The Nigerian entertainment industry is undoubtedly one of the most vibrant in Africa. Afrobeats is currently regarded as one of the biggest and most popular genres of music in the world. With this proliferation of Nigerian works of art, there has also been an export of different sub-cultures. Buttressing the saying that ‘art imitates life’, Saturday Beats takes a look at some popular words and phrases that have found their way into pop culture
Eluu P
The recent general elections were unarguably one of the most hotly contested and engaging in the country’s history.
The candidates of the two major political parties—All Progressives Congress and Peoples Democratic Party— were expectedly the frontrunners in their respective electoral races. However, there was a third force which gave these two parties a run for their money.
A former Vice Presidential candidate of the PDP, Peter Obi, had months before the election, ditched the party and found succour in the Labour Party. The former Anambra Governor soon began to amass an army of fans and admirers.
Though the elections have come and gone, one of the incidents that stood out for many was how a particular voter, Stephen Muoka, joined officials in counting the votes at his polling unit.
For every vote of the Labour Party, Muoka would chant ‘Eluu P’, and other voters would chorus the number of the votes. The phrase quickly went viral on social media. Comedians and other content creators made skits with it as a soundtrack, and some disc jockeys even turned it to a party mix.
In an interview with Saturday Beats, Muoka stated that he was unaware that he was being recorded when the video was made, and he had no inkling that it would go viral and make him popular. He said, “The video was recorded at my polling unit in Onu Orei Amechi Road, Topland, Enugu State. The Labour Party won that polling unit. I was not the one who recorded the video. One of my friends, Kachi, did. He put the video on TikTok. It was from there that a popular blogger, Tunde Ednut, picked it. From there, the video went viral. I did not even know that my friend was recording me. It was after the video went viral that I got to know about it.”
Stating his desire to meet Obi, Muoka said, “I wish to meet Peter Obi one day. I have a hundred per cent hope that one day, I would meet him.”
Help me, help me (He dey carry me go where I no know)
“Help me, help me. He dey carry me go where I no know,” were the words of a policewoman as a motorist she had flagged down and entered his car drove off with her to an unknown destination.
Even though Saturday Beats could not verify in which state the incident took place, the video caught like wildfire on social media, with thousands of Nigerians circulating it.
The words were also sampled in popular singer, Asake’s song, ‘Peace Be Unto You’, as well as other works of art.
A popular disc jockey, DJ YK, also wasted no time in making a mixtape out of it.
Pressure ti wa
At the height of the scarcity of cash occasioned by the naira redesign policy, there were a lot of frayed nerves. The situation got so bad that some banks and other places were burnt and their staff manhandled. On different occasions, adult men and women had stripped themselves bare in banking halls demanding for their own money.
Amidst the crisis, a television crew interviewed people on the streets to speak about their difficulty in accessing the new naira notes. One of the respondents laboured to articulate his thoughts in English, but at some point, he decided to speak Yoruba, a language that was evidently easier for him to express himself. In words that have been repeated in different variations, he said, “Ewo…mo gbo oyinbo. Pressure ti wa” (See, I don’t understand English, there is serious pressure”
The way he switched to Yoruba and the passion with which he spoke made the video go viral, with some even offering to meet him and give him some money.
The phrase has since been used in songs and comedy skits.
Soro soke
The slang, ‘soro soke’ which literally means ‘speak up’ gained traction during the #EndSARS protests of 2020.
It became a refrain of sorts for many of the protesters across the country.
The phrase was said to have first been used by a Nollywood actress, Toyin Afolayan, aka Lola Idije, in quite a number of movies. She is believed to have often said, “Soro soke were (Speak up, mad person).”
Meanwhile, a British author and journalist, Trish Lorenz, stirred controversy when she used the phrase as the title of her book. Her book was titled, ‘Soro Soke: The Young Disruptors of an African Megacity’. She was accused of culture misappropriation for attempting to take false ownership of the popular phrase.
