FEATURE ARTICLE

Otunba IlemobadeTuesday, August 18, 2015
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MATERIALIST NIGERIANA

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''Philosophy cannot develop fully unless it writes it's memoirs or keep a diary'' -Paulin Hountondji.

have kept my own diary and reflected critically in other to find an understanding on how and why our commune or people behave in a certain manner even on the most difficult question of ontology, my soliloquousness upon critical reflection over my diary notes led to the query, what is in a name?

Materialist Nigeriana, that was what a fellow Nigerian called himself during a conversation I had over a cup of tea while waiting for my train on a journey to France recently.

I did not know what to make or how to define such a nomenclature, so I asked how do you mean? And he began with a strange elucidation that he came to France with the sole purpose of acquiring lifestyle product like perfume, clothes and jewelry, etc. he began to mention high sounding trade names like Donna Karen, Dolce&Gabbana, Ralph Lauren,... and I was flabbergasted.

I was flabbergasted not because all that he said was interesting or of any intellectual significance, but by the ubiquitiousness of the fellow stupidity cum lack of consciousness that he is a victim of our consumption malady.

Consumerism or the hedonistic lifestyle exhibited by our people (Nigerian) both at home and in the diaspora, should be a major concern for any right thinking Nigerian, since such "materialist exhibitionism" is a contributing factor to the state of penury we found ourselves as a nation, evidently presented by the high level of theft, profligacy, corruption and mismanagement of our commomwealth in Nigeria.

Our people have come to see ''materialist exhibitionism'' and ''hedonistic voyeurism'' as a sign of good living even when they lived in an extremely impoverished millieu. No person ask questions about the sources of wealth of the actors in this mode of living: the sloganeering is if you can't beat them join them, a rat race into a bottomless pit.

The televangelist prosperity preachers are everywhere selling their ware of hedonistic pleasure to gullible, dogmatic pedestrian, a kind of religious pastoralism sherperding the flock with a tantalizing scent of ''hedonistic voyeurism''.

The pervasiveness of the paraphernalia of hedonistic lifestyle warps or pervert our people into poverty blackhole without any redemption, it is therefore imperative that we adopt a total socio-engineering of the mindset of our teeming masses towards a sustainable lifestyle.

I repudiate and condemned all forms of consumerism, "materialist exhibitionism", "hedonistic voyeurism", as an example of good living.

LET US HAVE A SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLE.

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