US pop star Pink has offered to pay the fines given to the Norwegian women’s beach handball team back in 2021. The team was fined for wearing shorts like the men’s team instead of bikini bottoms. The Norwegian women’s beach handball team was given a fine of 1,500 euros for “improper clothing” at the European Beach Handball Championships last week. The women’s team wore shorts like their male counterparts, rather than bikini bottoms. In response, US singer Pink took to Twitter to say: “I’m very proud of the Norwegian female beach handball team for protesting sexist rules about their uniform” and also added “I’ll be happy to pay your fines for you. Keep it up.”
The European Handball Federation fined the Norway team for its choice of kit in a match against Spain in Bulgaria. They said the fine was issued because the players’ shorts were “not according to the athlete uniform regulations”.
The Norwegian Handball Federation announced last week that it was prepared to pay the fines. They also went on to say that it should be “a free choice within a standardized framework”. As for Pink’s offer to pay the fine, the team expressed their gratitude towards the singer saying “Wow! Thank you so much for the support,” in an Instagram story.
Pink is a singer from the US famous for hits such as Get the Party Started and Cover Me In Sunshine.
Former tennis champion Billie Jean King was among those noting how the men’s teams wear shorts. “The sexualization of women athletes must stop,” she stated on Twitter.
Bath University handball club said the fines were “absolutely outrageous”. They also went on to note how the rules around bikinis could be putting off women from taking up the sport.
Many of you who witnessed the election on February 25th may be wondering why God allows bad things to happen. Buhari and his footsoldier, Mohamed Yakubu, rigged the election despite all of the prayers and supplications. Why would God allow that to happen? These are the kinds of questions that have plagued mankind’s relationship with God for centuries and are one of the main reasons why many people have abandoned the faith, become atheists, and given up on religion. In this paper, we will look at why God appears to let things happen and what this means for our relationship with him.
One way to answer the question is to ask who God allows bad things to happen to. This is significant because we can all agree that bad things should happen to bad people. For example, if a person steals, he should be punished. However, most people disagree that bad things happen to good people. Are Nigerians good people? Though some Nigerians are good, there is ample evidence that the vast majority of Nigerians are not. Here are five reasons why Nigerians aren’t as good as we think.
1. Spread of corruption
Corruption pervades every sector in Nigeria, from public government circle offices to local government and all the way down to the lowest strata of society. Nigeria scores 24/100 in the global corruption perception index in the 2022 world global corruption index. In layman’s terms, 24/100 is equivalent to an F9 at university. Furthermore, we are ranked 150th out of 180 countries in terms of corruption, with the highest score being the most corrupt. Some may argue that high-profile corruption cases in Nigeria occur at the highest levels. Nonetheless, it is equally true that the Nigerian state is corrupt at all levels.
2. The Nigerian Constitution is fraudulent.
The nation’s constitution is fraudulent and allows victors of electoral fraud to be sworn in and “enjoy” state powers while their cases are still being heard in court. Who would vote for a constitution that allows electoral fraudsters to be sworn in? This is why Bola Tinubu stated, “Power is not served ala carte; they must snatch it.” He is well-versed in Nigeria’s constitution. And indeed, Prof Pat Utomi of Arise TV argued that it was not Tinubu who said those words first, but Arthur Nzeribe, an Igbo, who said that it doesn’t matter if you bought the form for the elections, do your best to be declared the winner and then use the power of the state to frustrate and decimate the opposition. Thus, can a group of people be considered good people if they deliberately allow a loophole in their constitution that allows criminals to be rewarded for their criminal actions with the highest office in the land and allows them to “enjoy power”?
3. Corruption of the Best is the Worst
According to Socrates, “The corruption of the best is the worst”, it follows that a country cannot, in theory, have a good population if the majority of its best citizens are corrupt. Universities are the center of learning in other parts of the world. Professors are involved in research, development, and technological advancements and they formulate economic policies that result in enormous wealth for other countries all the while molding young minds. Professors, however, are employed in Nigeria to rig elections beginning with the INEC chairman, Yakubu Mohammed, who is a professor of history and a university lecturer, who together with other university professors, are now spearheading the most primitive election rigging Nigerians have ever seen. However, by doing so, these professors have exposed themselves and let the cat out of the bag as to why Nigerian universities are being so poorly run by these professors, who have exposed themselves to be irredeemably corrupt.
