To say Nigeria’s media industry is a beacon of hope would be the biggest fallacy of the century. In a bid to continue the tradition of misguided reporting, Mr Ayo Onikoyi of Nigeria’s Vanguard Newspaper comes for Bobrisky, a popular celebrity cross dresser, with obvious attempts to out her and call on the attention of the law. For a man who prides himself as the only editor in the world to own and display the greatest collection of sexist and semi nude photos of curvy women, as seen on his Instagram handle @ayo_onikoyi, one would expect that he would be better educated on the issues of sexuality and how sensitive and dangerous it is to call out a man as gay in Nigeria.
In a post titled; Bobrisky’s gay games and the looming axe of the law, he moves to uncover Bodrisky’s sexuality but starts by saying Idris Okuneye (Bobrisky) has denied allegations that she is gay, making his witch hunt known from the beginning. He writes;
The first time Idris Okuneye, the acclaimed Nigerian cross dresser, known as Bobrisky spoke to Potpourri he blatantly denied he’s gay and claimed that he’s just another cosmetics seller who has found a bender to sell his products. That was some two years ago. But Bobrisky’s utterances, social media posts and activities have suggested otherwise.
Even though he recalls Bob’s apparent denial, he moves to claim the contrary by submitting social media utterances as evidence. Since Mr Ayo thinks that ones sexuality can be determined by social media posts, one can easily label him a pervert or pimp after taking a look at his Instagram page and using his logic of deduction. Luckily for Mr Ayo, he cannot be arrested for being precieved as someone in the illegal business of prostitution otherwise this post would have been titled; @ayo_onikoyi’s prostitution games and the looming axe of the law.
He moved to suggest that a sarcastic comment Bobrisky made to tell off his accusers was his gay declaration.
He has given responses that may very well suggest that his sexuality is indeed questionable “Yes, I’m gay, I’ll go to hell fire, thanks. Please, what next? I’m tired of the same words, I want to hear something new, cheers!”, he once declared when being pestered by a follower who wouldn’t take his silence on the issue of his sexuality for an answer.
Honestly I ‘d rather think he was uneducated than accept that someone who holds the post of Editor at a reputable media house doesn’t understand what sarcasm is. Maybe we Nigerians should ease off questioning our bad government leaders and take a look at the media industry because to whom much is given in media, much in the definitions of simple grammar is expected.
After more speculations on Bobrisky’s comments, Mr Ayo finally lands a blow. Sorry, I am Kidding, the only blows landed in his post were the ones my stomach suffered from laughing at his sad attempt at investigative journalism.
Just look at the way he breaks-down this comment;
In another post, Bobrisky called himself a wife, posting “ “When your bae gets you a house and treats you as a good second wife… Also buys you a Benz to enjoy life. Thanks bae”. There have been questions over what he means by ‘bae’ which is normally a pet name for a lover. He is a male, so, why would he become a second wife? It is another question the male Barbie, as he is called has raised over his sexuality. It was a gay game that may burn him sooner than he realises because there’s a 14-year jail rap hanging for homosexuals.
Hmmmmm bae? What can that mean? Is that code for the declaration of being gay? Or is male barbie the code people use to declare Bobrisky’s sexuality on his behalf? Fortunately we will never know because Mr Ayo’s point stumbled and fell after stepping on the grammatical errors he used to end this paragraph. If you are reading this Mr Ayo, please know that the 14-year jail term is reserved for same-sex couples and not a cross dresser, hence the reason it is called; The Same-Sex MARRIAGE Prohibition Act.
We all know Bobrisky isn’t educated and he evidently struggles to make his points, this aided Mr Ayo is confusing his obvious attempt at giving health tips against anal cancer for a declaration of being gay. Moving to make a dramatic ending he says;
If these earlier posts are disturbing, his post after the death of a Congo Brazzaville gay man, Paul Arduad was shockingly outrageous. The latter allegedly died after a long battle with anal cancer. Bobrisky then proceeded to give tips on how to live a healthy life as a gay.
“Ïf you wanna be gay or want to take dick, you need to have money. I mean, be rich to always look out for yourself. Your partner’s own is to cum inside you, that’s all. But it’s now left for you to take that cum outside”
Surprisingly this is where his post ended, basically he assumed this tip to gay people was the nail on the coffin for Bobrisky. Honestly one can easily assume that because this shows some form of solidarity and sympathy for the gays, Bobrisky can be precieved as gay by association. But still it isn’t a declaration of Bobrisky’s sexuality and I didn’t need a lawyer to figure that out.
It pains me to think that while other media industries around the world challenge their governments for targeting minorities and baseless laws, we have people like Mr Ayo Onikoyi of Vanguard who stand to endanger lives by misusing the power of the press. Basically because Bobrisky isn’t a curvy semi nude woman, he thinks she should be arrested and jailed for expressing herself differently and blindly tries to instigate violence for Bob based on social media comments? Sadly for Mr Ayo the only person who can declare Bobrisky’s sexuality is Bobrisky herself, just the same way only Mr Ayo can explain his obsession with semi nude women to us.
Shame on Vanguard Newspapers for giving someone like Mr Ayo Onikoyi the platform to spread hate and insight violence, even if Bobrisky was gay, she hasn’t done anything harmful to society and she doesn’t deserve to be treated as a lesser human being because her obsession is with makeup and gowns as opposed to semi nude women. No matter how hard the government and the media try, they will never be able to change the truth about how barbaric and baseless it is to persecute someone for living their life peacefully but different.
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Emmanuel Sadi is a Lagos based writer, who considers himself to be one of the greatest writers and human rights activist (In the making). He wakes up thinking; Evil must not triumph and tries to make a difference.
