By Oladeinde Olawoyin
The grand idiocy we now glamourize as “Comedy Pranks” may be the end of what’s left of this Luggardian contraption. Add that to skyrocketed domestic prices and an alarming youth unemployment rate (over 50%!) driving every dick and harry towards making “prank videos” and you have the lethal package needed for this looming conflagration.
First, anyone who cares to dissect the poorly veiled classism that goes into the conception of ideas in many of these ubiquitous “prank videos” would see through the subtle dehumanization of the ‘wretched of the earth’, the already impoverished and (socio-economically) powerless Nigerians. The ‘pranked subjects’ are often some random old men in some suburban hamlets, or some innocent-looking middle-age women in some low-budget neighborhoods. If the subject of the prank is a Policeman or a LASTMA officer, he is always always the poverty-stricken officer on the street, not some Ogas in some AC-ied offices. The philistine stratification is quite obvious, because those people are like the proverbial low-hanging fruits that can be dehumanized without consequences.
Due to the hardship in the land, many ordinary, poverty-stricken Nigerians are mere walking corpses. Others are going about with numerous undiagnosed ailments. Why compound their problems with idiotic pranks that would mess up their (mental) health?
I just watched a ‘Prank video’ wherein a ‘cultist’ ordered some students to stoop before him, staged some violent theatrics, and “obtained” their mobile phones from them. In the midst of the melee, he bleated some incoherent saccharine at the visibly disoriented students while others moved far away from the scene. At the end of the show of idiocy, the students took to their heels. Then he recalled them, smiling sheepishly like an he-goat, bleating “Na prank o… na prank o”.
Judging from the major landmarks in the video, it was staged in The Polytechnic Ibadan.
Now, just few days ago, multiple media reports had it that there was a series of shootings on the campus of the same institution. The News Agency of Nigeria confirmed that the shooting was between two rival cult groups on campus. Due to the unfortunate incident, NAN said, students who had gathered at different locations on campus were jittery as commotion ensued. The shooting took place around the Central Administrative Building, lasting for almost 15 minutes!
To be sure, from the days of the Jeje episode through to the Tombolo era, Poly Ibadan has always been quite tense in terms of security. Just last November, a student was shot dead on campus. Some staff members also sustained gunshot injuries in a December 2021 attack on the staff quarters.
But given that the cause of the Monday shooting is yet to be ascertained, it’s beyond disgusting to imagine that anyone would stage such a show of idiocy on the same tension-soaked campus in the name of “prank”.
There is another clown who goes about in white Jalabia or so. I saw one cringe-worthy “prank” video wherein a fan said he (White Jalabia) deserves a bigger platform to showcase his arts. No, Mr. Fan, you missed the point. Your hero deserves some Bianca Ojukwu-certified slaps more than any other thing in this life. The dude must have heightened the blood pressure of at least half of the poor Okada riders and artisans he has featured in his “prank videos” thus far.
A society is a reflection of what it condones, glamourizes, and elevates as the zeitgeist. Of course, I understand that there is always a thin line between addressing stuff like this and stifling art. But while I support the right of an artist to provoke, it’s equally important to draw the lines when such provocation seems to be at the detriment of public good, in addition to the inherent classism in the supposedly “provocative” art. It’s a delicate bend but I am very certain that if this isn’t addressed, we are sitting on a keg of gunpowder. Literally.