4. Nigerians are narcissistic
Nigerians have an exaggerated sense of self-importance, despite the fact that most African countries outperform us in all indices of development. Consider our nearest neighbor, Ghana, which has a 9% higher education rate than Nigeria, while our East African counterpart Seychelles has a literacy rate of 95.9, while we barely reach 60%, and this holds true for all indices of development, as there is virtually no city in Nigeria with pipe born water, good roads, adequate supply of electricity, and or standard health care, yet we arrogate to ourselves the title of a giant. So the simple answer to the question, “Why does God allow bad things to happen?” is so that those who believe they are good will realize they are not. As a result, if we want bad things to stop happening and people like Tinubu to stop stealing your elections, we must stop stealing government funds to build our personal houses in the village. Let us stop misplacing people’s files in order for them to pay a bribe. Let us stop inflating government contracts fraudulently, or petty theft will be just another Tinubu or Yakubu waiting for an opportunity.
5. Nigerian are not united
The ethnic profiling, killing, and maiming of people, especially in Lagos, who are from a particular tribe, happened within a week after the elections were rigged. Instead of the entire Yoruba community rising up to denounce it, this is further proof that Nigerians are not good people. Nigerians should be fighting together for the new Nigeria that Peter Obi has proposed is possible.
Thus, the above five reasons, though not exhaustive, show that Nigerians are not as good as they think, and so when we ask “Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people,” the answer may be that many people who think they are good are not, and bad things help them see their evil and change their ways. Another reason why God allows bad things to happen is the Christian belief that God, though he could have done it, did not create a closed world (where men are only robots and he alone can control what happens) but rather an open-ended universe (where men can actually make decisions that shape the universe, making it open to many possibilities). He made man in his image. He created man in his own image and likeness, giving him freedom and intelligence to choose between good and evil. Thus, we can use our talents for good or evil, creating a more violent and unjust world. We see that Buhari and his agent Yakubu Mohamed could have held free and fair elections to ensure justice for all, but they chose manipulation, injustice, and violence instead. Thus, men who choose evil are responsible for injustice and wickedness, not God.
However, this is why heaven and hell exist: God gave man the freedom to do as he pleases, but He also requires a strict account of every man’s use of that freedom at the end of his life. Those who used their freedom for good would go to heaven, while those who used it for evil would go to hell forever. Thus, God allows temporary evil and injustice in this world because all who do good or evil will receive eternal justice. The Bible says God lets the rain fall in good and bad weather and lets the weeds grow with the darnel until harvest, when he gathers the wheat into the granaries and burns the weeds in an unquenchable fire. Perhaps the ultimate end of Buhari, Tinubu, and Yakubu would be the eternal punishment of hell fire which God would inflict on them on the last day if they do not repent for this big theft in this life, but let us not think that we would escape hell if we don’t repent of our own petty theft. He who is faithful in little is faithful in much, and he who is dishonest in little is dishonest in much. Petty thieves are just Tinubu or Yakubu waiting for their chance.
6. Jesus Christ and the redemptive suffering
Jesus Christ—true God and true man—provides another explanation for why God allows things to happen. The sinless, innocent, and just one. God allowed him to suffer. Why? Thus, Christ died to redeem us from death out of love. Christ’s passion and death defeat evil and show us that suffering can be redemptive. The sinless one freely chooses, and embraces the Cross as an act of love, in perfect love and obedience to his Father, reconciling us to God and showing us how we must embrace the cross and suffering that comes our way in atonement for our sin and the sin of the world. According to the Catholic Catechism, sin makes men accomplices in criminal structures that lead to violence and injustice. Sins create ungodly social systems. Personal sins create “structures of sin.”
Hence, it is sins and immorality, not God that cause bad things. Thus, we must unite to restore public order and morality. But it must be remembered that the goal is not to purify structures, but to help people become moral again. No matter how much you purify structures, if you do not restore the people in them to morality, these sound structures will once again be endangered. Pope John Paul II said, “This is a task which demands courage and patience.” [23] Courage because we must not be afraid to clash with the prevailing atmosphere. And patience—changing society from within takes time. It takes many people working on different projects with like-minded people to promote schools and educational institutions that provide urgent human formation that eventually bring about the right moral environment.
Raiane Lima, a top social media influencer, was dumped by her boyfriend, football player Gabriel Jesus, just 8 months after giving birth to the football player’s beautiful daughter. The details of how the couple split is as hazy as the details of how they met, but it is clear that the 22-year-old media influencer with over 450 thousand Instagram flowers followers must care for her baby on her own, relying on earnings from her online advertising of various trending fashion outfits, which has a large fan following. Many fans must have been surprised when Raiane took to her Instagram to announce the breakup in the following words:
“And whoever wants to judge can judge. Anyone who wants to say some bad things can speak.
