Do you know who Wizkid is? Are you aware that he’s the biggest African entertainer that ever lived? This year alone he has sold out London’s O2 Arena, walked with Naomi Campbell for Dolce and Gabanna and is friends with Diddy.
Just this last week his Nike Starboy merchandise sold out in just a few minutes and he was announced as one of the faces of Moschino. But you people didn’t want to talk about all these achievements; rather it was his first baby mama that you were listening to. Shola Ogudu called him out for being a deadbeat father who doesn’t take care of their seven-year-old son. The nerve of her! Is it money she wants? God will deliver Wizzy from “money hungry hoes.” Has he not tried? Is Boluwatife his only child ni? He even offered to buy him flight tickets- TWICE!
Reading those project-like write-ups and screenshots, is it not glaring that Shola still wants him? She’s too needy, too whiny. She’s always checking up on him. For sure if he ever asked her to spend a night with him, she would gladly oblige. Can you imagine how amazing it would be for her to have a child for a Wizkid? Ahn Ahn! Shola needs to get over herself and leave Wizkid alone.
The truth of the matter is, Shola s quite selfish and greedy. Is it not enough that she’s recognized as “Wizkid’s baby mama or that she has his Whatsapp number”? He pitied her once and gave her 2.8 million naira for her rent. He provided N450,000 for the child’s fifth birthday party. By the time he turned 7, she gave her a whole one million naira. If she didn’t know Wizkid, where on earth would she see that type of money?
Abeg Wizkid should carry on jor. If he wasn’t a star, would anyone have cared about her Instagram rants? He’s young, wild and free and she only wants to trap him. So what he collected the Starboy chain after ‘Tife took a few snaps with it… is he Asahd?
In case you’ve been living under a rock, those were some of the comments from Wizkid fans who were miffed that a “basic bitch” had the effrontery to be public with her dissatisfaction with their idol. They don’t even care that the child in question did not fall from heaven- he has a father who by default, shouldn’t need to be coaxed into carrying out his paternal responsibilities. In the last seven years, she’s had to practically cozy up to the father to provide a roof over his firstborn child’s head.
READ: Why didn’t you use postinor?; Daddy Freeze slams Wizkid’s baby mama, Shola Ogudu (video)
Sadly in Nigeria, men get away with anything, while women always bear the brunt. Women always get the short end of the stick in familial matters. When a woman gets pregnant, it’s her decision to either terminate it – in a country where abortion is illegal on paper but goes on in thousands of substandard clinics- or keep it and suffer the indignity of an unwanted pregnancy. The man on the other hand gets a free pass…
And when he is an irresponsible father like Wizkid is said to be, the woman still gets blamed for everything- it’s her fault for getting pregnant in the first place, it’s her fault that she’s asking for child support, it’s her fault that she dresses in certain ways. It’s her fault that hurricanes wreak havoc in America. (Sidebar: why are hurricanes named after women?)
The much talked about patriarchy is alive and well in Nigeria. The sad part is, even women perpetuate said patriarchy, either willfully or unknowingly. Case in point: Wizkid’s elder sister Busayo, who was seen in the Whatsapp screenshots ‘counselling’ Shola “not to embarrass him by putting it on social media.”
Under the Nigerian law, a mother has the primary right to the custody of a child born outside of wedlock. Which is not surprising that Shola is a single mother with the sole responsibility of raising the child. However, the same law (the Matrimonial Causes Act) stipulates that a child under the age of 21 is entitled to a maintenance [by the father]. Funny enough, Wizkid thinks he’s excused from providing for his son once he turns 18. Hilarious.
But in a country where the President stated publicly that a woman’s place- his own wife no less- was in the kitchen and the ‘oza room’, the odds are firmly stacked against women. There’s no guarantee that even if Shola Ogudu drags Wizkid to court, she would get justice.
Entertainers get a free pass. It is as though their ability to make people have a good time excuses them from being a deadbeat dad. In the US, refusal to pay child support can be punished by up to a two-year jail term. That’s why you see celebs like 50 Cent, no matter how much he and his son Marquise insult each other on social media, he still grudgingly paid child support fees till the child was 18. DMX has a history of being arrested over nonpayment of child support on several of 15 children.
READ: You owe Wizkid apology, Bobrisky tells Shola Ogudu
Were it to be in Nigeria, Shola would be the disadvantaged party. She’s not the rich male person. When Wizkid and Linda Ikeji got into a spat, it ended in photo-ops with the Lagos police commissioner. And that’s Linda- a multimillionaire female entrepreneur.
Although fans do not have any legal responsibility for their favourite musician’s personal issues, they do have a moral duty to coerce him into doing the right thing.
But the average Nigerian doesn’t like stress and cannot kill himself or herself because of Wizkid’s matter. Guess who will download his latest song when it is released on October 1, You and I! We are that forgiving, we don’t speak up, we don’t teach young men to be responsible in this part of the world. Women are taught to be submissive and are told from an early age that “boys will boys.” Well, here’s one boy that is being a boy.
Not only do faves have to be called out on their BS, but they also need to be sanctioned under the law. Until then, women like Shola would only make their cases through Instagram posts. This is Nigeria, when single parents are demonized by society, punished for the abandonment by complicit fathers and mocked for wanting fathers to be part of their children’s lives.
It’s popular in this part of the world to resort to using the phrase “it is well” when issues seem insurmountable. Newsflash: it is not. And it will not be well until deadbeat fathers like Wizkid are held accountable for their actions and women are actually protected from the carnivorous Nigerian society that chews them up and spits them out.