Mohbad is a young and very talented musical artist whose death on September 12, 2023, has attracted wide youth agitation in Nigeria. The youth are calling for justice because they believe his label owner, Naira Marley, also a musician probably killed him. Mohbad is the street name of Oladimeji IleriOluwa Imole Aloba given to the youngster after he made his first three songs. When his contemporaries heard him, they told him he was 'bad' because his songs appealed to them greatly. Mohbad is a combination of an English word and a Yoruba word, Moh meaning 'I am' and 'bad' which means not good. Mohbad resisted the appellation initially but eventually accepted it. Everything Mohbad did since then was ‘bad,’ that is, exceptional. His father, Mr Aloba is a poor carpenter who squeezed himself to send him to fee-paying primary and secondary schools. He did because he saw that his son was brilliant. Mohbad made his Senior Secondary School examination with very good grades and his father decided he must go to a higher institution. He got a surety to take a loan from an extortionist loan organization that the government allows to swindle people without hindrance. That organization whose method of taking back its loan is so cruel and unorthodox that many of its customers have had to commit suicide. Mr. Aloba dared the odds, took the loan and paid for Mohbad's entrance into a polytechnic. But Mohbad will not attend classes. He was fed up with his father's poverty. Many days he and his brothers went to bed without meal. He had seen his mother weep because there was no meal for the children. His mother abandoned the family and didn't see Mohbad for ten years.
Meanwhile, Mohbad had decided to make money at all costs and wherever the money was. At the polytechnic Mohbad got mixed among the scammers called Yahoo boys in Nigeria. He put his musical talents and Yahoo activity to use. These drew him to Naira Marley, a London-trained musician who is alleged to be a drug lord and a heavy user of drugs. Promptly, Naira Marley signed him as a singer for the label. Naira Marley had also founded a movement called Marlian whose philosophy of life is very weird. They recruit youths from primary school to university. Their girls don't wear pants or brassiers; their boys don't wear pants, don't wear belts, and they 'fagbo jean,' a coinage that means free use of marijuana. The government looked the other way.
Mohbad continued his music living in the enclave of Naira Marley, with other youths, boys and girls, which had become a cult of sorts. Naira Marley was arrested for alleged financial fraud by the EFCC, the nation's anti-fraud agency but was let go. The federal government including Lagos State, the immediate government close to the Naira Marley enclave could not bother with what was going on in the enclave which continued to grow in leaps and bounds. Rather than dim Naira Marley and his Marlians, his arrest by EFCC further popularized him among the youths. When Mohbad joined the Marlians, Naira Marley allegedly offered that he could sleep with any of the girls of his choice or all of them. That was the benefit of being a Marlian. Whether Mohbad availed himself of the offer is not known but a social media post said he told the boss he was not a womaniser. But eventually, he married one of the girls, Omowumi who had a five-month-old child whose paternity has become another social media controversy with some saying that the baby has a very striking resemblance to one of the alleged suspects believed to have had a hand in the death of Mohbad, Sammy Larry, a friend of Naira Marley and Marlian. Those who say this have asked for a DNA test to determine the boy’s paternity, and one of those who hold the view has promised to give the mother 10 million naira if she will submit to the test. Sammy Larry, the alleged father has not spoken directly about the paternity of the child.
Mr Aloba described his son as a very gentle boy who had a relationship not with a father but as a friend to him. He often assisted in his carpentry work and when there was no money on him, knew how to make piggy banks and other things, and sell them to fetch money. It was the same gentle Mohbad that became wild after meeting with scammers and more so after he began to live in Naira Marley's enclave. With his talent in music, things began to look up for Mohbad as he made good money. At the expiration of the three-year contract he signed with the Naira Marley label, he decided to leave to have his label. That began his trouble as his mother said. His mother said he was always beaten in the enclave of Naira Marley. Even when he goes for shows, Naira Marley allegedly sends people to beat him up. They accused him of having been mentally deranged. Mohbad mother's denied that, and some of his contemporaries said it is always the strategy of the record labels to ruin the image of their signees when they decide to quit. Naira Marley denied he ever beat Mohbad or sent anybody to beat him up.
The death of Mohbad is threatening the nation with another youth revolt which may be bigger than the #EndSars of October 2020 which almost terminated the oppressive administration of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari. Mohbad's death and the youth angst that followed it are a revelation of the cause of the problems of the nation and why they are arising. From the north-west where we have banditry and kidnapping, Mohbad reveals a youth population that has been abandoned in the bush, not given education, not cared for, left to interact with wild animals, as it were, a youth population has been pampered, encouraged to kill and maim in the name of Islam.
In the northeast, Mohbad reveals a youth population that is abandoned into religious fanaticism, one that is refused education and one that has been over-pampered for so long, a youth fed on drugs, a youth exposed to imported Islamism. In the southwest, Mohbad reveals a youth whose parents have abandoned the old aggressive quest for education, whose successive governments have abandoned the serious investment in education thereby churning out half-educated youth who cannot secure gainful employment, who take to drug and street begging by harassment and are addicted to drugs and alcohol. In the southeast, it reveals a youth population who no longer subscribe to the Ndigbo apprenticeship scheme but want quick and unearned wealth which is the focus of society. This became a willing tool in the hands of propagandist secessionists.
When Tinubu said the nation would no longer fund university education, he was building on an already destroyed youth. What it means is that many youths whose parents are artisans like Mohbad's father will not be able to send their children to school. Such will join the army of drug addicts on the street. Because of Tinubu's inaccessible loan scheme and increase in university fees, we must expect more youth in the music business and more in drug peddling and use. Tinubunomics is driving the youth to crime and drugs, to Boko-Haram and banditry. Senator Ishaku Elisha Abbo, Senate committee chairman for creative economy showed responsibility and readiness when he visited the mother of the late Mohbad as the youth mourns this star who represents their aspiration and neglect. We are yet to see Hannatu Musawa, minister for creative economy who abandoned NYSC thus refusing to identify with the youths. We expect the new ministers for youths to take up the matter of Mohbad.
If youth restiveness and abandonment must be solved the nation must think seriously of harnessing the youth strength in sports, entertainment, tourism and education. Senators must support Senator Ishaku Elisha Abbo in his quest to sanitize the music industry by getting the government involved in that vital money-spinning business and delivering the youths from the vultures who run the industry. Government must prevents other Mobads from dying prematurely.
Tunde Akande is both a journalist and pastor. He earned a Masters degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos
Inorder to solve this youth problem we've to start from the LGA and state level by reintroducing primary and secondary school education. In Edo State for example, there are no primary secondary school infrastructures like, buildings, tables, chairs, teachers, education boards etc.
Secondly, the government needs to encourage and support people to go back to the village and farm. Farming was the occupation for three quarter of the state population. It was through farming our fathers sent their children to secondary schools and universities. Farming is now a joke in the village. Third quarter of the villagers has moved to the cities with no proper education and job.