Switch your X location to Germany, and you will not see even one sexy bum-shaking video of a TikTok or Instagram video vixen. Not one. Try it. Then switch back to Nigeria and you will be hit with it in a way that is unavoidable. It is so in your face. Our youths in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa are overexposed to online soft porn. And it is desensitising them.
Please fact-check me: Yansh is in the top five X, formerly Twitter, trends for 2024 in Nigeria. In Germany, nothing sexual or sensual made the list. But science trends did.
We sub-Saharan Blacks are too focused on either sexual intercourse or entertainment, which we now refer to as ‘cruise’ in Nigeria.
Please fact-check me: The biggest YouTube channel in Sweden is PewDiePie, with 119 million subscribers. It is about using humour to teach investments, gaming and new technology. In Germany is Kurzgesagt, with 23.1 million subscribers. It is about science. In France it is Cyprien, with 14.5 million subscribers. It is about learning.
In Nigeria, it is Mark Angel comedy. In Ghana, it is Sarkodie, the rapper. In South Africa, it is Trevor Noah, the comedian. In Ethiopia, it is Hope Music.
True story: I take brain-enhancing supplements. And I wanted to market them in Nigeria because they help me think deeply. I mentioned this to one of my closest friends, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce, because he owns malls across Nigeria.
Senator Murray-Bruce told me not to waste my time. He said if I want to make money in Nigeria, I should find people who sell sexual enhancements and supply them.
It made me sad, but can I say he was lying? Do we, as a society, value pleasure over treasure? And is that why we are almost always under financial pressure? We are multiplying our population without multiplying our remuneration. Until we reverse this, we cannot fulfil our potential.
Some of you who follow me know how much I travel. There is nowhere in Africa I have not visited. And sub-Saharan African towns have a template.
There must be churches. Many of them. Then, brothels. Next, you will find sports betting outlets. And finally, low-level shops, like Shoprite, that we confuse for luxury stores.
There are often no libraries, no sports centres, and, with few exceptions, no parks. May God bless Alhaji Lateef Jakande, who made eighties Lagos an exception to the rule. I don’t think there is any human being, living or dead, who built more schools and libraries in such a short time and in so small a geographical area as Jakande.
What is the solution to this malaise? We need an intellectual revolution in Nigeria and Black Africa. The current generation should not be our focus. Our focus should be their children. And we must begin with language.
Instead of having Bibles translated into every single African language, let us democratise science and have as many science books as possible translated into African languages.
Look at that proposed BRICS currency. It has the name of Nigeria written in Hausa. I know that Southern Nigerians will be upset. But look at the bigger picture. Better Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba than English, French, and German.
Inferiority begins from the mind. And that is where Africa has to fight it. One way we can do this is through early education.
We program our kids from youth to see themselves as inferior to Westerners by teaching them:
A for Apple instead of A for Akara
B for Ball instead of B for Boli
C for Cake instead of C for Cedi
We must Africanise Africa’s Europeanised education system.
We must stop teaching African children that Mungo Park discovered River Niger, that John Speke found the source of the Nile or that Richard Lander discovered River Benue. These are not just historical fallacies. They also condition the African child to see himself as inferior to Europeans.
Instead of London Bridge is Falling Down and Cinderella fairytales, let us teach African children right from primary one about the 1000-year-old Ife bronzes, the ancient Benin civilisation, Queen Amina of Zaria, Shaka the Zulu and his defeat of Britain, Mansa Musa and his fabulous wealth, and other historical facts about their great Black African heritage.
If we can initiate this intellectual revolution, our next generation will have a mental shift. Instead of cruise, we will have youths capable of manufacturing cruise missiles.
Anari Sam Jaja
