I am just back from the Oval and I regret to inform you that London has in fact fallen.
More Arsenal shirts than Surrey shirts. Forget about Palace or Charlton.
Arsenal fans everywhere in South London. Yesterday I was in East London at my parents - their local pub had more Arsenal fans in it than West Ham fans for the Conference League 3 years ago. Lots more. Not even close.
The "London FC" people are right. I don't like it, but they're right. And given the way that London tends to eat the world, don't get smug if you're outside of London. If we have half a decade of Arsenal dominance, by the end of it they'll have taken over Liverpool and Manchester too and the economy will be one giant Arsenal merch store with a few farms and data centres tacked on.
Foreign leaders will grant profitable trade and visa deals in return for being allowed exclusive pre-access to the new Declan Rice hologram experience in the Emirates Museum.
Bruno: 3 years in the Portuguese league with Sporting — 0 league titles.
Gyokeres: 2 years in the Portuguese league with Sporting — 2 league titles.
Bruno: 7 years in the Premier League with Man United — 0 league titles.
Gyokeres: 1 year in the Premier League with Arsenal — 1 league title.
I hope you all get the message.
Also, the myth that white people benevolently "ended" slavery should die in 2026.
There were literally HUNDREDS of slave rebellions and anti-European wars and uprisings across Africa and the New World, to the point where it became physically dangerous to be a slave owner, and white people in slave societies lived in a constant state of terror.
Enslaved Africans made the entire business of slavery so dangerous and expensive that the owners of capital began exploring more efficient alternatives provided by new technology, a lot of which was built off the uncredited inventions and genius of enslaved people.
This messy, uneven process is what is now called the Industrial Revolution.
The idea that there was ever a time when Africans were so passive and pathetic that despite being farmed and traded like animals against their will, some benevolent oyibo "ended" slavery on their behalf, is one of the biggest and most egregious lies ever told.
Jean-Jacques Dessalines didn't die making Haiti the world's first postcolonial black republic so that someone could credit his lifetime of military struggle to white people's alleged "benevolence". Let this horrible myth die already.
There’s something called the “meat” of an argument. Sadly, most people on here don’t know how to find it.
This quoted tweet is fundamentally about one thing: grown adults should be able to say no to people without hiding behind settings.
Half the comment section camped on the one or two lines about read receipts and argued from there.
They understood the main point. But once a line threatened their situation, they abandoned the argument and started defending themselves instead.
I’ve watched this pattern repeat itself too many times to call it coincidence.
It’s a comprehension problem.
Yesterday I wrote about young boys growing up broken. It went viral. People blamed poverty. Some blamed bad governance. Others blamed parents. Everyone had a theory.
After thinking deeply, here's what I think we hardly want to admit:
We created the monster we're now afraid of.
Let me explain.
Twenty years ago, when a young boy said "I want to be a doctor," we clapped. When he said "I want to be an engineer," we hailed him. When he said "I want to work hard and build something," we called him intelligent.
Today nko? We now mock such a boy. "School na scam", "I dey spend doctor salary for one meal"....
Somewhere between then and now, we changed the definition of success. We stopped celebrating builders and started worshipping grabbers. "Na money be fine bobo"
A 24 year old software developer earning N200k monthly parks his 04 Corolla and walks into a restaurant. A 19 year old Yahoo boy drives up in a Benz.
Who gets the attention? Who do the girls rush to? Who do younger boys want to be like? Who do the staff give more attention to?
The Yahoo boy. Unless you've not been paying enough attention.
We're the ones who see a young man buy a car at 17 and instead of asking "how?", we ask "when will my own son blow?", "Boss cut soap", "I tap your grace".
We're the aunties and uncles who praise the fraudster's mother at church while ignoring the teacher's son who just graduated with first-class honours. "Na first class we go chop"
We're the girls who post "I don't date broke guys" and wonder why some boys are desperately chasing money by any means.
We're the parents who complain about our children's recklessness but never ask where the sudden money came from.
We rewarded the shortcuts. Now we're shocked that nobody wants to take the long road.
You want to know why these boys have no respect? Because we taught them that respect is bought, not earned.
Why do they pop pills? Because we never taught them how to handle pain without escaping it. Why are they reckless? Because we celebrated recklessness and called it "sharp guy."
The 15year old boy watching all this isn't stupid. He sees that the honest man struggles while the fraudster prospers. He sees that patience gets you mockery while overnight riches get you applause.
So he makes a choice. And we act surprised.
This is not about defending them. This is about accepting that we built the factory that's producing them.
Until we're ready to admit that, no amount of blame-shifting will change anything.
The problem is not out there. It's in here. In our values. In what we celebrate. In what we excuse. In what we normalise.
You can't raise a generation on fraud, greed, and shortcuts, then expect them to value integrity, patience, and hard work. It doesn't work like that.
You cannot water weeds and then wonder why no flowers grow.
INALEGWU.
Something is fundamentally broken with how young boys are growing up right now. It's not discussed enough.
Earlier this year, I visited an Amala restaurant. You know those ones where you stand across a transparent glass and make your orders. Three young boys stood beside me. The oldest couldn't have been more than 18. Baggy trousers, oversized crop tops, and flashing their phones for everyone to see.
Within seconds, they started shouting at the girls serving to attend to them. One of the girls politely told them to be patient. That there were other people ahead of them. They felt offended.
Next thing I heard: "Ogun kee your papa. How much be your salary sef? I dey blow your whole salary one night for Martell inside club."
I was stunned. Even Dangote wouldn't be that proud. Thankfully, the older men in the restaurant made them apologise. But the damage was done. The disrespect and humiliation of that young girl.
Just last week, I had a conversation with a friend about this. We both agreed: things are getting out of hand. My biggest concern is parenting. Many of the kids that will be raised in the next 15 to 20 years might just lack any form of values.
Already, there is a drug abuse pandemic among young boys that isn't talked about enough. Finding young people between 17 and 24 who are not into drugs is like passing a thread through a needle in the dark. Codeine, trams, loud, molly... They're mixing substances like it's a lab experiment.
Money fa? Their mindset is completely warped. You see 15-year-old boys talking about buying a Benz. And some actually do. How do they get the money? That's a gist for another day jare. But they're not interested in school, work, or anything requiring patience or hard work. They just want to earn illegally and live lavishly.
Should we talk about their attitude to life? Very uncouth. Very reckless. You can even see them here on X. Disrespecting people, mocking people with honest jobs. Celebrating scammers as role models. No respect for anything except money and flex.
Now tell me. What kind of kids will these boys raise? What kind of fathers will they become?
Kids exposed to drugs from birth. Kids who grow up thinking "pressing" is the only way. Kids who will never understand delayed gratification, sacrifice, or integrity.
This is not just about one generation. Broken boys raise broken children. And those children raise even more broken children.
The scary part? Many of these boys have parents who are alive and well. But those parents are either too busy, too ignorant, or too afraid to discipline them. Some are even enablers. "My son is hustling." "At least he's not begging."
No sir/ma. That's not all that matters.
Because when your son disrespects a girl trying to earn honestly, that matters. When your son is popping pills at 17, that matters. When he's scamming people and buying bottles with the money, that matters.
We are raising a generation of boys who don't know how to earn respect. They only know how to demand it. Boys who don't know how to build. They only know how to take.
A tree that grows crooked from the root will never stand straight, no matter how much you water it.
INALEGWU.