I decided to write this piece as a response to
the appalling attitude displayed by comedian Ayo Makun, popularly known as AY,
and Nollywood actress Chioma Chukwuka, now known as Chioma Akpotha.
I found it appalling that these two public
figures would engage in word exchange. I won’t want to keep you, dear readers,
in the dark as to what transpired while we were on-board our return flight to
Lagos from Port Harcourt penultimate weekend.
The atmosphere was tense and everyone was tired
after we had waited endlessly to get on-board. It was a full flight chartered
by our host, the organizers of the African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA).
Since the flight was full, the flight attendant
explained through the in-flight address system that it won’t be possible for
the luggage to be on the same flight with us and as such another flight
scheduled for 8pm would take them to Lagos. Obviously, Chioma Akpotha and her
two friends were not paying attention. Sitting by the window afforded her the
opportunity to see the luggage being wheeled away.
She exclaimed: “Our luggages (sic) are there o.
Wetin I wan go do for Lagos if my luggages (sic) no come with me?”
“I have a show tonight o,” answered one of her
friends.
The flight attendant had to walk up to them to
politely explain to them why it won’t be possible for the luggage to be on the
flight. But Chioma and her friends won’t take any of that as they went on to
chat noisily about their bags that were left behind. For me, Chioma and her
friends did not understand basic aviation safety rules.
There was no way those big bags and boxes could
have come onboard with us. And I wondered if she had never been on international
flights where no one would tell you your baggage were left behind until you get
to your destination. I think the flight attendant was too nice to have taken
the pain to explain to them why their bags were not taken.
After that episode, Chioma and her group
continued to chat noisily about one thing or the other, disturbing the peace of
everyone onboard. It was obvious they wanted attention. You know that kind of
I-want-everyone-to-know-I-am-here attitude that some ‘popular’ faces at times
want to put up. As if that was not enough, there was a quarrel between Chioma’s
group and Yemisi, a correspondent with Vanguard Newspaper, shortly after we
landed in Lagos.
The quarrel was caused by shoving or pushing on
the aisle while a few people who got off their seats were trying to bring out
their bags from the luggage compartment. Chioma and her friends resorted to
insulting Yemisi in Igbo language, not knowing that Yemisi understood
everything they said. She is half Igbo. Her mum is Igbo. Out of annoyance and
irritation, she retorted: “What’s wrong with these lousy Igbo girls?”
“Did you just say that?” asked one of the girls
in Chioma’s group.
“What did you say?” asked Yemisi.
“Did you just say ‘these lousy Igbo girls’?”
“Don’t mind her, she is a coward?” replied
Chioma.
“And if I say that?” Yemisi asked. The exchange
continued, in which Yemisi was forced to call them lousy bitches and the other
girls responded by calling her ugly bitch. In the midst of all this, the
sentiment of tribalism was played up as everyone thought Yemisi name-called the
girls because they were Igbos. But nobody knew she is Igbo herself. She equally
insulted herself in the process.
Chioma would stop at nothing to educate anyone
onboard about how proud she is being Igbo and how she can afford to pay
Yemisi’s salary. She went as far as questioning why the organisers of AMAA
would put someone like Yemisi on the same plane with her, the superstar that
she is.
“If not for AMAA, why would someone like me be
on the same plane with this one?” Chioma ranted. “It is not her fault now, it
is AMAA. Who is this one, who knows her? I know her, she works with Vanguard. I
will call her chairman now and tell him. He will sack her.”
As if that was not enough, AY, who should have
kept quiet, took sides and supported his fellow ‘superstar’.
“If you were my wife, I would have slapped you,”
he told Yemisi.
I was perplexed by AY’s utterance. I was
dismayed at how a public figure like him would say a thing like that because of
a verbal exchange between two women. Why on earth will he say that? That just
shows he has no respect for his wife and he must be a wife beater. There were
other stars like Zack Orji, Dakore, Saheed Balogun, amongst others, onboard who
never said a word.
AY went ahead on Saturday to post a long piece
on his Facebook page still defending his ‘co-star’. In his post, AY wrote: “(I
am so sure she wouldn’t ask an Angelina Jolie or a Kim Kardashian that same
question if she were to be on the same flight with any of them. Perhaps she
would have started twitting immediately, saying ‘AMAA things…. Kim just asked
me to take it easy, they are yet to open the exit door. Wow wow wow, 2013 my
year of exit opening doors’). But definitely not to a Nollywood multiple
awards-winning happily married actress with kids.”
Kim, Angelina Jolie and Chioma are not on the
same level when it comes to fame. AY may need to rigorously search for another
personality for his comparison. Who is Chioma in Nollywood? She is definitely
not on the same pedestal with the likes of Genevieve, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde or
even Dakore. How much is she worth? What is her current market value in
Nollywood? It was the brand ambassador deal she struck that made her have a
little change and not the money she made from Nollywood. She is not amongst the
highest paid or even the most popular. So what is AY’s pain? Perhaps AY has
forgotten that he is also a father when he sagged his trousers revealing what
he had under while boarding the plane that fateful Sunday evening. A word is
enough for the wise
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