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Malaysian-based flamboyant Nigerian Instagram big boy HushPuppi Ray took us down memory lane on how a landlord chased his family out of the
house because they couldn’t pay their rent, how he shared shoes,
toiletries and under wears with his younger ones, and what he went
through just to leave the shores of Nigeria for a better future. His post below…
“Letter to the Ghetto Kid:
As a man that I am today who developed from being one of you guys, who
went through the same struggles you are presently going through, who had
to run and jump hurdles where other kids just walk past the same
situation in a better environment with better resources and much
provisions, I know the society do not expect you to make it, the
government don’t care about your future, they toy and joke around making
rules and laws that only affect you and benefit the rich. You lack
everything it requires to become who you might have loved to be, do the
things you would have loved to do or to live the life you may have seen
on tv or the internet, which I know you even have limited access to
because there’s never power supply for such, which means you are
deprived most of the things that can be learnt through tv and internet
in the first place which makes your dreams smaller, quicker to fade away
but I want you to know that darkness you are, without the dark, the
stars won’t shine and so you can shine out if that darkness.
You have been deprived so many right a child deserves and the world look
down on you because you are nothing but a clot of blood miraculously
turned a baby, and an unfortunate one at that. Good health, good foods
or good education hasn’t been in any way your chance to have. Looking at
you disgusts not your brethren only but even strangers are not so
impressed for your unhealthy appearance. Your strength; courage; and
dreams are nothing but hallucination just because you were not supposed
to dream big.
I am sure nobody ever believed in whatever you say or do. You have been
victimized by neighbors; friends; and even family members who were
supposed to give you hope.
This is my story, this is me and this is the hushpuppi you have been
hearing about. The Ghetto kid in me is at Its peak and ready to explode
and spread around the globe. I am you and you are me. I represent every
under priviledge kid of the world and especially of Nigeria and of Lagos
and of Bariga and of Oworonsoki — Where a landlord had chased me and
my family out of a rented room. I’ll never forget the look on my
mother’s face trying to send me and my siblings to neighbors and
relatives and the sadness in the eyes of my sibblings. Now, you see i
represent you? Trust me I know how it feels to not have parents come
watch you in school play football or run races in ur school, I know how
it feels to come out your apartment to take showers in a zinc sheet
bathroom separated from the building.
The society made me who i am today, i was never one of those who their
parents couldn’t afford a movie ticket to see a movie when Silver bird
cinema came newly, I shared shoes, toiletries and underwears with my
younger ones as well as mats and see me now at my early thirties, i am
writing you a letter from one of the favourite places any human alive
would have loved to be, billionaire or penniless.
Nobody is listening to your cries; your lamentation; and your grievances
are not felt a bit. If i had sat down complaining about the bad
government; bad economy ; bad friends, I will not be here today. I had a
dream i was not supposed to cry, knowing nobody would listen, so i rose
from the hood and decided to do the things my forefathers never did. I
crossed the seas, walked through burning bushes, jumped over thorns and
babbed wire. A lot of people know me from when I used to use okada to be
selling “akube” clothes to boys that was making cheddars in diff hotels
up and down the mainland of Lagos.
Look at yourself, do you like the way you are right now? Are you pushing
beyond limits? Are you succumbing to the tune of the selfish ‘Baba
Alaye’ in your neighborhood? Nobody will help you if you decide not to
help yourself even hailing Hushpuppi 1,000 wouldn’t help you either, be
about you, get up, pick a struggle, leave your comfort zone, work hard
at it, pray a lot and don’t kiss ass, rich people are users and
inconsiderate.
Dear hustling hood kid, let no man hold you down. My advice for you is
never to put your dreams in the hands of Ambode and Buhari, they don’t
know you, they don’t believe in you cos there’s millions of people like
you on their neck, it’s not much they can do if they can even do
anything at all so don’t expect you will ever win or make it by waiting
for anyone.”
To be continued….
