By ASAJU TUNDE
Juma’a Mubarak from Ethan’s favourite grandpa. I am so sad that I experimented with smoking every smokable while I was a kid. Yes, literally a kid because I did all that before I clocked 18. But I am happy that with the help of God and Ọ̀ga Nurse Ayangunna of the Mopa Dispensary and Maternity, I had to give it up.
Since asthma runs on both sides of my lineage, it will be unfair to attribute my respiratory issues to those nymph years of lung abuse.
Growing up, it was a thing of class to smoke. Gen-Z, first we had Gallon, then SM (Sweet Menthol), then we had Bicycle. With time, even SM had filter! Then we had Target for the poor and Benson and Hedges, Rothmans, 555 for the big boys wey fit drink water drop cup. I am sure I missed some brand killer names. If you see an old magazine, you will see how poison was packaged to look like a rite of passage to the good life.
READ ALSO: Lagos Assembly proposes law to establish medical university
When our ruiners decided that cigarette was truly poison, they paid big – to people who lived around them. Africa and Africans got nothing from the class-action payouts. We always get nothing. Remember how Kemi Badluck says there’s nothing to be ashamed of about slavery😢😭😭? Walail girl yẹn ó lè kú ire.
I am glad I did not become addicted beyond redemption. So, two weeks ago, after the trash was picked in my estate, I found these pictures of what cigarette does to people and decided that at the right time, I will share with you all.
If you have a smoker friend, husband, wife or kid, encourage them in love to quit. Don’t force it because it won’t work. Don’t pray it out, prayer is just a wish and not all wishes become horses.
Anyway, I hope you prayed for the Naira to become higher than the dollar by December. Then we will all use our mouth to rub the ground that our prophets walk on in penitence.
Check on your neighbours, are they alright?
