The much anticipated , much hyped , much awaited , social media enlivening wedding of the century between Chioma Avril Rowland, and the ever showy starboy , David Adedeji Adeleke , aka Davido , the famous billionaire singer of a billionaire family has finally come but not gone yet .
For a long time to come it will remain with us especially social media audience .
The opulence , the pump, the pageantry , the grandeur , the thrills and sheer ostentation of the Davido /Chioma wedding didn’t come as a shock . Why should it anyway ? David Adeleke has never been what Yoruba people would call ” Omo oju o r’ola ri “. ( The one who has never known wealth ) . He was born into wealth.
His grandfather Adebayo Adeleke, a University of London trained Civil Engineer (MICE), and CEO of City Property Development Ltd. was the founder of what has today become Nigeria’s Paradise City and billionaire’s Haven – Banana Island, Lagos .
With a current net worth of $ 1. 7 billion, Davido’s father Deji Adeleke has followed his father’s footprints making strong marks in the business world and rightly so, Davido takes on the pseudonym ” Omo Baba Olowo ” literally meaning : son of a wealthy father – OBO for short.
Davido was born into wealth but he did not have greatness thrust upon him. Undeniably he worked hard to achieve greatness thereby making more money and fame for the family .
Much as he is stupendously wealthy, Davido’s father is a quiet billionaire, business focused and publicity evasive preferring to play the biblical rock of Gibraltar standing solidly behind his brothers on the country’s slippery political landscape . He succeeded in making both of them senators and governors of his home state – Osun.
By contrast, Davido is LOUD , damningly so, a break the roof and grab some fun entertainer , boastfully flashy , often flaunting money , wine and all money can buy amidst pretty , classy but lewd looking ladies especially when
‘ Hennessy ti wo body right now ‘.
In the Nigerian street parlance ‘ Davido no send ‘. He is a total entertainer , a music merchant an unrepentant promoter of premium flamboyance always performing with extravagant panache. Davido is a master of his game. And so , more than his father’s money, business acumen and his uncles’ exploits in politics , his family pedigree and all, he has brought global fame and relevance to his family and his nation.
He is not a spoilt brat nor is he a leech on his father’s fortune, he leveraged on it no doubt but knowing his passion and working hard on it is the high point of his fame and success in the entertainment industry.
The Davido/Chioma marriage is also a welcome bridge across the widening ethnic gap between the South Westers and South Easterners .
A marriage of two rich cultures. It was magnificent to see Davido in an elegantly fitting Igbo attire doing the uniquely Igbo traditional handshake and later prostrating to his in- laws in a beautiful fusion of two great Nigerian cultures .
All through the wedding, money was flippantly lavished . From the wedding ring that was said to be the price of three Rolls Royce cars , through the two car gifts put at KSh 12 million ( whatever that means) to hundred dollar bills flying in the air from celebrity friends of the couple , you would think they were operating within the very vault of the Federal Reserve Bank, ie Central Bank of America . And that exposed the flip side of the wedding .
Weighted against a huge poverty ravaged population , choking food inflation and suffocating national debt burden – you’ll wonder why or how the wedding generated so much frenzy even among the ” poorest of the poor ”
Not withstanding the hunger in the land, obscene display of wealth has become an official behavior , EFCC or not .
With this kind of unchecked and unregulated lifestyle any wonder why crime is on the increase ? Why greed and stealing rule our public life ?
You may want to posit that neither Davido nor Chioma is a politician or public officer, but the point is that the entertainment industry and entertainers are the biggest influencers of our youths today . The fans are not just admirers, they want to be cynosure of all eyes too , to be like their idols – big spenders, the ‘ Odogwu ‘ , power house of dollar anyway any how . In street language ” who no like better thing ? “.
The root cause of youth dominated crimes like : cyber crimes aka Yahoo and Yahoo plus, ritual killings , kidnapping and even terrorism is more of this crazy need ‘to belong ‘ and to feed a lifestyle of waste and show off than the need to alleviate poverty.
Big time crimes are mostly committed by people who want to display wealth not the hungry.
No one robs a bank because he is hungry, it is those who want big money , money to
‘ oppress ‘ .Kidnappers don’t demand billions to buy buns , drug traffickers don’t put their lives on the line for loaves of bread , neither do ritualists take that risk for rice – No, the target is to play Davido , to beat Hushpuppi , live in glamour and remain talk of the town and that is hardly ever achievable with any salaried job or legal business.
In public life , ” authority stealing” (apology to Fela) thrives because ours is a country where people appear with private jets from nowhere and no one asks questions. CEOs of public companies suddenly become richer and bigger than the companies and they are not investigated . Characters of questionable integrity head our key political institutions yet we are looking elsewhere for thieves .
People spend dollars and valuable foreign currencies at parties in a nation that is borrowing trillions to try to stabilize the value of its local currency. All around us it is a sorry story of financial insanity and incongruity – the nation is very poor, the leaders are very rich, banks are insolvent and liquidating ,top bankers are billionaires. Citizens are crying ” Ebi npa wa “( we are hungry )leaders are cruising around in SUVs.
Why can’t we at least moderate things ? You may have the power of a giant but must you use it to Goliath our David ?
Indecent public spending drives many a youth to desperation and crime, many to depression and suicide and many more to disillusionment and loss of patriotism .
Government owes it a duty to regulate indiscriminate public display of wealth beyond the occasional EFCC theatrical hide and seek game.
If such a lavish event had taken place in America for example, ( very unlikely in a truly cashless clime ) all the celebrants, the financiers and all the big spenders at the occasion would be on FBI radar by now to determine if the sources of their income were legitimate and if they were being appropriately taxed. The possible consequences or multiple aftermath is a strong deterrent in such climes .
Beyond government, anyone living in this country with a tinge of conscience should be careful not to further drive the people down the precipice even Inadvertently by actions or inactions.
We need to self regulate. With the current economic situation in the country, one would have thought the socially reclusive father of Davido would put his feet down on a modest wedding ceremony for his son or that the singer himself would tap from the examples of global stars like late Michael Jackson who could buy the world if he wanted but didn’t . Oprah Winfrey whose secret philanthropic feat stunned the world recently, ace Senegalese footballer Sadio Mane who transformed the poverty-stricken village of Bambali where he grew up spending about £1m of his hard earned income on building schools, hospitals and even a stadium as he married his girlfriend Aisha Tamba quietly on January 17 , this year. Incidentally , Mane and Davido are about the same age but talk of maturity , modesty , self moderation and personal core values.
There are so many poor people in Ede the billionaire’s home town who could be helped with the festival of waste they called wedding.
Bottom line here is if we are serious about curbing crime and criminality, if we must rescue our youths from frustration, depression and get – rich – anyhow attitude, if we are truly concerned about losing our best brains to brain drain aka ‘ japa ‘ , and building a potent economy that can magnetize investors and bring all our chicken back home to roost, we must tackle all forms of obscene public display of wealth now . We must convert our SUVs to factories , our train of convoys to companies and infrastructure development , trade the humongous salaries and allowances of our politicians for tractors and farmlands , invest the dubious security votes and fraudulent constituency allowances on education and judiciary . And in personal capacities , we must focus on lifting our people out of poverty not showing off to them.
Kill flamboyance and wasteful spendings , kill the urge to prioritize trivialities , murder greed and corruption and watch poverty, banditry and other big time crimes die with them.
Reasonable spending at all levels is the engine of development and pride of humanity, NOT festivals of waste.
Copied from Yemi Elufioye’s FB page