DO NOT COPY WHAT YOU CANNOT PASTE

The above tittle is a quote which i lifted off a friends post TEEWHY VALIANT He is known as on Facebook (before i get sued for plagiarism... but again according to Dr Maphouz Adedimeji all knowledge is plagiarism as only stupidity is original). While my friend Tayo was speaking as though he is a sage advising the young to cut their coat according to their size, am going to pick that line and speak more in context of our copy copy mentality.

Saying Nigeria is a land of rich cultural heritage is just but an understatement, in fact we are so rich culturally that one may loose count of the many cultural practice enshrined within our polity. From, ogun festival, new yam festival, argungu, osun festival and even carnival like organized festivals such as the calabar festival are all few of the picks from a mass multitude.

Some people have however come to give excuses concerning the fetish and superstition that mystifies some of African festivals and cultural practices hence why it is gaining less patronage from the irredeemably and pathetic mind set of our so called modern youths. The reason for my position is not far fetched, HALLOWEEN it is. While i may come for a lot of sticks since it is claimed that halloween is a christian festival so Christians all over should celebrate October 31 in remembrance of the departed saints. However is it really a christian festival when you consider its pagan roots in Celtic mythology? and even if it is, what is christian and saintly in the camouflages and guises that have come to characterise halloween costumes?  dressing like Super man or one of the awaken ghosts in the video of Michael Jackson's thriller is no way to remember the greatness of lets say Saint Peter or is it?

While i see no wrong in celebrating and catching fun, my issue is must we always neglect our origin and essence to embrace the falsehood of what we are not and will never be? This attitude is one that is eating deep like a canker worm into the woods of the Nigerian ethical formation. Confidence in our own products is a universal lack amongst all Nigerians across all fields. Take the case of a joke where three university professors were aboard a flight, shortly before take off the air hostess announced that the plane which is to transport all the passengers was a hand work of one of the students of a Nigerian school... upon the announcement, two of the said dons immediately rushed down from d plane in panic for their lives. They collectively beckoned on the last prof to come down only for the prof to reply with a cheeky Arsene Wenger esque smile " if this plane was built by my student, it will surely not fly".

That is Nigeria for you, we would rather risk using products of 3rd class students or even worse students of secondary schools in China rather than patronize our very own products of excellence just because they were made by your neighbour. That mentality is simply what has taken its toll on our cultural way of life. We would rather relegate to the background our heritage giving flimsy and silly excuses and embrace practices that we mostly do not know the root.  Osun festival is fetish but we would dress up to celebrate imaginary or utopian heroes and even go unclad in some occasions because we have learned to copy that having no sense of morality is just as right as abandoning your origin to embrace an adopted lifestyle that negates our realities as a people.  We would object to celebrating new yam festival because it makes no sense but celebrating halloween which itself originated from harvest festivity of the old Irish people is perfectly great because Drake is doing it, Obama will talk about it and a host of your celebrities. Why not tell them more about your own and see if they wont come after all it is vivid fact that these gbadun our cultures. But how will they know if you have only learned to copy without teaching.

Whats more, our economy will suffer for it, because,  in order for our costumes to make the social media picture grades we will have to enter non-made in Nigeria attires and look like images that is quite easily relatable for most foreign folks but yet alien to most naija folks.(go to esikin in odo-owa ekiti or go to the farm settlements of konton karfe dressed like one of your illusionary super heroes and see if you will not be offered in sacrifice to the gods)  What is wrong with us? is that also a problem of leadership? must we always be told what to do before we can do them? Common if you could help popularise a foreign culture by going the extreme with costumes and make-ups what the hell is wrong with de-attaching mythology to the african trends and help promote it. 

I have not said we should not copy, but we copy everything and at the end there is no space to paste and it turns out to be junks. Copy but copy sensibly. Come to my house on October 31 night dressed s a caricature version of any celeb and your head is off for it, After all it is not man slaughter but murder and that is greatly defensible abi why do I have Abdulkareem kokobite as a lawyer friend. 

ANYWAYS IT IS JUST AN OPINION AND YOU MAY ELECT TO DISAGREE.

AYODELE KELVIN