How are you, my friend

How are you, my friend?

Oops! Did I catch you singing Johnny Drille’s rendition?

Don’t worry, you can sing along!

Actually, let’s sing it together-

“How are you, my friend? How do you do, my friend?

I know sometimes e be like say nobody send you

That one na lie, I dey for you my friend…

Let’s take a pause here for a moment-

I know oftentimes we’ve normalized the question- “How are you”? Like though we’re programmed robots, our response more often is usually, “Fine”.

I know, right? I like to think that the response “fine” is webbed with some cobs such as

1) Not wanting people to know our true state of mind or affairs, so we say fine.

2) Not interested in having that conversation with someone, so we mutter fine.

3) Not sure if the person could relate to what’s truly going on, so we give a dismissive fine.

4) The Nigerian-ness in us has conditioned our minds to believe everything is fine, so we say fine.

5) Things are actually fine so fine seems accurate.

Regardless of the category you find yourself in, just know it’s okay not to be fine, it’s also fine if you don’t want to talk about what’s making you not feel fine. And it’s greatly fine when you’re actually fine.

However, just as Johnny Drille puts it in his verse-

“See my shoulder, make you rest upon me

You know I got you, na me be your friend indeed…”

Just bear in mind that we at MANI are willing to provide our shoulders for you to rest on any time you need us.

So, let’s go again, truly and sincerely, how are you?

We look forward to hearing from you

Nene from MANI