Naira Marley : A true reflection of a large chunk of the Nigeria youths

Naira Marley : A true reflection of a large chunk of the Nigeria youths

Thursday, November 21, 2019 3:12 pm


Naira Marley

By Peter Omoniyi Gidado.

Afeez Fashola, famously known by his devoted followers and fans as Naira Marley, is a Nigerian artiste whose vulgarly musical outpourings and lewd lifestyles have been the  talk of the town, widely discussed by concerned parents, guardians and social commentators. From the humble days of his masterpiece ‘Issa goal’ that shoots him into limelight to his infamous delivery of ‘Am I a yahoo boy’ that  poses a rhetorical question to his perceived naysayers who condemned his open declaration of support to Internet fraud and fraudsters, and recently,to his show of obscene visuals in ‘Opotoyi’, the resillient Naira Marley has been consistent in dishing out uncouth and morality-damn lyrics to his teeming fans, majority of whom are young Nigerians and whom he flamboyantly christened  Marlians.

The unfettered love and support he garnered from millions of Nigeria youths during his incarceration by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) is undeniably massive and legendary. It will cost a famous Nigeria politician billions of crispy American dollars to get such profuse support he got freely as hashtags #FreeNairaMarley and other heart-rending  solidarity write-ups litters the cyber space. His irate followers got their hands on the gadgets minutes after minutes to cast aspersions on his persecutors and Nigeria music maestros like Simi, Folarin ‘Falz’ Falana and Ruggedman who they perceived as ‘anti-marlians’ for their unsolicited public admonitory sermons against cyber crimes.Many wondered why the EFCC is making a mountain out of a molehill in the ‘Mafo’ crooner case,demanding the immediate arrest of corrupt politicians instead of the crucifixion of their role model, the beautiful bride of the internet warlords and the Yahoo yahoo association freedom fighter – the courageous Naira Marley, a.k.a No Manners(NM).

His incessant reckless tweets and public display of marijuana (weed) on his instagram page also came under the scrutiny of the moralists demanding some sort of decorum and politeness in the way he puts out his thoughts on national and personal issues but you can always trust the ever-thuggish proponent of the No Belt Gang (NBG) with his character-assasinating response to his critics. Recently he opined in one of his tweets about the higher marketability of ladies’ butts over Masters degree claiming that a lady having a big inviting ‘backside’ is more attractive and more likely to be prosperous than a masters degree holder. Uncountable are such disapproving slice of bread from his untiring  bakery. Mind you,in the midst of this,his numerous youthful fans stand up tall in the defense of those sheer crassness.

Another unvarying ritual of the England-raised father of four is the undying and unruly display of marijuana and shameless stalling and portrayal of ladies as sex symbol on his social media platforms and music videos.He smokes like a chimney and will conveniently relegates Bob Marley(probably,he got his name ‘Marley’ from the late music maestro) and Fela in a smoking competition if they were to be alive today.He is the Whiz Khalifa of the Nigeria Music Industry and hardly ever go to studio without calling out the magical names of weed,lustfully propagating the ‘marlianess’ of his other name – Igbólabí(roughly translated ‘we have given birth to weed’).

By and large,without little or no argument to my assertion,I religiously believe that Mr. Afeez Fashola mirrors the lives of majority of Nigeria youths. He is a wide lens through which we can view the enormous rots and damages in our future of tomorrow, no thanks to the blunders and negligence of many of our generation’s parents and the irresponsibility and unresponsiveness of our government. His popular slogan, ‘No Manners’ truly depicts the emerging characters we see on daily basis as our once cherished societal norms and values are immensely rubbished and thrown to the bin. Naira Marley’s notoriety, as been examined in the street, is fully acceptable by  large chunk of the Nigeria youths and sadly, they see him as a youth-right ambassador even as he claimed,in his post-detention single ‘Soapy’ that he was given the treatment meted on  MKO Abiola, the late business guru and astute politician, Fela Anikulapo and John.F. Kennedy.He expressly liken himself to these human rights activists and freedom fighters as he was mightily applauded by army of youths who impatiently waited for his release.congratulatory messages were seen filtering out from all angles.

Naira Marley in yet another single, Bad Influence, asked  pertinent questions from our leaders as to why they distance themselves from the youth and later on tagged him a bad influence to the youth. He mentioned some loopholes created by our government which have disconnected the youth from them. The little or no availability of good influence has made many of the youth to pitch their tent with the Naira Marley type of influences.Naira Marley kind of influence will continue to thrive in our society due to leadership failure and might unlikely be tamed if our main concern is about Naira Marley(NM)  instead of the cause and unsavoury effect that brought him to the millions of  Marlians.

NM is just a tree in the thick deep forest of the dangerous lots.

-Peter Omoniyi Gidado writes from Ado-Ekiti.Ekiti State. He can be reached via email : [email protected].


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