The Baby Mama Syndrome

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a baby mama as “the mother of a man’s child, who is not his wife, or (in most cases) his current or exclusive partner. This syndrome which used to be a very foreign concept to Africans, has now gained grounds, especially in Nigeria, and has even become something to be proud of.  Everywhere you turn, you hear men boasting

of their “baby mamas”, and women proudly flaunting their “baby mama” status.

A lot of our young men in the entertainment industry have helped to push and propagate this syndrome.  Women, both old and young, now clamor and wish to be linked to these “stars”, even if their only claim to fame will be to be known as “Joy, Akpos’ baby mama”.  It is now the “in thing”, these men brazenly flaunt these women on social media for a while, before moving on to the next unlucky girl.

 

Eventually though, all good things must come to an end.  Then the drama begins!  The name calling gains grounds!  The mudslinging intensifies!  The nyash opening (don’t mind my French) becomes food for the media!  At this stage, we begin to hear about how “he beats me all the time” and how “I was just a small boy when she seduced me” and the rest of the inane stories shamelessly peddled by the involved parties.

 

Yesterday was the turn of Davido and his much older baby mama, Sophia, to drag themselves by the hair through the muddy waters of the Nigerian social media.  Before that, we woke up to news that poor Anna Banner has had her little heart broken by her beau, Flavour , who had  got married to his other baby mama Sandra.

 

When will young women learn that being a “baby mama” isn’t exactly a good claim to fame?  When will men learn to do right by women?  When will women learn to protect themselves?  When will people learn to stop washing their dirty linens in public? (Although we don’t mind all the dirty washings- how else are we going to keep ourselves entertained if these stars have no dirty linens to air?) Whose turn will it be tomorrow?