The pepper dem gang

I predict social media can only get more and more ridiculous until it becomes undefinable. No regulations, both official and in-house, from the owners will halt the monstrosity that daily streams on it, though its ombudsman status appears sealed. A case of what brings pains today bringing joy tomorrow.

Since Twitter was officially locked out of Nigeria, social media engagement has become part-time pastime for me. But somehow, I get to catch trending matters, including the new craze, known as the pepper dem gang.

It is what it is and how it sounds, deliberately making the next person, particularly a target, jealous, by flaunting supposed achievements, possibly for which the peppering guy has been criticised. You say what mindset is this!

In order to pepper well, flaunters now go a-borrowing, get into needless debt, or exhibit spending spree, beyond their financial capacity to make the other fellow mad. Who needs head-check here!

Yes, the pepper dem idea is said to be a response to pull-him-down syndrome. How low men dip to compete for the attention of an uncaring world! But even if smeared on social media, out of plain mischief, why don’t you just drop the truth as you know it on the information highway, if you must respond, and keep what should be secret about your life, secret, instead of joining monkeys to uproot water yam (joining the idiotic in idiocy), in the course of being iconic.

Before we start unloading on those currently strutting the social media space as members of the gang, can we first mount the tu quo que challenge? It is easy to diss those advertising their weaknesses online, by trying to prove they are, or, more than, what “haters”, say they are. But what about closet members of the online gang, who deliberately make their neighbours sad and feel inferior, with the way they flaunt their worldly acquisitions, particularly at those who they assume are neighbourhood haters, because they aren’t really close.

King Duncan in Shakespeare’s Macbeth was just re-echoing Jeremiah 17:9, when saying “there is no art, to find the mind’s construction,” in reference to the betrayal of Thane of Cawdor. A neighbour, minding his business and briefly saying hello whenever you meet, isn’t necessarily a neighbourhood “winch.”

The one with the widest smile and always quick to pay compliments, from afar, might just be the proverbial vermin despoiling the garden egg and still parasitic to it. Some troll for fun, though not an acceptable hobby. But where is the wisdom trying to “show” some random fellow just whiling time away, by joining the bandwagon of one or two people who have real axe to grind with you.

Sadly, government and its functionaries, at different levels also form pepper dem gang. Whether it is to “show” opposition elements, nosey elite or noisy everyday people, there is always this noticeable overkill in official acts, maybe just to warn other “monkeys” that the hunter, can still shoot to kill the Eleke bird, despite mastering flying, without perching. But Yoruba will say the horse rider doesn’t need to widen his eyeballs to scare those trekking, because the thudding of the horse’s hooves, is enough galala.

Last Friday, Lagos Police Command released series of photos and a statement, depicting a show of force, over the arikutaku (recklessly daring) spirit that has now possessed Yoruba Nation agitators. The naked flexing, shamelessly on display since the “capture” of Igbo secessionist Nnamdi Kanu, is obviously to pepper dem and DSS spokesperson, unprofessionally captured this when, he sarcastically tasked; “those cheering and eulogizing him (Yoruba separatist Sunday Igboho,) may appeal to, or advise him to surrender himself to the appropriate authorities. He or anyone can never be above the law.” Hope Dr Peter Afunanya will not need this admonition someday.

Re-Igbo aren’t Jews…

How much l cherish your write up of above title in last Sunday Tribune, and concur with your submissions! It is historical, truthful and advisory to all parties concerned – personal and group entities. At the same time, it is prophetic and foreboding!

As you said, “Yes, a lot depends on the man with yam and knife, but no man is God. Tables turn when least expected.” Alas! this reminds me of an incident in the American War of Independence with the British colonial rulers, as we read in history books: At a point in time when the war was raging, included in the British armada, deployed to the north east of America, was a menacing and seemingly impregnable warship, which gave the British a sense of victory. But lo and behold, after a relentless pounding by the American troops, a crack developed at the side of the warship, which made the warship vulnerable to the canons from the American side, and which eventually led to the sinking of the warship and the loss of the battle by the British. Divine intervention (hand of God) at play! This incident was related to the famed “Boston Tea Party” in American history. Significantly, in line with your admonition in the last paragraph, “he who has ears, let him hear”!

Regarding your “lamentation” that despite Yoruba scions occupying Aso Rock as President and Vice President for a cumulative of 14 years now, “Nigeria’s history is yet to record what could pass for the Yoruba moment”, it is apposite, as it is regretful to say that, that is the plight of the Yoruba as a race, self inflicted, though it is!! And when will a Moses come?

Olaitan Makanju

[email protected].

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