From his many lyrics, he had given a vivid explanation of what growing up feels like. From his mother who left the family when he was four, his father not getting a good source of income, himself not having money for about 10 years, his uncaring stepmother, the disturbing landlord, the starving siblings and the lists goes on and on.
Mohbad was an example of a stray dog with little or no direction. His sole aim was to be different, he so wanted to make it by any means and he had no one to put him under check.
Sometimes, I marvel at the acts of some parents who ask their kids, who are still in secondary school or learning trade, to contribute money for feeding and other basic home needs.
How? Are you paying them for being your kids? Because if not, how do you expect a child with no source of income to take over your own responsibilities? And mostly because of what they bring to the table, the parents have no say on whatever kind of life they choose to live.
Such, in my opinion, is the case of Mohbad, the mother was unavailable, the father, who he should revere so well, lacked the means to provide for him; the stepmother, who should stand in the gap cared less. At least, he is not her child.
I am not justifying Mohbad’s choice of life, I’m only saying he lacked lead, he had no one to put him under check, there is no one to tell him “certain places are no go area, this act is forbidden, I don’t want to see you with certain group and so on”. In my opinion, he was without direction.
One important take for parents from this incident is that, under no circumstances should you allow your kids take up your responsibilities.
I am confident that if he had not join the record label or had continue with the church ministrations, which I learnt he started with, he might have still be a force to reckon with when it comes to music.
Coming down to youths, teenagers and children, it is important to know that suffering is not an excuse for waywardness. I’ll share a quick story here.
They were four young girls born to different parents but living in the same building. It was a typical Face Me I Face You apartment.
These four families were living from hands to mouth and they share things with one another, hence, their daughters were friends.
While three of them are seen every where things are happening, the fourth’s head is always buried in her book. Later on, the three got pregnant simultaneously while still in secondary school and got married to their respective boyfriends as their parents could not afford to feed any extra mouth.
The fourth girl when asked why she is not always going out with them responded thus: “My mum always tell me that I should not be found in a place I won’t be proud of and that whatever it is that we are going through is not enough excuse to subscribe to waywardness.”
The fourth girl is now doing good for herself, engaged and might be getting married anytime soon while the other three are done with child bearing, each living with the consequences of her behaviour.
I don’t know how true it is that the dead sees us, I’m however confident that while still living, Mohbad would have had reasons to regret the day he joined the so called record label just as everyone is regretting not paying attention to his very loud lyrics while he was alive.
Regret- the end result of every ill behaviour.