true that not all human beings are truly humans; some are animals on the inside. However, a large-scale animalistic behaviour is a threat to a society.

This is a country where people deliberately choose to be reckless rather than to be responsible; a society where a recalcitrant or mediocre is given honour or the best position over an educated and well-behaved person; a society where the female folks prefer to expose their breasts, which is inclusive of married women; a society where the girls in fact expose their belly and the systematic movement of their waist, all in the name of attracting men to themselves.

They also indecently expose their inner wears. Ours has become a society where the male folks now prefer to wear their trousers below their waist. It is a socialised doctrine of want, however, derived from some European prisoners. We live in a society where people who fail interviews are employed, while those that pass are intentionally denied employment. What a generation of mad people—a society where the male folks now plait their hairs, which indeed is the domain of the female folks. This is absurd behaviour.

Ours is a society where cultism has taken the lives of many youths untimely; a society where some of the male folks now wear a set of earrings in the name of fashion, an action that has led them into earthly captivity; a society where some parents encourage their daughters to indulge in prostitution so as to bring home money.

Yah! You heard it right – it is a society where parents encourage their daughters to become high-profile strumpets! In fact, it is a society where prostitution has become a profession for most Nigerian girls. Unfortunately, it has caused some to contract diseases and die untimely. Many have also been used for rituals by their fraudster lovers who have pretentiously styled themselves as “Yahoo boys”.

We are in a society where even the teachers and lecturers that were supposed to nurture the students aright choose to ‘nurture’ them in their beds; a society where people who got wealthy through dubious means are overwhelmingly prayed for at the church alter by ‘pastorpreneurs’ who act on false declarations of being designated “MOG”.

What a generation of mad people! A society where armed robbers, kidnappers, cultists, ritualists, miscreants, demons in human looks, touts (agberos), and internet fraudsters, otherwise known as Yahoo boys, are being awarded “Chieftaincy Titles” by money-driven kings; a society full of educated mad people where those who claim to be educated fight in public; a society where those who supposed Honourable Members of the Legislative chambers are in practice, dishonourable fellows, due to their dubious characters. Ours is a society where leaders brazenly engage in criminal activities such as assassination, rigging, etc., just to get to power.

They engage in embezzlement, as well as deliberate killing and looting of the public funds for their personal aggrandizement. They even acquire exotic mansions in the UK, USA, France, Abuja, Dubai, and other parts of the world using our commonwealth; whereas there are many in the country that rarely have two-square meals to feed with. What a generation of mad people!

Ours is a society where people who are violent, insensitive, outright mediocre, and dubious are celebrated and worshipped as demi-gods. Ours is a society where murderers are exalted to high public offices instead of facing the wrath of the law; a society where political animals, the most notorious who steal from the public purse and convert that which belongs to the masses to their own, are given preferential treatment under the guise of “house arrest”; a society where old men who are supposed to have set good examples for the future mothers of the land to emulate, ironically, end up destroying the young girls by taking them to hotels just to have sexual intercourse with them and, unfortunately, sometimes too, get them pregnant for the parents to cater for. Interestingly, this includes girls under the age of thirteen.

What a barbaric world, a society where talents are not encouraged or appreciated; a society where people could intentionally eat their future through flirting, violence, and stealing ballot boxes at election polls. What a generation of mad people we are in! We are in a society that is against itself, where there are first- and second-class citizens, a society where those who made the law that governs people for peace and tranquillity fight publicly in their chambers with the aid of dangerous weapons. What a stupid society; a society where some graduates cannot differentiate between ‘rat’ and ‘rabbit’ despite their differences—half-baked graduates and societal nuisances This is a hocus-pocus society where the people who are public treasury suckers who label themselves “honourable”, “Justice of the Peace”, “His Excellency”, and so on fight publicly in their agbada and glittering suit wears; a society where fake pastors and false prophets claimed to have been called by God so as to exploit the public- their unsuspecting members; a society where one man wants to dictate the tune; a society where people who neither studied nor attended classes got the best results. What a generation of mad people!

We are in a society where people who are qualified for a particular job are denied the opportunity; a society where poverty has been declared a king to rule over the citizens; a society where senior political leaders who call themselves “Party Chieftains” and who ought to attract the construction of link roads in their immediate communities or environments has no conscience to do so because they simply believe they can easily drive their mighty Jeeps on the bad roads while others struggle in them, particularly when it rains. Is this not a generation of mad people? Ours is a society where personal boreholes provide source of water for the owner, while the government owned water board is not functional; a society where people happily dump refuses to block the flow of drainages and culverts, yet complain that erosion has taken over their homes.

What a wonderfully mad society! We are in credulous societies where teenagers are too ready to accept every style of life, where young girls commit abortions on a regular basis with the full support of their parents. This is a society where females smoke in parties, both cigarettes and India hemp (Igbo); a society full of drunks, where young men now journey to nearby countries just to make wealth whether by hook or crook, where youths prefer to be recusant than to be responsible; a society where an eleven-year-old girl who ought to be in school turns out to be a mother.

Ours is a society where one man gets married to many wives even when he has no job, thereby making the children miscreants of tomorrow. What a generation of tears! A society where confidence game (419) and pick pocket have become a profession; a society where the young ones now have to journey to Malaysia just to have their kidneys sold for the sake of money; a society where young ones are compelled to journey through the desert just to get to Europe, all in the name of money. Many die in the high seas in Libya and Morocco, while few succeed; a society where young girls could wear uniforms to school and still put additional wear in their bags, just to later change and locates a spot. It is obvious that we live in a dangerous generation. What a generation of mad people!