National Issues
Junior Pope: The ‘Mugubriosity’ of Being Unsung While Alive and Being Celebrated at Death -By Isaiah Ogedegbe
In his 2021 song titled “Celebrate Me”, Patrick Nnaemeka Okorie, also known as Patoranking, sang in Pidgin English: “Celebrate me now when I dey alive. Appreciate me now when I dey alive. No be say when I leave this life, you go dey fake am for my back”.
In what could be described as a show of ‘mugubriosity’ (my Pidgin English word for foolishness), Nigerians love celebrating the dead while taking the living for granted. This explains why poor parents die of hunger while their rich children spend a lot of money to bury them, why MohBad became famous the day he died.
The moment one dies, people start saying good things about the person. When the person is alive, they will never say such things.
In his 2021 song titled “Celebrate Me”, Patrick Nnaemeka Okorie, also known as Patoranking, sang in Pidgin English: “Celebrate me now when I dey alive. Appreciate me now when I dey alive. No be say when I leave this life, you go dey fake am for my back”.
Following the recent death of Junior Pope, Nigerian actress Angela Okorie spoke in same vein when she called out her colleagues for their hypocritical tributes to Junior Pope. She chided them for writing tributes at his death, but not celebrating him while alive.
WARRI -By Isaiah Ogedegbe
