About ten years ago I lost a friend
in an armed robbery incident.
Obviously the armed robbers
were not satisfied with robbing
they needed to make a point by
harming someone in the house
and my friend’s mother was their
target. As they swung the axe my
friend who was the scholar of our
class in secondary school
protected his mother with his
head…. he died; no national
award, no postmortem speech
from the Governor and of course
no celebrity burial; he was just
another guy, the fact that he took
a battle axe to his head for his
mother was irrelevant.
This and many more of it happens
in a country wherein people get
millions both in local and foreign
currency for playing football; a
country wherein comedians
shake hands with the President
and women who kiss strange
men on camera in the name of
acting take home National Award
and an immoral youth who made
fame singing about his private
part is given special opportunity
to interview the President in a
desperate campaign strategy
because the thinking is that the
community is populated by
zombies and bimbos who will
vote in a PHD holder on the
“honour” of a nuisance whose
only relevance to society, apart
from lewd music, is competition
in air and space. Thus the
question every sane Nigerian
should be asking is when will this
madness of undeserved honour
stop?
The death of the musician from
Ekiti, Goldie Harvey, and the
attempt to make it seem like we
lost an icon is another and
perhaps the worst of all these
madness. I do not believe that
death, which we will all face,
should make you a hero except
you died an honourable death.
When people just drop dead we
grieve and console the family not
tell blatant lies as to who they
were. This is why the statement of
the Ekiti State Governor is
worrisome. Mr. Kayode Fayemi is
reported to have described Goldie
as a “great daughter of Ekiti
State” and one has to wonder
upon what was this greatness
achieved? Are people now great
for singing meaningless songs
with promiscuous suggestions or
for taking and publishing
suggestive photos of themselves?
Since when did we consider it
greatness to appeal to the sexual
cravings of perverts and run after
men on camera in the name of a
reality show that is far from
reality? Since when did it become
great achievement that a lady is
even thought of as being a junkie
in her life time? How can this be
great?
In the past fathers will tell their
children “don’t bring shame to
this family” but nowadays shame
and shamelessness is celebrated
with such noise that you think the
Devil himself is in charge of
people’s life and even he has gone
crazy.
Ironically, around the same period
this unfortunate death occurred
Governor Theodora Orji of Abia
State was commending Mrs.
Nwanyieze Prosper for winning
the Purity Queen title for a lady
who kept her virginity until her
marriage; surprisingly some
Nigerians criticized the Governor
and even ‘accused’ him of giving
her a car whereas Governor
Kayode Fayemi was praised for
describing Goldie as a “bright
star” among other accolades
including that she lived a “fulfilled
life”. Indeed the world is upside
down.
The problem with giving honour
to people who did dishonourable
acts is that people will definitely
emulate them. The Dolly Parton’s
of this world made it a fashion for
women to expose their cleavage;
years on women have lost their
husbands to such exposure and
homes have collapsed; the Dr.
Dre’s of this world made being
“gangster” a fashionable thing
and years later the gangsters are
increasing and we even have a
gangster in the White House
killing innocent people with
Drones…. Martin Luther’s dreams
became a Nightmare. And this list
goes on and on; for every
irresponsible person you honour
you make irresponsibilit y the
“swag”, the same way for every
man who dies for his mother you
honour you make standing up
against oppression and
protecting the weak the in-
thing…. make your choice.
Lastly, we must clarify two issues.
The first one is with regards to
speaking “evil” about the dead
while the second one is the “who
are you to judge” comedy.
Firstly, the dead has already met
what he or she put forward
hence there is no need to speak
of its evil. What there is need to
do however is to either call the
living to an example to live by if
the dead is worthy of emulation
or to warn the living to stay away
from a wasteful lifestyle like that
of the dead

contd. who lived life as if
death was never going to come
and this is the real lesson here;
life is short, if you live it like Goldie
your death may come and meet
you in that state; what will you tell
your Creator? We cannot pretend
this is not the lesson here; it will
be one lie too many
Secondly, they ask us not to Judge
and we say to them since we are
in the spirit of not judging kindly
don’t judge the location of your
mouth so that you put your food
in your nose. We say to them that
in this spirit of not judging please
cross the road without judging
that a vehicle is close enough to
knock you down; maybe when
you are in the air you will realise
your stupidity.
We do not judge a person who
has faith that he or she will be in
the hellfire, we do not Judge that
the person’s bad is more than his/
her good, we do not Judge if God
will forgive a believer…..but we
judge that fornication and the
promotion of it is EVIL, and that
the one who represented evil
dead does not make evil good.
Some others will say an adult can
do what he or she likes and you
don’t have to force your life on
others. The question we have for
this set of confused mentally
colonized perverts is that this
same justification is given to
homosexuality and it will soon be
given to incest so that if a grown
up man and his grown up
daughter say they fell in love and
want to marry your kind will say
well it’s their life, it does not affect
me…. can you see now that you
are sick?
Conclusively, the lessons from this
unfortunate incident can be
summarized as thus;
1) Death can come at any time; be
prepared to meet your Lord.
2) Fame and fortunes are but
illusions, what matters is your
relationship with your Creator.
3) The enjoyment of this world is
fleeting; don’t let it deceive you.
4) Live a good life; one that does
not involve promoting lewdness
or any type of evil; death and
Judgment is real and it is no
respecter of status.
5) It was the honour given her
musical mentors that led the lady
to not just music but a
meaningless form upon which
her life ended so let’s ensure that
we do not turn scum into icons
because people will sure emulate
them.
May God Almighty give the family
fortitude to bear the lost and
guide them aright.
- This piece was originally
published on RiseNetworks.or g
Eseoghene Al-Faruq Ohwojeheri
writes from Benin City, Edo State.

hmm

WOW is all I can say for now.BRB tho...