Dear Mr. Jimi Disu,
I write this mail to you to point out some inconsistencies, I perceive, in your analysis with regards to your avowed support for your recently found talent, shadow boy.
Aminu or shadow boy as he so calls himself is one of thousands of young men your leave the northern part of the country with no specific destination and end up mostly in Lagos to fuel what you have severally noted as an already overpopulated Lagos. I beg to argue that for one shadow boy whom you have discovered and decided to support in his music career, there are nine hundred and ninety-nine others who are lost in the shadows of Lagos, albeit being a potential danger. And to use your words again in your criticism of several like him who push one thing or another or are recklessly riding motor bikes around Lagos, “they are a disaster waiting to happen and the state need to take firm steps about dealing with the threat.”
For argument, let’s not throw away the baby with the bathwater and say there are a few of these guys who could find something reasonable doing and need to be encouraged as you have shown interest in shadow boy. So, what does he say in his “music talent” with specific reference to the lyrics of his song titled “early momo?”
In his lyrics, he says early in the morning when he wakes it is this particular girl he loves to see, her waist is…, her body is…, when she shakes for him he is…, and so on. Simply put, all he does is immorally sing the praise of a woman’s body and how it can make you feel early in the morning. Sir, this is not what I think you stand for.
Now, let us agree that music might be a right path to success (which I beg to argue against because music is the least thing any ‘dumb’ person can aspire to do because it is a quick rich formula if your lyrics are immodest enough to win acclaim in a morally declining society like ours), there are persons who have sang worthy lyrics one of whom is Fela, one your of your motivators. King Sunny Ade and Ebenezer Obey are examples of age long musicians. There are more contemporary singers like Dare Art-Alade, T Y Bello, and others who may be said to sing okay for persons who like music. Shadow boy is on the path of others who are widely acclaimed, famed, and rich and whom you have criticized on several occasions because they are closer to what you would not want a child to be. Some are associated with substances and alcohol to mention a few. I won’t mention names sir but you know them sir.
A documentary I watched on Al Jazeera this morning heightened my curiosity. It is about Diana Trujillo, a Colombian immigrant in the US who left her country at the age 17 to search for her dream and is today an Aerospace Engineer with NASA is a worthy story that can be motivating. She started out in the US working as a maid to sponsor herself through university and today, the rest is history. If shadow boy had valued education and is sweating to be enlightened and succeed then we might encourage his emigration but the path of music (with lyrics) he is on…, hmm. Furthermore, if we argue that the Nigerian society is not that encouraging then we should look at the young man you brought last Friday who learned fixing air conditioners during the strike.
His story again raises the question of parents who birth children that they have not forethought how they would raise them and just leave them at the mercy of society to become whatever they can become. At age 26 I believe being a security guard is not what he should be doing but if that is the best he has at hand in the intervening period then I think there are better things he can think of doing. As Trujillo said, you need creativity, resourcefulness and perseverance to succeed in any clime (after all, not all persons in the US are a success, and there are successful person in Nigeria despite the environment).
Like I said, for one shadow boy, there are 999 other boys lost in the shadows of Lagos, happening or waiting as a disaster to happen.
Sincerely yours,
Abayomi Sharomi
University of Lagos
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