If Tuface was lady: Agony of a female entertainer

I have never seen me fighting for ladies in this way, but an article I was writing motivated this title and I had to give it my heart and time to see that the world reads this truth no one has ever bothered to tell.

My apologies to the legend himself, Tuface Idibia for being on the title, but you are just the opposite of a perfect example for what the entire article will revolve around, because if a lady had been wielding your name with every achievements you have, I believe she would still be single and probably searching for a worthy candidate to warm her bed with the title of about seventh husband.

I once thought ladies in entertainment industry were not serious until I analyzed certain conditions they are usually faced with. A female entertainer should need about thrice the courage her male counterpart would summon before taking a step into the industry, because of the usual societal attachments to being a female entertainer.

One sweet dream of every African woman is to get married in a home that will stand the test of time; have beautiful kids that will make her proud whenever she stands with other women. A friend of mine once argued that evens nuns often dream of this.

To make his case stronger, he said that the wedding day of a woman, is often one of the days she will never forget in her entire life. No matter how old they are, they can tell the story of how their husband proposed as well as how every arrangement was made until it ended at the wedding day. No wonder when you fail to attend the wedding of a lady, you become her enemy forever or many years.

The society believes that female entertainers live wayward lives and I believe this comparison has been drawn from their male counterparts who are often celebrated for their waywardness.

A blog post read ‘Wizkid grabs the breast of a female fan’, ‘Timaya and girlfriend expecting baby boy’ or ‘Paul of Psquare proposes to girlfriend’ we read them and see that in most cases, the number of negative comments we see are very few, unlike when the camera picked Tiwa Savage from under, Nigerians nailed her.

Who nailed PSquare when one of them poured juice into his trouser while on stage, we tagged it sexy act. Funny country in a funny continent.

It will be very unfair to put the ratio of male artistes to their female counterparts to about 10:1, because the margin is bigger than that and daily we watch it increase because the ladies have not received the respect they ought to get from us.

The few that summoned the courage to remain in the industry have either looked for controversies to attract reasonable attention from the media.

Tonto Dike, Cossy Orjiakor and gospel singer turned ‘sexy mama’, Maheeda have all been noticed because of what they have done other way round, while the likes of Ini Edo are noticed because they attend events with a bag worth millions of naira. None of these can inspire a kid to greatness.

For a humble family watching this industry carefully, would they let their daughter join the industry just like that? Would they be prepared to see their daughter cover the pages of magazines for a scandal that was actually cooked up for media attention?

Entertainers are known to spend most of their nights in hotel rooms after performances or appearances in events and what do we call ladies who live that kind of life in an average African setting. Waywards!!

Ladies have received many unfair titles with the worst being the regular tagging of ‘single mother’ to their names. The knowledge that one’s brother wants to marry a single mother causes commotion in a family, but when a rich ‘single father’ (if that title has ever been used) comes around, no question is asked, he is tagged one ‘active’ young man.

Who would have married Tuface if he had been a lady with six kids out of wedlock? He would have been tagged ‘baby factory’, yet governors stormed his wedding with gifts, something that has never been done for the ladies.

We still have our Genevieve Nnaji, Omawumi and Sasha as well as other we have previously tagged single mothers waxing strong in the industry, but will the societal stigma let them experience the greatest joy of womanhood?

The press is always there to remind any new guy that comes around that they are single mothers. Who has told Wizkid that grabbing the breast of a female fan is show of shame? Did anyone tell Paul of PSquare that posting beautiful pictures of him and his baby mama’s engagement or proposal acceptance is not news because if she doesn’t say yes to a rich guy whom she already has a child for, would she be saying yes to me?

The males rule the world and one of them is also writing this article, we always cover ourselves, but what is the future of a young girl who has the talent and passion to join one genre of the industry or another.

Would she ever find the spot that will multiply her courage by 3? Can she get about double that courage to remain in an industry where men would still want to take advantage of her and tag her a whore if she eventually yields to their tricks?

Many have been rubbished and other have looked for another talent in them to make it in life, leaving in some cases, a bunch of fame seeking talentless people on the scene.

They need a fair ground because if the likes of Tuface, Timaya, RMD, Segun Arinze and other single fathers at one point or another were ladies, they would still be in the same agony and probably single till date.

Inspire a female entertainer today; don’t just take advantage of her. The lights of certain stars are fading because we have polished an unfair ground for them to trade.

To the ladies, it is about self belief and trust in God. You can only be you and nothing more.

Consider reading: Where role models failed to be models

Chinedu Hardy Nwadike, writes from Owerri, Imo State, [email protected] 08136723796, @hardynwa, BBM 222E7850