By Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi
Please stop!
I just saw a five-year-old girl dancing at her birthday party on a thick carpet of dollars and Naira
Please stop!
That was after seeing the little boy of no more than four, wearing a ‘Billion Dollar Gang’ neck chain, swigging from what looked like a bottle of beer while his mother twerked and did her own thing
Please stop!
All those competing to spray with bundles of money at ever increasing meaningless parties, we get the message that ‘spraying note by note’ is now for people not as rich as you are
Please stop!
All the half-clad slay queen bridal trains in increasingly expensive Aso Ebi, desperately trying to outdo the bride in the hopes of being the next one, in performances that look more like a music video than an actual wedding ceremony
Please stop!
All those who God has blessed with a nice new house and have to go online to give people a ‘Pepperdem’ virtual tour
Please Stop!
Congratulations on the brand-new luxury car, we are happy for you. Yes, it is bigger than that of your frenemy
Please Stop!
It is nice to fly to London, Los Angeles, Dubai, Turkey and China, please spare us the non-stop photographs. We know you are having a great time, travel safe
Please Stop!
Well done on your latest wristwatch, the one in town diamond encrusted Rolex and the heavy pendant with your initials
Please Stop!
All the local movies showing everlasting visits to creepy, wretched fellows living in shanties
The same fellows who give you the recipe for riches which always involves the blood of the innocent
Please Stop!
The wretched fellows in the movies no longer exist in the unimaginative imaginations of the movie script writers. They are real and are dispensing horrifying instructions to truly demented young fellows who are now on the prowl for the blood of every woman in their lives, even their own mothers
Please Stop!
The songs, the dances, the displays of excess money, the beautification of all the boys and girls in the hood who make drugs, booze, random sex and illicit money sound cool
Please Stop!
All the online bullying, cursing, swearing and body shaming, even from those who should know better
Please Stop!
To the best of our knowledge, sex has never required an audience (except for the royal families of medieval Europe, to ensure the consummation of marriages) but now it seems to be the norm. Turn off the video, we don’t need to see.
Please Stop!
Life is interesting. So many things to see. So many places to go. So many people to meet. Do we need to photograph and record EVERY single thing, right down to when we fart?
Please Stop!
Tuck it away and cover up! Yuck!
Please Stop!
Let children be children. Stop putting the images of minors in public spaces, stop recording them eating, dancing, sleeping and just being kids, stop sharing their private moments with total strangers
Please Stop!
All the parents recording videos of their little girls in full make-up and hair, dancing like fiends, bumping, grinding and twisting, innocent six-year-olds acting like 26-year-olds
Please Stop!
And here we are, all shocked that a 17-year-old knows where to go for money rituals, and has the nerve to slaughter a girl like a chicken. Really? We are shocked?
Please Stop!
We normalize excess, crassness, insensitivity, stupidity, brazenness, and have created a cycle of generational foolishness. And we have the audacity to be shocked?
Please Stop!
Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, who is a Gender Specialist, Social Entrepreneur and Writer. She is the Founder of Abovewhispers.com, an online community for women. She is the First Lady of Ekiti State, and she can be reached at [email protected]