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Agbani’s Sickening Folly
A few years ago, a Briton packed his bags
with amazing haste, gathered his family and hurried out of England into
self-exile. Asked to explain what informed his sudden decision, the man
minced no words: Twenty years before he was born, homosexuals and
lesbians were abhorred and isolated by society, and their reprehensible
preoccupation viewed as serious criminal offence that attracted stiff
penalties; twenty years after he was born, these perverts began, after
some years of being ‘mildly’ tolerated, to gradually garner wider
acceptance in decent society; and now, another twenty years have just
passed, and they have been formally acknowledged and their abominable
act legalized! Now he does not want to take any chances, you know. So,
he had to escape immediately before they make it compulsory for every
Briton!
Unfortunately for this hapless victim of
an immorally advanced culture, there is no place to hide, not even
‘pure’ Africa, which we hitherto thought was immune to the ruinous
contaminations of Western moral irresponsibility. Indeed, the so-called
Western civilization is presently steeped in very serious crises, and
while the few in that society who still retain some vestiges of their
morals are highly worried, and hoping they could find a way out of the
great moral chasm into which they had willingly sunk themselves because
of a very silly interpretation they had given to ‘freedom’ some years
ago, poor Africans, ever vindicating a self-destructive knack for
imitating bad models so well, have since found ennobling paradigms in
the most slimy depth of Western ‘civilized’ rot.
It is just a pity, really. The decay has
become so widespread and pervasive, and achieved such glamour, pomp and
overwhelming financial backbone, that even people who ought to be more
discerning are now falling over themselves to be seen neck-deep in the
nauseating pastime of beatifying and celebrating outright obscenity.
Indeed, being rotten to the core, and making a big show of it, has
become a status symbol, and, sometimes, an easy route to sudden wealth
and cheap comfort, so much so that those who insist on remaining outside
the band-wagon of the depraved are regarded as ‘uncivilized’ and
‘pre-modern.’ That’s where we are, dear reader, and the most pitiable
victims are underage girls, who lack the discernment to know the exact
implication of what they are being lured into.
A couple of years ago, a young, undiscerning teenager from Rivers State (and her naïve parents) fell to the most seductive and overwhelming promises of good life, easy money and cheap fame by two smart brothers in Lagos who earn a living by feasting the eyes of shameless voyeurs with the tender flesh of mostly innocent girls. This girl had joined other girls to flaunt the delicate parts of her body before a large audience and battery of cameramen, to service the lust and depraved taste of irremediably prurient men and even women. The event is usually an elaborate one, with lights, pomp, cheers, elite audience and countless pressmen, in a highbrow banquet hall. Now, after the impressively packaged, but empty, unedifying razzmatazz, the girl was told before the cheering audience and flashing cameras that she was the “Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria.” A salary of N1miilion was given to her for that year. Gifts were showered on her by corporate organizations. Hare-brained analysts and columnists dubbed her a “role model” and asked other girls to emulate her, and be inspired by her “success story.”
Yet, the two, unyielding businessmen
brothers were not through with her. They put her in a plane, and jetted
out of the country. They told her things that swelled her head, and made
her think Bill Gates was miles behind her. After several other carnivals
of shame, and further flaunting of her bare flesh and tender honour
before audiences abroad, one woman called Julia Molley put a useless
crown on her head and told her before an even larger audience that she
had become “Miss World” (whatever that means). And a depraved section of
the world applauded. Even respected columnist, Pini Jason, crowed that
the “the world (was now) at her feet”! And because of the way the two
smart brothers were able to seduce the Nigerian government into almost
elevating what was otherwise a private business concern into a national
carnival, Ms. Molley, another smart business person, decided to bring
her Miss World obscenity to Nigeria the very next year. It was, however,
tragically aborted. You know the rest.
Of course, I am talking about Miss Agbani
Darego, who at a fashion show in Lagos last week, demonstrated
eloquently to a shocked nation, the extent of rot her handlers have
achieved in her. I must, however, apologize for dragging low characters
like Agbani and those that set her on the path of perdition into this
column. Indeed, fellows like that and the reprehensible trade they are
engaged in are very far beneath the dignity of the serious discourse we
engage in here every week. But, I am moved by concern and pity, for this
hapless girl, and some other unsuspecting girls who may be lured into
this same trap tomorrow with tantalizing promises, and parents who think
the easiest way out of poverty is to hand their tender daughters over
to soulless flesh-flaunters to parade before every willing eye.
At the time Agbani was conscripted into
this folly, she was studying Computer Science at the University of Port
Harcourt (my alma mater). But the pomp and noise of her crown became
so overwhelming that she felt she had no more need of the degree. After
all, Oluchi Onwuagba, a former bread seller at the Ayilara area of
Ojuelegba here was already “making it big” in the world of fashion and
modeling, so why bother with academics? That was in 2001. What it means
then is that, by now, Agbani should have been a graduate of Computer
Science, and a hotcake to employers of labour in this infotech age. But,
no, the lure of lucre was so overpowering! Moreover, the two consummate,
shrewd, businessmen brothers, unyielding goal-getters, could not let her
be. They used every opportunity to promote and showcase her as,
perhaps, the wisest, most successful girl in Nigeria, and the best thing
that had happened to the country in the recent past. Of course, they
needed to promote her and her meaningless crown, so that their
business can flourish. Unfortunately, the press also fell for this and
lent a helping hand in this promotion of shame.
