Rema, along with his colleagues Shallipopi, Odumodu Blvck, Label Boss Don Jazzy, and the Mavin team, brought a beautiful energy to Benin City. They travelled from Lagos to support the Afrobeats superstar, who is credited with the biggest song in the genre’s history. However, everything changed when the ugly governorship elections took place. Before the zealots start criticising, i call it ugly because politics has never been a beautiful thing. I don’t give a damn about my neighbor’s choice; the best we can do is discuss and critique the reasons behind our decisions. It is blatantly foolish to create adversaries and resort to violence notwithstanding such circumstances.
As we await the outcome of the legal battle between the APC and PDP, the PDP has accused the APC of election malpractice for over-voting and for unlawfully shifting the results collation, locking PDP agents out of the collation centre while granting APC agents premium access. Things like these are concerning regardless of the candidate you support, and based on what we recently saw during the Ondo State Government elections, it appears Nigeria may be moving towards a one-party system of governance. Following the conquest of Edo and Ondo States, Osun State Governor Adeleke recently expressed alarm and warned APC Chairman Ganduje not to destabilise the South-West over a plot to “take over” Osun and Oyo.
Amid all of this political turmoil, the most shocking incident is the Benin City youth serial killings, which the media has labelled a cult epidemic. Since “serial” is the word that best describes the current circumstance, I labelled it. Taking pride in something so canal is just insane, which is why I believe that our society has lost access to quality education. There are many various types of education, but the two most prominent ones are formal and informal. Formal education is the type of education received in a school system, whereas informal education is the type of education received at home and in the community, which contemporary Nigerian youth refer to as “street.”
Our culture lacks access to quality education, with 13-year-olds pilfering costly items to feel superior to their peers. To hell with morals! as they say, making quick money has become the only necessity of life, and impressing others who don’t care about your well-being is the new culture. Over the last two decades children who ought to be in school have been brainwashed into a form of contemporary slavery known as “hk” on the streets
We’ve become so consumed by this madness known as crime that we’ve come to accept it as the new normal, demonstrating such a ridiculous tendency to continuously destroy the economy of our beloved state and nation that we are blind to the long-term effects of the things we do today. I can now see why people continually say, “we no go leave anything for next of kin”, It seems as though society has united to ruin the future for those poor souls who are yet to come.
The inept security services are not exempt; after all, their sole responsibility is to pursue young people, guilty or innocent, and demand money as if it were their natural right. The public can clearly hear the terrible silence, and our leaders are not exempt! There is little doubt that if we keep going in this direction, the future will never become promising. Since the red soil is still so prevalent in Benin City, we don’t need any more red. I fear that if this ugliness continues, our beloved ancient city may look worse than London after the blitz. Our ancestors constructed the first modern black metropolis and fought the British which makes it more alarming that our new culture is to raise serial killers, Edo is not ready for growth!