By David-Chyddy Eleke
I may be out of tune with a lot of things, but I see many things that Nigerian youths indulge as being awkward.
Across the male and female folks of these Gen Z youths, you must find something awkward. May be their fashion sense, quests, behaviours, speaking habit or something else.
Last week at a car wash, I spotted a young boy with saggy knickers. The knickers were sagged so low, even when there was a belt attached to it, that they revealed his very dirty boxers. He made no attempt to conceal his obviously dirty and torn underwear.
As my eyes remained glued to his backside, he suddenly whipped out a small comb from his pocket and started combing his beard. I then realised I had been looking at his backside, without even caring about his face. When I looked, his face bore dark, well trimmed beard, that showed evidence of care. I just wondered within me, if he could spend so much on his beard, why not as little as wash his underwear? That is Gen Z for you.
In my neighbourhood, a certain young girl spots a nose-ring. I used to wonder why she had to take pains to pierce her nose. I have asked a few young girls who have nose-rings, and the only reason that I could reckon with is from a girl who said to me – “it brings out the beauty of the face”.
Quite frankly, I do not know how a nose ring ‘brings’ out the beauty of the face. But for the young girl in my neighbourhood, I felt I understood why she needed the ring. For a girl who has a pair of K shaped legs, it is only understandable that she takes steps to enhance the beauty of her face with the nose-ring, at least to make up for the bad shape of her legs.
But guess what, just as I’m already getting over the reason behind the nose-ring, she hit me again this morning.
I was taking my boys to school when she passed by and greeted. Two of those K shaped legs now have beads on them. I stared at those legs until my children noticed that I was distracted.
So, do beads or leg chain which I see many girls wear, also bring out the beauty of the legs too? These Gen Z people never cease to amaze one.
A young guy that I know ‘picked’ money last year. He first bought himself a Mercedes Benz AMG, pure white colour. His friends said the car cost him close to N20million.
He was declaring drinks for his guys, and he asked that I take some drinks too. I asked one of the guys what they were celebrating, and he said: “The guy just ‘pick’ money last week, and him buy new car, na im we dey celebrate.”
I have known the guy for sometime, and I can not say which line of business he is into, or what work he does, and all of a sudden he ‘picked’ money and bought a big jeep, and they want me to drink in celebration? No way. I told the guy I was in a hurry to rush somewhere, and I also added that he could have bought himself a small car that won’t attract too much attention. One of his friend however explained to me that they have another friend in their league who has same car and colour, so he had to acquire one, to officially announce that he is not in a lower league. By the way, let me tell you, to ‘pick’ money is a language used by cyber criminals, popularly called ‘yahoo boys’, and it means to successfully steal another person’s money.
Among the Gen Z Youths, disdainful acts are now celebrated and hailed. That is why you see scammers openly telling you “I be G guy”.
Even prostitution has been baptized with a new and more appealing name like: runs, hook up and others.
I recently found a young lady on Facebook, with the name Comicmiss. She posts videos of interviews she hold with young girls, while asking them random questions. The two questions I always lookout for are: “Between a civil servant and a Yahoo boy, who will you date, and hook up or relationship, which do you prefer?”
For the first question, many of the girls usually say they preferred to date Yahoo boys. Even when they are reminded of the risk of dating a Yahoo boy, they still insist. For the second, many of the girls also state clearly that they preferred hook up (prostitution) to keeping a relationship. The audacious among them even go further to affirm that hook up was more lucrative. That is the kind of world we share with the Gen Z youths.
By the way, I didn’t explain Gen Z to you. This is short for Generation Z, and the Collins Dictionary define Generation Z as “members of the generation of people born between the mid-1990s and mid-2010s who are seen as confident users of new technology”. The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary also defined Generation Z as “the generation of people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s.”
Welcome to Gen Z world. Nothing surprises, nothing is shameful, even the most ignominious act is celebrated, so long it brings fame and money.
