Scammers New Anthem: Mugu Don Pay!!!
By
Sylva Nze Ifedigbo
nzeifedigbo@yahoo.com
Mugu don pay, shout halleluiah!!!,
so goes the lines of one of the newest melodies on the Nigerian
airwaves, a song by hitherto little known Kelly Handsome, a US based
Nigerian youngster who has suddenly catapulted into the status of a
celebrity following the dropping of his hit single “Maga Don Pay”.
Beyond the great production, wonderful
sound mix and I dare say, intelligence that went into the packaging of
the song, is a huge moral question-one that seems the biggest bane to
the advancement my generation and by extension constitutes the
greatest impediment to the eventual emancipation of our dear country
by we the future leaders.
The song is a testimony to the fact that
we now not only do fraud, we take pride in celebrating it.
It reminds one of Nkem Owoh’s I go
chop your dollar and Olu Maintain’s Yahoozee both of which
enjoyed great listenership among youths. In both cases as in this, the
artists denied having a first line intension of promoting fraud,
claiming they did what they did for the love of music and the arts. I
am a great fan of Nigerian music and I appreciate creativity a lot,
but I wish to disagree with the artists on this.
Music is a strong medium of
communication which holds a strong influence on the people. From time
immemorial, people have used music to pass a wide range of messages
across, the more popular ones being messages against issues that
affect the course of humanity negatively. For example Michael
Jackson’s Earth song drew the world’s attention to the
degradation and bastardization of the earth as a fall out of various
human activities. Closer home, Fela’s many afro beat hits which remain
ever fresh in our minds were a series of constructive criticism of bad
leadership and a constant advocator for good governance.
When you listen and sing along to these
songs, you find your self-beyond the movement of your body in a
dance-reflecting on the wordings. Believe it or not what you hear has
a huge influence on you. For example in the early 90’s, the explosion
of American rap music in Nigeria and the orchestrating of the then
Tu-pac Vs Notorious BIG rivalry contributed chiefly in the
introduction of gangsterism among youths in Nigeria and a subsequent
explosion of cultism on our campuses.
We appreciate the fact-shamefully
though- that Nigeria is today known world over as a country of
fraudsters, scammers, dupes and internet tricksters. It’s no more news
that internet fraud has now become the major occupation of many
youths. Daily, young men (and women) sit around in cyber café’s or
even in the comfort of their bed rooms with the provision of internet
service by most telecom operators, doing one thing- employing their
intelligence and ingenuity in seeking ways to get other innocent
internet users part with their money or materials.
Those who succeed go about living a life
of luxury-one only obtainable from someone who didn’t sweat to make
the money- and we see them around in our streets and on our campuses,
driving expensive cars and playing their car CD so loud as if to
announce to every one around that “hey a big boy is around”. The
painful part is that we-the host of those who have either not made it
or who do not even engage in it, hail them, discuss them, and by our
reverence turn them into celebrities.
That is already bad enough. The EFCC may
or may not be winning the fight against cyber crimes-we wish them
well- but it becomes a different issue altogether when we become the
vanguards of this despicable way of life by using Music to celebrate
it.
What Kelly Handsome just did was to
provide a song for our morally bankrupt internet tricksters popularly
known as yahoo-yahoo boys to, in company of their kinds, wine
dine and celebrate their evil activities. While this leaves him-Kelly
Hanson- smiling to the bank, it leaves us more morally bankrupt and
sinks us further in the murky waters of international disgrace and
ridicule.
How does one even associate such issue
as fraud with a religious word like halleluiah? Mugu-a victim-
don pay-has fallen prey-and you celebrate it by shouting
halleluiah. Does this in any way suggest a heavenly
acknowledgement of the success? Don’t we think we are reducing this
special-spiritual- word to nothingness by associating it with such
soiled and tainted exploits as internet fraud?
Wole Soyinka once acknowledged that his
was a wasted Generation. It is painful to admit now that my own
generation is not faring better. We are raising a people who have not
only closely copied their leaders but are fast fashioning ways of even
outdoing them. Carry out a poll of a hundred youths and 99.9% of them
will admit-without shame- that when they get into power they will also
steal.
My claim finds credence in our eagerness
to cut corners and obtain things free and fraudulently. Two weeks ago,
the whole country was thrown into frenzy as people went even into
refuge dumps scavenging for used MTN recharge cards, in order to cash
in on a technical problem MTN was experiencing. So many loaded free
units and boasted about it gleefully. What does this say of us as a
people?
While I don’t have any thing against
Kelly Hanson, if any thing, I think he is a pack of talents, I have
every thing against his song. I disagree with him on promoting fraud
and celebrating internet scammers. I insist that there are many more
issues to sing about and make money order than fraud. I hold very
strongly that his song is a bad influence on our youths and if we want
to turn this country around, we must have less of his type of music on
the airwaves.
This call goes out not only to
musicians; it also goes out to our nollywood directors and publishers
of Society magazines. Stop celebrating affluence as if that is all
there is to life. Stop promoting thievery of any form. Stop making it
look as though we all have to do the same thing to succeed. Stop
toying with the fleeting sensibilities of our extremely gullible
youths. The effects of these are overwhelming and we all are victims
of it.
Sylva Nze Ifedigbo
Abuja Nigeria
nzeifedigbo@yahoo.com
www.nzesylva.wordpress.com
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