When Nigerian women confuse ignorance with virtue

Sometimes you will be trying to mind your business and not do aproko on some people’s matter but evil winds will just blow amebo into your ears and you have no choice but to give in to temptation. That was how I was attempting to  mind my business trying to find ways to gain my salvation back and I stumbled on gbeborun articles that one person that is confused (and I sure will explain why she is) said she doesn’t believe in the gender equality in an interview. Confused Yoruba movie actress, Foluke Daramola, said:

“I’m sorry I don’t think men and women should have equal rights in this case. I think the male should have more than the female, but it should be with proportion, maybe on a ratio of 60 to 40. The reason why I think so is because we women tend to be extremely domineering when it comes to issues and sometimes sentimental. Men can be detailed even though we are sometimes. So, there are proportions in all these things. The role of a man can never be over emphasised. Even though I’m a women’s rights activist, I still believe in the place of a woman and a man. The man is supposed to be a step ahead of the woman; you can never take that away.”

I haven’t heard such vapid, nonsensical crap in a while.

Madam Foluke, please let me explain what an activist is to you because you seem to be super confused with yourself. Are you sure you were not inebriated when this interview happened? I shall attempt to explain all the things wrong with this sentence using very small words in the hope that you will understand them and also in the hope that I do not suffer a concussion before I am done.

An activist is someone who fights nonstop for a cause because they believe in that cause. They may do it through marching on the streets, protesting at a barricade, writing an essay or singing a song if that is the gift God has given them. Their stand does not change; their vision remains the same. You either are or you are not. You, Foluke Daramola, are not a women’s rights activist.

Madam, how can you be a women’s rights activist yet fight or be against something that will give women these rights you claim to be active about?

You say women can be domineering when it comes to issues. And men are not?? Your own husband no domineering? Now I see where we got it wrong all these years! We were being killed by those silly, domineering women like Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Abacha and their nonsense 40% wey no dey belleful dem.

You say women are sentimental; are men not? Man wey go reject your food and sulk cause you refuse to let him do by 3am or because you take style say make you give best weekend wishes to him mistress?

As someone who in an interview called herself a feminist and wouldn’t take abuse from any man after suffering from abuse in your first marriage, isn’t all this confusing for your followers? Why didn’t you stay and accept your first husband’s domineering attitude?

And what are these percentages? How did you come by how to divide rights? Is this from some Bible, Qur’an or some other theory you coined up while being face-vacuumed by your second husband?

Women should only be entitled to 40%? Of what, exactly? So you should be paid N40,000 for your role in a film while your colleague be paid N60,000 because…penis?

I am not even against her expressing her views on this topic, she’s allowed but you can’t be an activist and be against the same change at the same time, what exactly are you fighting for? I think most of these celebs do not really understand all these things but just cause they want people to think they are involved with something big and to feel important, they claim they are feminists and activists without actually truly understanding what it means and not following through with it. It’s all for show, so you can see activist when you Google them. Biko next time there is an event, a march or protest for any women’s rights issue, abeg you people should remember not to dial her number to come and join you, even by mistake, let her stay in her house and oppose and be the true nontivist she is (not a real word I know, aproko people).

And just in case the rest of you out there were struggling to reeeally come to grips with what Foluke and her husband think a true activist is, here is an excerpt from an interview the couple had a while ago:

Were you not sceptical about marrying an actress?

Kayode Salako (aka awon daddy wa): Before I met her, I never fancied any Nigerian actress…but…she proved me wrong! She is very reasonable, mentally upright, focused and an ambitious woman. She is Godly and she has a deep knowledge of God’s word. In fact, she can recite over 25 psalm chapters off hand! She is not materialistic; she is a very good cook, homely and washes my underwear.

Make of the above quote that which you will, ladies and gentlemen.

As much as we can’t live our lives to please people or go according to their expectations, it’s best not to be a walking contradiction to who we say we are. Stand for something and believe what it means to believe in that thing in matter what. I hope she drops the activist thing totally; she will be easier to accept and understand that way without lying to herself or to her audience.