It has been with us for some time now. It is becoming the norm in almost all spheres of our lives as a nation. Indeed, the millennial would seem to think it is the norm to adopt a casual approach to everything we do. Let us look at some scenarios.
Some group of admission-seeking candidates gathered in a hall last year got me thinking about what has gone wrong with us. In that hall were teenagers to present their original credentials and be interviewed for suitability. What shocked me was that close to half of them were casually dressed and poorly groomed for such an important trajectory in their lives. T-shirts dominated the gathering. Some ladies also came with t-shirts and ill-fitting trousers while the boys looked unkempt as if they came out from under the flyover bridges. How on earth did we come to this sorry pass? Did they need to be told that they were going for a formal forum?
A student paid me a visit some time ago. His hairstyle was intimidating and I had to do something to shock him. I marched him straight to the neighbourhood barber’s and changed his hair style to a more respectable one. I thereafter lectured him on Grooming, as a form of communication
Being formally dressed does not mean wearing western style suit and tie only. Our African style dresses with caps to match is acceptable. I give it to some of the candidates who came prepared and aware of the moment. Such candidates evoked positive rating on that score. It is true that some were brilliant in spite of their dressings but their ratings would be higher if they complemented with a brilliant dress sense fit for the moment. It is time for them to imbibe the lessons of a popular saying: the way you are dressed is the way you are addressed. Casual dressing evokes casual
treatment.
A student paid me a visit some time ago. His hairstyle was intimidating and I had to do something to shock him. I marched him straight to the neighbourhood barber’s and changed his hair style to a more respectable one. I thereafter lectured him on Grooming, as a form of communication. I told him that the security agents would stop him unnecessarily because he communicated negativity to them.
Perhaps the millennial are not to blame. They see the older generation approach their jobs with an embarrassing level of casualness. They saw public officials and figures do things that were unimaginable in times past. They see the shortcuts to quick wealth and the impunity with which the public till is converted to private use. The millennial see obvious thieves being conferred with traditional titles and sworn into public offices.
They want to be like Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, without the sweat and patience that go with building lasting wealth. After all, they croon, Dangote does not have two heads. It was a moment of pathos for me the other day passing under the Ojuelegba, Lagos bridge. A teenager with billows of the forbidden weed chanting listlessly to the tune of the popular song reminding us all that Dangote does not have two heads! Certainly he does not. But did he make his fortune by languidly sitting under the bridge near Gidan Muritalla in Kano? No. He built on the lead left by his forebears. The pop culture, full of noise and fury signifying nothing, urges the millennial on. So enamoured are they of pop stars that they dress like them, forgetting that those dresses are usually for stage performances only. They parade the streets with costumes looking like a cross between traditional masquerades and Halloween revellers.
The thought process is also descending to a high level of casualness; this is not surprising since attitudes determine behaviours. The attitudinal casualness is captured by the term wharever. Try to put them on the correct path and the more audacious ones will answer wharever, meaning that it does not matter. The age of the internet and its possibilities has both negative and positive consequences. The millennial are native to the internet and can navigate its applications with relative ease. What matters, though, is what they do with it. From my experience with the millennial, one negative area is the writing skills being eroded. Hardly can some of them sustain a two-page argument before casually careening off the radar of thought. School assignments are downloaded and passed off as their own works whereas their only contribution is the name they appended to the work. Shorthand spellings native to text messages and whatsapp chats find their ways into formal writings. Swear words sip in casually
too.
They are quick to tell you that Microsoft founder did not complete his programme at Harvard. Now that he has gone back to complete it, will they see the lesson? A continuous orientation of the mind is the duty of the older generation. But that generation also wobbles through, save for a few voices. It is to these few and far between voices that the millennial must listen. The path to lasting greatness is strewn with hard work and patience. It is the best path but it is the path less travelled in these giddy days. Casualness will ultimately lead to unpleasant
casualties.
*Dr. Jimoh teaches journalism at the Lagos State University.
