The primary reason many black people all over the world make money, steal money from public till and display their bogus wealth is to oppress those they do like and impress those they do not like.
Nigerians are not the worst hit. Africans have the uncanny habit of flagrant exhibitionist display of wealth, beauty, intelligence, excellence and other natural endowments.
The narrative is the same in every black community all over the world. From the Nigerian musical artiste who sings about money, cars, house, clubbing and women to his African American Cousins like Birdman, Lil Wayne, Snoop Doggy Dogg to Kanye West to Dr. Dre to P. Diddy to Fifty Cent to Lil Trashy. They all display their cash, cars, blings, diamonds on social media and make it rain in clubs. The list of crappy social ambivalence is endless.
This is why Davido's cliche tag is 'OBO' - 'Omo Baba Olowo' - Son of the Wealthy Father. This is why his lyric contains having 30billion Naira in the account. This is why his elder brother bragged that his dogs eat better than some people.
This is why celebrities put their lives on display when they acquire any little thing only to cry foul that the people's mouth and thumb can't stay out of their lives.
This is why we mount the pulpit from the pew to show forth God's glory to the brethren giving explicit details of how we made mega bucks as God's elect, forget the indiscretion that armed robbers, their informants and kidnappers are in church as spiritual patients simply not responding to treatment.
This is why Wizkid will show off a mansion in Lekki as his, forget that nosy Linda Ikeji will find him out and blog about his inability to renew the rent of the same mansion he claims he owns, with proof of ejection and eviction notices...
This is why we can't go to ordinary Ikeja city mall without taking a selfie even If we can't 'shop rite'. How much more If we go to Dubai mall?
For the average black man, it is not just the thrill of money or the accomplishments of success.
For the successful African melanin, it is not just the joy of fulfilment or the excitement of comfort...
For the black man with little cash in his pocket, it is all about the hasty desire to announce the arrival of success, it's about the delight in humiliating another, it's about the craving to be worshipped, it's about the allure of praise, the thrill of oppression, the sense of belonging to the class of the stupendously affluent with the character of squander in the glare of shocking squalor, it is about the capacity to flaunt mid-life luxury, read comfortable stress and wealth without helping the needy. It's about resplendent arrogance.
This was what birthed the axiom: 'If you got it, you've got to flaunt it'. Forget that the flaunting mentality is a mentality of lack and morbid foolishness. If you've really got it, you don't need to flaunt it, it readily shows.
Real money doesn't talk. It swears, roars and shakes without being displayed. If you are a Billionaire in dollars, you won't think much of it enough to display it in cash, it's in invaluable assets defying a capturable display.
That people find joy in displaying their possession is conclusive proof that they don't have much of it. That ploy about empty barrels and noise. You get it.
An average black man doesn't want to be successful if it will not allow him show off and brag to his family, neighbours and peers. Poverty is indeed a mentality, not just the mere absence of money. True poverty is showing a greed of insufficiency inspite of money.
Black people are incapable of comprehending quiet success. They can't imagine making it without making noise. No such thing as noiseless triumph.
But the truth is- Only coins make noise, real cash is noiseless and wireless. To announce their arrival, gongs must blare, woofers from noisy car speakers must pollute the environment, they must appear dressy and masquerading. Wealth that isn't loud, boisterous, vain, noisy, ostentatious, unsettling, discomforting and condescending to others is no real wealth to these empty vaunters.
This is how Yahoo boys and Internet fraudsters readily give themselves out to Law Enforcement Agents by their showy appearances, pimped vehicles, loud music, shiny wheels, dressy attires and choking lofinda. Even without questioning, when you appear this glitzy way at a Police checkpoint, don't argue, just park and drop something for the boys or go in for thorough investigation.
It is on this premise that we spray cash at parties and buy casket in the club. It is on this note we announce ourselves to our detractors and cut short our own success by reporting ourselves unwittingly to our vilest enemies. Discretion, we have not. Sense? None.
If you move with shoulder pads on and find it goitreable to greet, you are just an overdressed idiot. That is not pride, it's indignant arrogance mixed with a thin veneer of delusion.
If you find it exciting to taunt someone else with a factory reject, savage, Tokunbo vehicle declared no longer fit for American roads because it has onned airbag light on a permanent basis, you are simply stupid. And to think you bought it with a loan and shared the test-he-money? All shades of stupid.
If you oppress your kinsman with a car made by Europeans, Americans and Japanese, what do you want the car makers to do?
If an untapped palm wine is intoxicating you, how exactly is it doing you? I am not understanding.
It's so pathetic that black people have lacked for so long and now find basic comfort that is supposed to be a natural order of life as aesthetic ostentatious luxury deserving special display.
If you see the need to flaunt your arrival, small dreams and little accomplishments as a start-up, you are just a pathetic ebony infant average Joe or Josephine with small dreams.
If all you have to your name is an automobile, a miserable flat and you make no real impact on the coming generation and you wear the tag of an oppressor, you are of all men the most miserable.
If all you have is fake, long eyelashes, nixoderm make up, ruby woo red or burnt black lip stick like a homeless ghost, shaky foundation and tescoat paint brown powder, waist cincher, cheap lace wigs, padded bums and an instagram account and you have the baseless effrontery and the Brazilian confidence to call yourself a Slay Queen who is peppering them, you are just a rotten, overripe tomato incapable of peppering no one.
If you have to wear all your wealth around your neck, dragging thousands of dollars around like a rabid dog, capturing your whole essence in a picture without the attendant humility of simplicity, you are just a poor man with money. That your chain is golden doesn't mean you are not in chains. You are only in a golden bondage.
Real wealth consists of living with class, finesse, decorum and panache. Indeed you can buy a house or a car with money, but you can't buy class.
It's unnecessary to display your wealth. Let it show in human kindness and philanthropy, not in cameraic exhibition and social media radiant extravagance. If all you do is show off to the poor, you are not rich, you are simply a raving mad, unempathetic sociopath.
It's worse off when you display the wealth you do not have and show off a person you are not, you cut short yourself from help and sense. You are simply a good waste of your life and very essence.
If you live your life as a pepperous human, change.
Before you pepper us Oh Ye small-minded Black people, make sure there is too much juice and too much sauce. Be a Mark, Not a Mayweather.
-Word Bank.