The reason a Nigerian parent is angry at you can be as illogical as you doing your chores before they told you to do it or you simply being too happy when they think you don’t have a right to be. To better explain this, we spoke to eight Nigerians about the weirdest reasons their parents have ever been angry at them.
Moyosore, 25.
My mum got angry at me for eating the chicken she gave me. She gave me a piece of chicken and I started tearing it up. Next thing, “just keep eating everything ehn” followed by a long hiss. Madam, you gave it to me.
Tochi, 28.
My dad locked me in his room when I was like 6 years old because I said I didn’t want to be a neurosurgeon anymore. I wanted to be a traffic warden or shoemaker (those ones that walk around with their wooden boxes). I was supposed to be rethinking my decision in the locked room.
Tinu, 21.
I cried because I got 99/100 on a test and I was such a goody two-shoes. My mum got mad and beat me to ‘really give me something to cry about since water is plenty in my eyes.’ I stopped giving a shit about school from that day I was so pissed.
Amina, 26.
Okay, don’t know if this counts but when I was a child, my mother used to get mad at me a lot because she thought my dad liked me more. She treated me like her competition in the house. It was so confusing and weird. So like if my dad takes me out or buys me stuff she’d get angry and say I can have him.
Philip, 25.
My dad used to flog me for singing and rapping. He said I was following the way of the world. They are Jehovah’s witnesses. He ended up killing the artistic side of me and making me way less expressive. I remember watching Project Fame with excitement and ambition and he would flog me, insult the contestants and change the channel.
Andre, 23.
One time, I washed plates and cleaned the house before my mum came back from work so she wouldn’t be angry. When she came back, I told her that I’ve finished doing the chores. She got angry because I was talking like I wasn’t living in the house and like it was just her plates. She asked me to kneel and think about my ‘lack of gratitude’. Till today, I am still thinking about it.
James, 26.
That year when everyone was buying Nokia Xpress music, I saved up my money to buy one and finally did. The day my mom saw it, she asked me who owns it and I said it was mine. She went berserk. She called my dad and said that I had grown wings and was looking at the things of the world. She told me that our own wasn’t the worst and that I don’t have the right to be buying things at such a young age. She ended up seizing the phone and that was it.
Ojenge, 22.
My mum slapped me because she *thought* I was anorexic and was even taking food supplements because I had told her some people in my school took supplements.
Jonathan, 28.
My dad used to use shaving powder and when he found out people were sniffing glue, he started hiding his shaving powder so we won’t start sniffing it. After a while, he couldn’t remember where he hid it so he started shouting at us and said it was our fault that it was missing.