After one year, Agbani’s fortunes began to
take a deep. The crowd around her began to thin out too. She suddenly
found herself alone, used and dumped. A year or two later, there was a
rumour in media circles that because the modeling contracts were not
coming, she had hired herself out as a baby-sitter somewhere in Europe.
I immediately asked a friend in London to help me investigate this
story. Although he could not say exactly where Agbani was at that time,
he nevertheless stated that the story could not possibly be true. Later
on, there was another report that things had become so tough for Agbani
in Europe. In fact, she was so frustrated that she had to send a frantic
message to an acquaintance in South Africa, who came to her rescue and
helped ferry her over to Mandela’s land. She was said to have resolved
to lie low, accept lowly jobs that ordinarily should be beneath her as
Miss World 2001, and avoid publicity until things improved. I do not
know how well she had done for herself since then. In fact, I had
practically forgotten about her, until last week, when a sickening
photograph of hers appeared in the weekend edition of the
Independent Newspaper. She had come to Lagos to catwalk,
and before an audience that ogled at her, and camera lenses that flashed
unceasingly, she bared the whole of her slightly dropping breasts to
every eye that could see.
As I saw this photograph, I was filled
with disgust and pity for this wickedly misled girl. What kind of
desperation would lead this little girl into this kind of madness? And
why would some men be so wicked and heartless to exploit the stupidity
and desperation of a young girl to make her bare the pride of her
womanhood to the world? What else will Agbani Darego bare as life
becomes tougher and tougher in the days and months to come for this
cruelly misled university dropout? What kind of dress was that, by the
way? Can the designer say in all sincerity that he would get customers
for a dress like that which was opened in such way that the wearer’s
entire breasts are left starkly bare, or was it specially designed so he
could entertain his guests with a generous dish of Agbani’s breasts? But
has Agbani become so brainless and penniless that she would agree to
flaunt her bare breasts to the world? Are breasts no longer part of a
woman’s “private parts”? Is this shameless exhibitionism and pornography
worth any price? Indeed, even on a prostitute, the ill-fitting outfit
Agbani wore in that photograph would still be considered indecent. In
fact, no prostitute would dare to walk even the most notorious red-light
districts in such over-revealing attire.
Time has come for Nigerians to rouse themselves from moral slumber, isolate and show their fiercest contempt for these two usually well-dressed, posh-talking, wealthy brothers, and all other people and groups involved in this reprehensible trade of flesh-flaunting. By the way, where are those female activists always campaigning for the preservation of the dignity of women? What is their response to this unambiguous attack on womanhood? Maybe, also, we should consider boycotting the products of companies that sponsor these obscene shows. There is poverty in the land, I agree, but must we descend to the dirtiest depths to make ends meet? Only recently, I switched on my TV set and stumbled on a bunch very scantily dressed girls in a swimming pool, whom I understand, were contestants for the so-called “Most Beautiful In Nigeria” crown. One very fair man was with them in the pool, with his long camera, and was asking the girls to twist their bodies in such a way that their breasts were spilling out of their very tiny bras, and he was merrily shooting. What are they going to do with those photographs?
Agbani has become Nigeria’s ambassador of
shame. She needs to be rescued before greater desperation drives her
into more heinous acts. Somebody should, also, please walk across to her
parents and talk some sense into them. I am sure her admission at Unique
UNIPORT is still valid. She should retrace her steps before it is too
late.
All these make one wonder aloud at the
depreciating value of the female body in our society these days. Our
ladies are just too desperate to bare it all for anyone once cash is
flowing. Sometimes, it could happen in the most sickening and ridiculous
way. For instance, a street boy somewhere in the alleyways of Ajegunle
wakes up one morning and jumbles up some noise, sound and gibberish and
calls it music. And as he goes to shoot his “musical video,” all he
would need for countless big, fine, educated and polished girls to
struggle to dance for him is just to flash some money. Once he pays the
right amount, he may decide that the girl should be scantily dressed,
and it is left for him to touch wherever he likes in the course of the
dance! Never mind that the boy’s armpits may be stinking like Lagos
gutters, that his breath emitted repelling scent, and that his unwashed
undies now wet with abundant, slimy sweat, induced nausea. Don’t ask me
what happens each time he opens his mouth to sing.
Indeed, anybody with money to spare today
can make women do whatever he wishes. Just say you are organizing a
reality show, and that the dress code for all housemates, male and
female, is that every chest must be left totally bare before the
cameras! I can assure you that even some parents would come begging to
have their daughters enlisted, so long as the pay, at the end of the
day, promises to be good. That is where we are, dear reader. Poverty,
being religiously created by a totally wayward and heartless government
in Nigeria, has destroyed the moral fibre of our people and reduced our
girls to mere playthings in the hands of prurient millionaires. It is
just a pity.
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