Many Nigerians were particularly miffed when Lorenz claimed that she was the one who named the young Nigerians who spearheaded the protests as the ‘soro soke generation’. She had said, “This cohort exhibits a confident outspokenness and a tendency for creative disruption, leading me to name them the Soro Soke generation.”
About 7,000 Nigerians went on to sign a petition, which eventually got the publishers of the book, Cambridge University Press, to retract some of the controversial claims made by the author.
Gerrarahere
The word ‘gerrarahere’ is a bastardisation of the sentence, “Get out of here”, and it has been used in several skits and other works of art. As a matter of fact, it is the title of a 2015 song by popular rapper and actor, Folarin Falana, aka Falz, in which he featured Koker.
However, the word originated from an actor, ‘Gerrarahere’, who used it in a movie where he was speaking in a phoney American accent. In the movie, he had said, “Gerrarahere, man, s**t.”
Ironically, the movie was actually released about four years before the clip went viral on the Internet.
At the height of its popularity, a clip from the movie where Odega used the word was shared on social media by popular American rapper and businessman, Curtis Jackson, aka 50 Cent.
Odega also reaped some benefits from the popularity of the slang as he was featured in an advertisement by telecommunications company, Etisalat.
Speaking in an interview, Odega stated that the phrase was not in the script, and he actually improvised it. He had said, “Honestly, I didn’t think it was going to become a global thing. In the script, that line, ‘Gerrarahere’ was not included. I created it but not knowing it was going to blow.
“The movie is about three or four years old, but it started trending now which means that God’s hand is involved in it. I feel fulfilled really. I feel like a superstar that I am already anyway and I feel elevated now because I have gone a step higher right now.”
Na them dey rush us
Comic actor, Charles Inojie, had no inkling that the phrase, “Na them dey rush us (They are the ones rushing us)”, which he used in a movie would later go viral and propel his career to new heights.
In the movie, the actor was talking to an actress, Ruth Kadiri, when he said, “So, you’re not married? I am also not married, but I am not single as well. You know, fine boys like us, we don’t look for women like that. Na dem dey rush us (they are the ones that rush us).”
The movie was actually shot 10 years before the phrase resurfaced on the Internet in 2018.
In an interview, Inojie said, “I can sit back to say that was God in action— to pay me for all the years of hard work, for all the years I’ve done a number one job from the number two position, to pay me for my diligence and hard work. One gift God gave me and I think He never wanted the gift unnoticed, that was why He went back almost 10 years back to bring something and threw it forward and said, ‘Son, reap from this because I gave you the gift and that gift is the gift of spontaneity’. It is a gift. I have the capacity to wow my director as an actor. Once I look at the script and my role, I know the ultimate destination of the character. God gave me that gift to be able to immediately harness all of those ingredients to enable the character to quickly accelerate to get to his ultimate destination. That was how ‘na dem day rush us’ came.”
The phrase became so popular that he was invited to events just to repeat it to the delight of audiences.
The phrase was also used as the title of songs. Artistes who used the phrase as the title of their songs include Gbenga, Sparkle, Deribb and ChrizBlingz.
Oga at the top
Undoubtedly one of the most popular phrases to have made it to pop culture, it was uttered by Obafaiye Shem, the Lagos State Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps. During an interview on a Channels Television programme, Shem was asked to give the address of the correct website of the NSCDC so as to prevent Nigerians from falling prey to fake websites of the corps created by fraudsters. However, Shem could not state the correct address and he said that he did not want to give a wrong address that would later be contradicted by his ‘oga at the top (boss)’.
He was asked, “What is the website of the NSCDC?” And, he responded, “I cannot categorically tell you one now.” He was asked again, “Do you mean that NSCDC has multiple websites?” To which he answered, “We can’t have multiple websites but I cannot tell you one now, and my Oga at the top will say it is another one. The one we are going to make use of will be made known by my Oga at the top.”
His not knowing the correct website of the organisation he represented made him a butt of jokes on the Internet.
The words soon gained a life of their own as they were inscribed on T-shirts and other merchandise. It was also used in songs, movies and comedy skits.