Quick Note: To Kill A Monkey by Kemi Adetiba.

Shout out to Kemi Adetiba and her team for giving us another beautiful movie experience back-to-back. A master storyteller, and every character interpreted their roles with the emotions so well. The soundtrack and the elevation of Edo culture need to be appreciated.

I enjoyed watching the mini-series, and I wanted to put out some of the life lessons that stood out for me. I have included some exclamations in pidgin because I can't find the right English words to use to appropriately convey my feelings.

If you loved "King of Boys", you will definitely enjoy "To Kill A Monkey" (TKAM).

Screenshot From Netflix

Yes, poverty is a bastard. That needs to be said. It creates desperate creatures, and society despises poor people. You have no money, and you are nothing. Money and how you relate to it and how you understand it will always be important to your well-being as a human.

Once you cross an ethical line for whatever reason, getting out is nearly impossible. Hence, even in our desperate moments, we must painfully think before we jump because sometimes, there is no going back. Maybe a little compassion for people like the old Efe and Nosa would lighten the burden and help people cope through their downtime.

Efe was book smart, but Oboz was street smart. A lethal criminal combo if that union had been sustained in the long term.

Oboz was right when he said he wouldn't give Teacher Shishi - anything, but Efe was looking for the good and some truce in the streets—rugged streets. Oboz knew better because he had been in the streets long enough. You are in the jungle; by any means, you must survive.

Efe had this "I am better than you because I am educated" attitude. Guy, you dey do "wire wire" but in a refined format....na still thief thief. Efe kept convincing himself that somehow he was different from Oboz, but it was all the "I better pass my neighbor mentality ". A behavior we understand very well as Nigerians. He had that impeccable English grammar—the diction—and dressed appropriately to match that persona his delusions afforded him. The urge to find something or become a persona to justify why you are different from the next person, to make you feel better about yourself. "Well, at least I don't do this or that, like A or B", when in reality, the shadiness is just in different formats, and the outcome leaves trails of broken innocent victims.

As a pastor once said, we often judge ourselves with intentions and judge others with actions. The type of delusions that blinds you from seeing things for what they are. The misguided delusional comfort in constantly reminding yourself—a denial—that you are better off instead of accepting the mess in your life for what it is and seeking legitimate help to sort it out.

Oboz and Efe are different sides of the same coin. However, if Efe had accepted his fate as a criminal on the path he had chosen because of the desperation he found himself in, just as Oboz was not pretentious about being a fraudster, that would have saved Efe, Oboz, and his marriage to Nosa. Not like Efe's hands were clean; he had forged certificates in the past at his cyber cafe job. The circumstances of his first marriage, which produced a daughter, remain unknown.

As you don cross that kind of line, the die is cast. Accept it and manage it. Otherwise, you remove yourself without looking back. As Mo told him at the bar, you go in thinking, “oh lemme just hammer this once, I go comot”….”it's just this once” bla bla…..that's the lie. A dangerous lie that keeps people stuck. Just this once, but it never ends. Every step is a neck deeper and deeper into darkness.

The kind effort Efe invested in his bid to keep telling himself "I am a good person" really blinded him. “Self-righteousness nor let am see road...person wey dey forge certificate for guy men". Efe set out looking for people who would tell him what he wanted to hear; this was one reason why he ended up with Amanda—who herself was in it for the money. So she kept telling Efe what he wanted to hear, and it cost him dearly. Efe listening to her story on how she ended up in Lagos with such guts and an air of well-crafted illusion of opulence despite being a failed actress should have raised the red flags that she would betray him at the slightest opportunity.

Na Oboz street sense for save both of dem. Oboz don dey run street tey tey.... Efe for just learn from am. That's why Oboz told Efe about the value of trust when their friendship started. I don't want to think he was naive because I am not sure he reasoned that Teacher would trust him after he was willing to betray his friends and save “his family”—that had fallen apart. It became more about saving himself.

Oboz was full-time street and very loud, but I think his limited schooling background made him feel inadequate around Efe, and that unresolved feeling—which may be interpreted as imposter syndrome or low self-esteem—made Oboz anxiously crave constant respect and allegiance from folks around him. His personal style was loud and brash, and he loved showing off his "wealth". That too was another weakness that fueled the fire when he confronted Efe at the restaurant, and the video from that outburst went viral.

Oboz genuinely loved Efe, and that needed to be said. Whether it was because of how much money Efe's knowledge improved his business or because he felt indebted to Efe for saving his life is open for debate. Without Efe, Oboz's business would likely have survived further despite the crude approach he was using, regardless of reaping lesser turnover from his victims. Also, he would have escaped being caught and killed under that circumstance.

Money was the bone of contention. The way each character related to having money determined how they saw the world and treated people around them. I think the monkey itself is "the greed".... that greed to accumulate wealth and power and have no control or discipline. Every character had a bit of it.

Whether you dey rob innocent people for society as a legit company or as a common wire wire....all na thief thief. You don cross line... especially lines like that. Carry your cross. 

Cover photo from Netflix