Toke Makinwa, Don Jazzy, Genevieve & Co Keeps Marriage Off Their List

Banky W, Genevieve Nnaji, Don Jazzy, Toke Makinwa and every other single (but successful) entertainer out there needs to be left alone because marriage is not what they came here for.

Over the years, Nigerian entertainers and media personalities within the entertainment space have been criticized viciously for their failures to get married or settle down with a significant other, as though one gets to find a better half at some special type of market or mall.

It is alarming.

Banky W has to be one of the most criticized male celebrities in Nigeria and the reason is as simple as it is obvious – he is successful, at least the critics think he is super comfortable, but has refused to settle down.

Nothing more, which is really disturbing to say the least. 

The EME head honcho has been ‘quizzed’ one too many times about this that it is no longer news when he responds to questions hovering around him getting married and all that.

But we must rise up against limitations of this sort in society. Because it does no one any good that a huge chunk of our time and energy is focused on shaming celebrities whose crafts are unmistakeable and true all because they aren’t married.

I mean, what is marriage and why is it such a prerequisite for measuring ‘success’ and 'achievements' around this parts? We can do better as a people.

You see, even if these guys weren’t public figures for instance and they were ordinary men and women, marriage still won’t have made any difference. And the simple reason is this – marriage won’t heal anyone, neither does being single kill anyone. 

It’s about time we touched on the subject because marriage appears to be so overrated sometimes around here and the result is we fail to see the finer aspects of life in our relationships with the next man or woman – except of course it is about discussions regarding marriage and marriage only.

Marriage this, marriage that. The economy is bad and there’s a heavy recession and the answer to that is marriage.

"If you were married for instance, you won’t have to spend so much on food because you have a wife who will cook and whatnot."How logical! 

And the sad part is those clamouring for people to get married are never there when the relationship is going through rough times, they only reappear again if for instance a couple splits because, again, it's all about criticisms for them really. No real solutions, just criticisms and everything in between. 

Talks centred on marriage are so replete in our culture today we don’t see the forest for the trees., which is wrong. 

It isn’t about marriage all the time. It is more about changing the world we live in more than it is about obsessing about when to settle down and with whom and where the party is at.

For God’s sake, we need to do better as a people. It is understandable that this is a part of our culture as Africans but we need to lay off the single men and women in society because sometimes they haven’t decided to stay single of their own volition.

You aren’t wearing their shoes, you don’t know where it hurts or pinches. You can only guess from afar.

And for the record, celebrities generally aren’t as comfortable as they portray themselves in the media. 

So if that is what informs the need to urge them to hurriedly ‘settle down’ because they have ‘arrived’, then critics have got another think coming because more often than not it’s all about imaging and showmanship.

There’s a reason it is called show business, let’s get our facts straight and above all allow each lead a life pleasing to him or her. 

It is that simple really.