One of the easiest things for most humans to do is to quickly lampoon others. It’s often convenient for many of us to ignore the political or economic issues confronting us in developing countries in order to chase shadows.
We praise and honour marauding politicians for looting our public treasury with impunity instead of firmly holding them accountable for the rot they are creating in our society.
We push the essential matters of our very existence aside to dwell on social irrelevancies. We are always seeking the attention of those who neither care about us nor give a hoot about our existence. We flood them like a swarm of bees for cheap recognition while wasting our productive time.
Most recently, Yul Edochie dared to venture into an area considered absolutely, ‘irresponsible‘ by many contemporary or conventionally thinking Nigerians. The multi-talented entertainer took a bold step to practice one of the forgone cultural practices of African men, which connoted masculine strength, wealth, and fearlessness.
Pragmatically, the young Edochie had attained the above-mentioned criteria. He had proven his masculinity by consummating both his first and second marriages. Secondly, he had made enough money genuinely from his craft to maintain two women and their children, and last but not least, he has shown fearlessness by accepting full responsibility for marrying a second wife in a time or era where the action is considered notorious.
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However, what might likely not be right according to the rich Igbo customs, and tradition is the way he handled the whole saga, and that pose some of the following questions:
Did Yul inform and agree with his first wife before embarking on his second marital journey?
If the former poser in the aforementioned line is in the affirmative, while the latter is not, then one can have some sort of reason for his blatant action.
Pragmatically, the young Edochie had attained the above-mentioned criteria. He had proven his masculinity by consummating both his first and second marriages. Secondly, he had made enough money genuinely from his craft to maintain two women and their children, and last but not least, he has shown fearlessness by accepting full responsibility for marrying a second wife in a time or era where the action is considered notorious.
However, what might likely be right according to the rich Igbo customs, and tradition is the way he handled the whole saga, and this poses some of the following questions:
Did Yul inform and agree with his first wife before embarking on his second marital journey?
If the former poser in the aforementioned line is in the affirmative while the latter is not, then one might have some sort of reason for his blatant action.
But that could still be in contention if the latter was the case, because there were still Umunna and Umuada in Yul’s clan and, being an Igbo culture enthusiast, he could have reached out to them to declare his intention in a more noble manner, at least to have genuine support from a point of rationality.
Secondly, those casting aspersions on Yul: have you heard his own side of the story before crucifying him?
Isn’t it proper to hear from both sides of the people involved before condemnation?
The most pathetic thing here is that those saying condemnatory things about Yul are not any better. Some of them haven’t even seen or spent a third of what Yul has in his career as an A-list actor.
Some of you men running your mouths against Yul, wait till you make at least $50,000 of your own and we’ll see if you’ll still be the same. We’d find out if you won’t either marry multiple women in one day to match your new status or have a slew of mistresses who would secretly bear children for you while you parade a shambling holier-than-thou attitude.
And for the women, particularly the married ones who are now feeling threatened that their husbands might perhaps become polygamous like Yul, how many of you, raining fire and brimstone in the name of curses on Judy Austin, Yul’s new wife, can confidently state unequivocally that you haven’t deliberately slept with or had an affair with a married man? Certainly, the number would be a very minute fraction.
For those who insist that women can also practise polyandry, it is equally pertinent, especially for this generation of Africans, to know that for well over three centuries, Africa has been solidly a patriarch society, and what seems like a norm in America, and Europe becomes dead on arrival in Africa. And that goes quite a step further to explain to us Africans that it would be preposterous of anyone who thinks that it is possible to solve Africa’s teeming problems, particularly in most recent times, using Western ideologies.
It is the obvious reality of life but not a sad one because in the original African context of family, and or social stratification, women were given responsibilities just like the men, and duly recognised which gave us ancient African or more appropriately Alkebulan civilisation that made us enjoy some elements of peace, joy and rest as men and women in marriage, and to a larger extent in the society but sadly, today, those blissful eras are no longer in existence because we have hook, line, and sinker adopted Western Imperialistic cut-throat competition, and standards which have stirred up envy, strive, and all forms of jealousy in our various African societies, and slowly but strategically those adoptions are devastating our family units via social engineering.
Being woke is good, and acquiring knowledge is awesome; however, it would be utter foolishness if one’s knowledge or a new found belief in staying woke will ruin them or their joy, and happiness.
May we not kill ourselves as Africans by imitating the standards of western world in our idiosyncrasy.