Deji Adeyanju slams TikTok nudity, ‘Yahoo Yahoo’ among Nigerian youth
Lawyer and activist Deji Adeyanju has lamented how Nigerian youth are caught in a moral crisis marked by internet fraud and widespread nudity on social media, but argued that older
Lawyer and activist Deji Adeyanju has lamented how Nigerian youth are caught in a moral crisis marked by internet fraud and widespread nudity on social media, but argued that older generations created the conditions for the decay.
In a clip from The Honest Bunch Podcast that circulated Thursday, Adeyanju said young women freely display their bodies on Instagram and TikTok while many young men pursue internet fraud for quick money.
“Go and look at all the young people. They are naked on Instagram. They are naked on TikTok. They are all naked. The guys are all doing yahoo, defrauding people”, he said.
He described the behavior as a rejection of discipline and self-respect for instant gratification.
Adeyanju said a recent visit to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission showed many suspects were teenagers aged 15 to 18.
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“I was in EFCC yesterday. Go and see young people, 16, 15, 17, 18. They are all suspects in EFCC. Destroying their lives. Destroying the lives of other people,” he said.
He said they were destroying their lives and those of others.
He linked permissive social behavior to public health risks, including the spread of HIV.
“Have you not seen the latest reports on how people are just spreading HIV all over town?” he said.
Contrasting the present with his youth, Adeyanju said intimacy once required sustained effort from men.
“During our time, for you to see the nakedness of a girl, you work hard. You have to work minimum eight months before you can,” he said.
“Go to TikTok. Almost all Nigerian girls are naked. It’s not just nakedness. Red lights. Look at the generation,” he added.
He said social media now features widespread nudity and said the trend reflected a collapse of ambition and purpose, with many young people jobless.
“Open breasts. No job anywhere. Just open chest on TikTok and Instagram,” he said.
Adeyanju who stopped blaming the youth entirely, said if the current generation carries blame, then previous generations should also be blamed, and called for immediate, interim, and long-term solutions.
“I want to absorb their generation of any blame. They have no blame. Because if they have blame, they should also have blamed the generation before them. When will the blame game stop? We must find a solution to our problems in the immediate, in the interim and in the long run,” he said.
He cited his own experience in 2012, when he housed seven staff members in his three-bedroom home while building his career, to argue that growth requires process.
“There must be a process to growth,” he said.
