Hypocrisy can come in different shades and weight, vehicled by both young and old, men or women. It is now a troubling and intractable sontin in this we Nigeria.
Take Tina, my neighbour, she doesn’t work, won’t work, thinks she shouldn’t work, and consequently can’t find work.
Tina leaves off her aged mother who hawks rice and dodo in town. She has several boyfriends and numerous man friends, none of whom are interested in anything that remotely resembles marriage with Tina.
She is what you may call a dumping ground; less than a prostitute.
Afterall, another neighbour did the formerly undoable and hurled a prostitute from the Ashawo quarters to his house and did the needful.
He married the girl.
Oh, it caused an uproar, but every uproar usually comes to an end and people soon adjusts to other peoples misdeeds.
Life goes on, the price of MTN card remains 110 Naira.
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Back to Tina and the problem of hypocrisy.
This morning, a small group of children about 8 of them was playing in the compound. These, of course, were kids who ought to be at school; half of them were not because they are owing fees, the other half stayed back to show solidarity, I guess.
Soon, as is often the case with kids, they began to fight and some adults came in to stop them.
Tina was one of the adults.
She, in fact, was the most vocal.
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You see friends, even children, kids, can tell when an adult should shut up; they know the adults who should shut up their mouth when matters of propriety are up for discussion; they know the adults who should keep their advice or just shove it up somewhere dark and smelly.
But these kids don’t have the proper vocabulary nor the formal legitimacy to say, “aunty, excuse us ma, shut up!”
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So here we were, self-righteous Tina was on a roll, shouting and yelling at the kids.
“All of you are idiots! you should be sitting somewhere and be busy reasoning your lives instead of playing anyha. you people dont have sense.”
On and on she went, cursing their teachers at school, their parents at work, other neighbours, the local pastor, atheists, the president, gun-trotting herdsmen and the rainy season.
Just about anyone or anything that came to mind.
The kids stood about, quietly observing her bawl, but they couldnt hide their disdain.
Children may lack the words, but they sure know how to show scorn.
Like this: one had his eyes closed, thumb in his mouth, and was sucking that thumb seriously.
Another stood against a wall, and with bored indifference, she was fondling her bulbous navel. Two other boys danced shaku shaku to the sound of her voice, while the rest just ignored Tina.
She stopped shouting when her small tecno phones ringtone screamed into the quiet morning.
Later, the kids murmured about how Tina was a foolish girl who had a hundred boyfriends and was going straight to hell to die many times over.
“My mummy say she geh aids.” said one.
” She be mumu, she nor geh sense.”
“She can dey talk pipo matter! aproko!” said another.
Tina went in and came out painted, looking like a misshapen.
She is on to the next one.
The snickering of the kids saw her off.
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