Whitemoney and his reckless counsel to ‘brothers’

NIRAN ADEDOKUN FROM PUNCH

The video recently posted by Hazel Onuo, also known as “Whitemoney,” is a most upsetting and parochial portrayal of Nigerian women.

In this video, the winner of Big Brother Naija ‘Shine Ya Eye’ Season 6 painted women as merchandise who answer to money without question. He later clarified that he directed the post at men, and their need to make money, but he still came across as suggesting that every woman has a price. In addition, saying, “No woman is out of your league, bro, just make money and create your own game, they’re gonna play,” only encouraged brothers to make money, without a hint as to the how? This is also unhelpful if not dangerous. This is a point that I will return to shortly.

Onuo’s comments raised a huge row. Many women in the entertainment sphere took him on for the reckless comment, and before long, issues degenerated into name-calling and worse.

But the guy wasn’t done. A few days later, he spoke with artiste Chinedu Emmanuel, otherwise known as Nedu. The latter, himself a purveyor of speculations about the sexual indiscretions of female artistes, goaded his guests into another attack on female integrity. This time, however, it was a more localised accusation about ladies who have been part of the BBN reality show. Here, he claimed that many of these ladies are solicitous to his rich friends. He also speculated that many of the women go into the reality show with the single intent of “showing off,” apparently to attract men.

It may be true that his colleagues desire his intervention in their desire for the patronage of men, but failure to resist the urge to keep this confidential tells a lot about the character of this kiss-and-tell man. If anyone comes to you with such requests, keep their secrets! On this front, Whitemoney and Nedu may seek alibis because they didn’t mention names, but that is even worse! It opens everyone up to suspicion and affects the public’s estimation of an entire class of Nigerian women.

 But there are other points about the hypocrisy of these men. They claim that Nigerian ladies jump into the beds of wealthy men to make ends meet or match up to societal expectations. The question is, would this happen without demand and patronage from men? So, why don’t we talk about the men? Why don’t we talk about the anti-social, sometimes criminal, things that men do to either keep up appearances or lead a good life for real?

 Why are the Nedus and Whitemoneys of this world not calling out toy boys who eat on the laps of cougars in this same country? Or they don’t know them? Why are they not talking about the rampant cases of advance fee fraud, yahoo yahoo, or ritual killing and kidnapping? Why isn’t there a focus on what men, who are desperate to heed Whitemoney’s call to create their “game,” do in the process? By the way, his call, which came without a cautionary note on the importance of hard work, honesty, respect for the rule of law, and the lives of Nigerians, sounds like an invitation to impunity. It is also one to which misguided people who see a model in the proponent of this idea, may latch on to with little pondering.

Does this mean that Nigeria does not have women whose god is money? Not at all. There are many women like that, just as there is abundance of such men in Nigeria and across the world.