The craze for Naira Marley and the formation of cult-like ‘Marlians’ if not tamed by the authority concerned will have a serious negative effect on our value systems that are already facing challenges.
The madness of being ‘Marlians’ has found itself into the secondary schools with the discovery of 25 teenagers who are members of “Female ‘Marlians’ secret cult” who are now under suspension.
According to the teacher, she discovered 5 of her students don’t wear pants to school on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. After proper investigation, it was revealed and affirmed by other students that there was a group of girls who have tagged themselves “Marlians’ Females”. Further insight into the issue disclosed about 20 other girls who belong to the cult. One of the SS1 girls revealed that they were initiated by SS3 students.
The school promised to fish out all other members of the cult. The spokesman of the school also said there will be a P.T.A meeting to enlighten parents on the need closely monitor their wards as most of these indecent behaviours would have been picked post-school hours.
Some of the predominant characteristics of the Marlians groups are:
No-belt gang
Naira Marley himself gave this rule for admission into the Marlians group. In the lyrics of his song PUTA (PXTA on YouTube), he mentioned folks should adhere by “Zero belt, thousand trousers”. So when you see young boys who doesn’t want to use belts, they may be Marlians.
Alcohol and Drug consumer
Almost all his videos glorify alcohol, hemp and drug. Naira Marley called himself ‘Igbolabi’ meaning ‘Hemp was born’- a kind of explanation to say he was born to smoke weed. In case you don’t know, many young boys who want to feel among the Marlians are now into smoking of weed, SK, Shisha, Tramadol or Loud. Many also drink the very intoxicating drink to show their membership of the Marlians group.
Hairstyles
Naira Marley wears long dreads and most of his followers long to have such too. For those who can’t wear dreads or other weird hairstyles because of parental restrictions, they, lowkey, envy those who do.
Zero Manners
According to Naira Marley, in the lyrics of PUTA says Marlians don’t have manners. They are meant to defy all manners taught initially and disobey constituted authorities. During the Marlians festival which was held on 30th December, 2019 at the prestigious Eko Hotels and Suites in Lagos, the young boys that attended validated this rule. Most jumped the fence because they didn’t want to pay the entrance fee. Isn’t that what Marlians are encouraged to do? On a larger scale, Marlians are permitted to talk to elders or any other authority figure anyhow since they have #nomannerz.
Little Regard
44 minus 4 is what? Forty! Naira Marley coined this 40 as “o fo ti” meaning folks should not be afraid of anything whatsoever. So, you can actually hear young boys saying MAFO, meaning, they have little regard or fear for anything or anyone.
Glorifying internet fraud
Most of Naira Marley’s songs talks about the need to accept folks that are into internet fraud. They simply think making money from dishonest means can be justified. Such money, when made, should be spent on drugs, alcohol and sex.
Academic Drop-out
One of the very important rules of Marlians is, “Marlians don’t graduate, they drop-out”. A lady, in December, who shared she just graduated was called names by other Marlians online. They called her a fake Marlian because Marlians dont graduate, As a matter of fact, Poco Lee, the popular dancer celebrated his graduated with a t-shirt inscription that reads “Marlians wey no drop-out”. Late last year, Naira Marley sparked discussion when he said, “Having Big Booty Is Better Than Having A Masters Degree”.
Having worked with teenagers for more than 10 years, an identity crisis is one issue most young boys grapple with. I mean the desire for acceptance by colleagues, by all means. If your son lives in a neighbourhood where everyone wants to be seen to be in vogue, it is important you watch out for some of these characterisitcs.
