Falz – This is Nigeria (Nigeria)
Nigerian actor Falz jumps on Childish Gambino‘s viral hit „This is America“ that presents the gun violence the black community in America is facing, to formulate his detailed portrait of the complex problems the Nigerian society is facing: “This is Nigeria”. The video is released only shortly after the recent controversy of Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari, blaming the youth of Nigeria to be lazy, with an unjustified statement at the Commonwealth Summit in London.
There are more and more direct reactions coming up, showcasing what young Nigerians have achieved, despite all the challenges the society faces, with hashtags like #WeAreGlobal #LazyNigerianYouths or the viral #IdeserveSomeAccolades challenge, initiated by Charles Okocha‘s infamous video on instagram:
Falz, a lawyer, who stepped into the limelight as an entertainer, actor, comedian and musician, now uses the global attention to present the problems of Nigerian society to the world, with pastors selling miracles to attract new church members, young people dreaming to win the lottery while taking notorious tramadol drug cocktails, the herdsmen and farmers conflicts in the middle belt of Nigeria, superstar wannabes and pretenders, politicians rigging votes and rising above the system while ordinary people are struggling with no electricity and rich kids getting a pass out of problems, while the poor stay confronted with police brutality: “This is Nigeria, look how I’m living now, look how I’m living now. Everybody be criminal“.
Even Falz with this clever take on Gambino’s success, that in the meantime got shared by superstars in the US like P.Diddy, is affected by the challenges the Nigerian youth has to deal with, having to use the formula of an african-american style of public criticism to reach out to the world.
