When Madness Goes Viral: Portable, VeryDarkMan, and the Tragedy of a Nation That Hates Sense - Abioye Tosin Lawrence

 

There’s a performance on our national stage, loud, chaotic, and unregulated. In one corner, we have Portable, a self-proclaimed madman of music, whose unfiltered outbursts have become a culture of their own. In another, VeryDarkMan, the self-appointed defender of justice, who fights with such rage he sometimes bruises those who once stood where he now stands.

The nation watches. The nation laughs. And somewhere in the comment section, the unemployed graduate types, “Facts bro”

That’s the theatre we now call social conscience.

But behind the laughter lies the bitter truth: to be responsible in this system is to walk a tightrope made of principles and poverty. It is to starve with integrity while the loudest mouths feast on endorsements. It is to be strange in your own country, an educated alien navigating a jungle where logic is the enemy and madness trends.

Portable: The Symptom of Our Street Logic

Portable is not the disease. He is the symptom.

He is what happens when a system says, “If you can’t beat the chaos, become it.”

He rose not because of lyrical depth or artistic evolution, but because he screams what the street dares not whisper. He is untamed, untrained, and unbothered. And in a nation where certification earns you nothing but hunger, his lack of decorum has become his brand.

His madness is monetized. His rage is retweeted.

He is our mirror. And we hate what we see, but we keep watching.

VeryDarkMan: The Protester Who Punches Everyone

Then there’s VeryDarkMan. Fierce. Passionate. Sometimes necessary.

He shouts for the voiceless, but sometimes, he shouts at the voiceless.

He exposes fraud, questions corruption, and confronts injustice. But along the way, he sometimes burns the bridge that carried him across. He forgets that before him were students who faced tyrants on campus, union leaders silenced by state bullets, and thinkers who now wash cars or run betting shops to survive.

They stood once.

Now, they’re shadows.

VeryDarkMan fights for the people, but sometimes forgets the ones who fought before him. He weaponizes truth, but occasionally loses sight of compassion. Still, he’s one of the few doing something, even if it means setting the whole forest on fire to catch a rat.

The Audience: Comment Section Intellectuals

Lining up behind both men are the displaced youth of a decaying republic.

Unemployed graduates. Frustrated freelancers. Angry apprentices. All tuned in with data they borrowed, typing furious responses on phones they can’t fully pay for.

In the comment section, enemies unite to attack irrelevant causes. They’re loud on gossip, silent on governance. They roast celebrities, worship skit makers, and curse their neighbor who dares speak grammar in public.

And yet, who can blame them?

This nation has turned its brightest into beggars. To be principled is to miss out on opportunities. To stay clean is to stay broke.

You want endorsement? Join the madness.

You want influence? Stop making sense.

To be responsible in Nigeria is to be invisible.

A System that Rewards Noise and Reduces Brilliance

We are victims of a disorganized assembly, a democratic arrangement where competence is a crime and drama is a strategy.

The real heroes are tired. The articulate ones have no platform. The brilliant ones have fled. Those who remained did so on hunger and hope.

The very assembly that gave birth to this truest of nations also produced an army of jesters. But they are not fools, they are survivors of a system that punishes reason and rewards recklessness.

It is why one must say, with bitter laughter:

"God bless my country, for the way the younger generation handles Nigeria is exactly how Nigeria is handling them."

Conclusion: We Laugh Because It Hurts

As we enjoy the madness, Portable's screams, VeryDarkMan’s outbursts, let’s laugh.

Let’s laugh not because it’s funny, but because it’s all we can afford.

Behind every joke is a jobless genius.

Behind every meme is a mind denied.

And behind every trending madness, a nation that silences sanity one day at a time.

Welcome to Nigeria.

Where sense is scarce, and noise is the new national anthem.