Possessed by the Nigerian Spirit

I have been in a bit of a mood for the past few weeks and I haven't trusted myself to write something down. Perhaps this is because I have been afraid that every word I type on my keyboard will bring the feeling I have been nursing to life. I sat with my thoughts for a little while, and in the midst of the several issues that floated in my mind, I realized that I  have been worried about Nigeria, the fate of Nigerians and yes, my fate.

You see, a lot has been going on with the Nigerian economy. There is a great deal of uncertainty in the air particularly with regards the exchange rate. Churches have rightly increased the number of minutes (or hours, depending on which church you go to) spent praying for the nation. Employees resume at the place of their employment without guarantee that they will have a job by the end of the day. Power supply is still erratic and the tariff for the barely supplied electricity is now ridiculously high. In fact, even the weather has ganged up against Nigerians, as the heat over the past few days has been unapologetic. 

Be Smart, Be Like Mariam, Be Like Bill, Be Like Who?

Over the past few days, you ought to have been introduced to Bill, the stick-man who has been given the enormous task of telling the whole world how to behave. You might have seen all sorts of ridiculous memes with Bill as the subject matter. I have pooled a few below, in case you haven't seen any- meaning you might have been under a rock for the past few days.

When I first met Bill, it appeared as if the point of the meme was to somewhat tell everyone how best to behave online. So Bill will advise you not to be a movie spoiler, not to invite your Facebook friends to play candy crush, or advise you not to troll anonymous people on the internet because you disagree with them.

As the days went by and I observed Bill more, I noticed that Bill's terms of reference had extended beyond advising us about internet culture and behavior, to advising us generally about what should be acceptable behavior. Bill now has an opinion about everything, from how you walk your dog to how you conduct yourself at the gym. No wonder some people think Bill is rather smug.

Bill has received mixed reactions, and some people have reacted so violently to Bill, that they have asked Uma Thurman to kindly kill Bill.

I find these memes extremely funny, but they got me thinking about the fact that whether or not we want to admit it, society expects a certain level of conformity. This made me question whether we really need to conform or behave like Bill, or Mariam or anyone else for that matter. My conspiracy theorist persona will go ballistic and say that Bill is an end of age conformist agent, trying to subconsciously alter our perspective on acceptable behavior (just kidding!)

I admit that there is a certain level of conformity that is required, but rather than label it conformity, I would rather say that there is a certain level of consideration that is required from us by society. So I think Bill is right to advise  you not to play loud music on the train in consideration of the comfort of others, but outside scenarios where we have to be considerate of others, we have no obligation to listen to Bill, especially when he seems to be stifling our individuality. When this happens, our adherence to Bill's advice should end because part of the beauty of humanity is that fact that we are all so different. 

Different things excite us, and we should not be caged to celebrate only one type of different. If you are a foodie and you are excited to share your food experiences on your timeline, then it shouldn't matter that there is another foodie on your timeline who will have the same experience as you , but choose not to share it. The fact that you travel around the world and you don't post pictures, doesn't make you more polished or better than those who do, it only means you are different from them. So I appreciate Bill to the extent that he informs us about how best to take others into consideration when we act, but beyond that, I will gladly tell Bill to shove his opinion in an undesirable place. 

Bill is just a symbol of society, made up of you, me, our friends and family. We are always silently watching, silently judging, silently castigating others for expressing their inner selves, because we don't agree with them, understand them or sometimes because we are not as bold as they are.

Let us be considerate of each other, but please let us celebrate our differences, quirks and strange little things that make us stand out from the next person. You can wear your hair long, short, in dreads or twists and Bill should not have an opinion on that. Be considerate, but don't be like Bill, or like Mariam, be like YOU!

This is my best meme so far on the be like Bill trend. I burst out laughing when I saw this.
#20slove

Hello, my name is ... and we need to talk.

"Why are you fearful, O you of little faith"

Hello you. I know we just met this morning, but I also know that you have been expecting me for a while. You on the other hand, have been on my mind for way longer than a while. I know we are just starting this relationship, so I apologize for already hitting you with the classic "we need to talk" line. But I feel we need to have this discussion early because I heard some things about you from all your exes, and it is only fair we discuss them now so that we can begin our relationship on the right note.

Take your Miss Bulgaria into 2016 with you.

Even if we already know what to do, we always look for that one friend who will push us to do it! Well done Miss Bulgaria

I'm not even going to try to be intellectual with this post, (yeah right lol) I'm just going to share my Miss Universe kick with you.

You must have read about Steve Harvey's mistake of announcing Miss Columbia as Miss Universe, instead of Miss Philippines. I can barely imagine the trauma Miss Columbia is having at the moment, and I only pray she rises above it soon and even shines as a result of it.

However, my dear friend, did you notice Miss Bulgaria? She came out straight to tell Miss Philippines to get her pretty self over there to take her crown! I saw the picture above with the caption and simply had to write about it. It is not normal for a beauty queen in her own right to do what Miss Bulgaria did, and I need to break this down to you. You see, beauty queens are supposed to be composed and untouchable in their glowing ethereal beauty, irrespective of the situation. You are not supposed to think about Agbani Darego, the first black Miss World and imagine her licking her fingers after demolishing a  well prepared plate of pounded yam and egusi soup. No way! Agbani can only be imagined sitting in a corner, wearing Dolce and Gabbana (don't dull). Yes, beauty queens portray an image of unattainable beauty (a story for another day) but that is the image they have been programmed to portray, and to have Miss Bulgaria break that stereotype in order to encourage another queen is really refreshing and inspiring.

Who cares about the orange? Where is the orange juice?

Photo Credit

As weird as this title sounds, I assure you that this is not a health related post. In fact, its more of an everything-related post. I have been fascinated over the past couple of days with the way we seem to disregard the raw materials and the process of transforming raw materials, but are eager to consume the finished product.

Let me break it down in less esoteric terms. No one celebrates the countless hours spent working in the library, but everyone turns up at the graduation to drink a bottle of coke and eat jollof rice. No one cares about how you felt when your first two businesses crashed, but everyone is eager to interview you about how you made your latest business a success. No one cares about how many years Bill Gates spent writing codes for Microsoft, but everyone cares so very deeply about the billions of dollars he has, and of course who cares about Dangote's history when he is busy making sugar, cement and building factories across Africa?