“Since some like disgrace, I do it myself question of announcing the end of something that almost consumed me.
“Who wants to celebrate too, can celebrate (especially family members).
“After this post, you know that you will never again see me talk about what we went through, or about any subject related to our daughter.
“It wasn’t betrayal, it was just pressure from everyone and everything.
“We got along well, but because of other people’s problems, it always got to us.
“I can’t take it anymore, and I’m not going to force myself into something that’s killing me.”
She followed up the announcement by deleting all of the footballer’s pictures on her feed. When she first announced her relationship with the footballer on Instagram, her fan base exploded, with thousands of girls flocking to her updated pages. Nonetheless, it should serve as a caution to avoid entering into a sexual relationship without the security of a wedding ring.
Things might be different right now if she had waited for her affair with the football star to mature into a full-fledged love of marriage before giving herself up body and soul to him. It is said that once a man has had his fill of sex, he quickly grows tired of the woman and seeks other titillations. She now has a baby and no father as a result of giving herself away so easily. As they say, sex has consequences. Furthermore, if they had been legally married, she would have sued him for child support, with a chance of getting a significant percentage of the $9 million per year he earns from his club, money to care for her child.
Hence, it is extremely unfair that Raiane bears the entire burden of raising his child alone, but that is what she gets for abdicating control over her body and preventing sex from happening until the wedding night. The good news is that she did not consider abortion, which I am sure many people would have done because it would have been just as wrong. Things will hopefully get better for her in the future; however, it is clear that having sex before marriage in relationships frequently results in a situation in which the woman loses.
Evidence that physical disability is not a lack of ability surfaced once more when Cindy Chilaka, a physically challenged University of Port Harcourt student, posted a video of her graduation with the title “What God cannot do does not exist.”
This multi-talented young lady, who completed a university course despite her disability and is also a talented hair stylist, shared a video in which she was dancing for joy whilst donning a t-shirt with the inscription “What God cannot do does not exist.”
The inscriptions refer to God and affirm how the concept of God and faith in his providence can help people face great odds with confidence. It is said that it is easier to climb a mountain when you know you will meet a friend at the top.
Believers and people of faith can face life’s great challenges with confidence and courage because they are assured of God’s all-loving providence as their father. This increases optimism about outcomes, and studies show that optimistic people have more positive outcomes. “An optimistic attitude helps us be happier, more successful, and healthier,” according to kidshealth.org. According to Liz Mascolo, General Mills’ business unit director, it focuses on positive outcomes (Umah 2017). “It doesn’t mean that you’re necessarily shiny and happy at all times of the day,” she says. “However, it does imply that you have the ability to look at a situation and, while it may be difficult, see around the corner and see the possibility…versus the difficulty.” (Umah 2017).
Optimism necessitates hard work, which distinguishes it from positive thinking, which is simply daydreaming about positive outcomes without putting in the necessary effort. Cynthia, despite her handicap, was very confident that God would see her through, and her faith gave her the optimism she needed to face and overcome those challenges. Her joy is shared by friends and family alike, and it stands as an indictment of those who give up and cease to strive for their dreams regardless of the obstacle. Cynthia’s completion of her graduate degree despite missing a limb and having to navigate around campus on crutches shows that those who have all of their limbs have no reason to give up.
To summarize, Cynthia’s faith in God’s providence manifested in her optimism and, as a result, fortitude until she achieved her goal, a lesson for all who face challenges of any kind.
Kanye West(45) recently married his girlfriend, Bianca Censori(27), in a private ceremony away from prying eyes, according to rumors. This comes just two years after his high-profile divorce from flamboyant Kim Kardashian in 2020, which ended a seven-year marriage that began in 2014. The speed with which Kanye remarried, while Kim remains in limbo with no relationship that appears to be stable enough to lead to marriage, demonstrates that women frequently get the short end of the stick in divorce because men can marry at any time and even to younger women no matter how old they are, whereas divorced women have difficulty finding men who will marry them.
Bianca Censori
“It’s really f**king hard,” Kim admitted in an interview. ” I don’t know if I’ll get married again, but I’ll have my forever partner. That I am aware of. He’s definitely coming. I’m at peace, and I’m going to have a good time until that happens.”
She should be reminded, however, that the essence of marriage, at least the Christian marriage, is forever, but this takes effort and determination to stick it out “for better or for worse till death do part,” even when things are not going well. Unfortunately, this is not Kim’s view of marriage. Kim, 40, revealed that she filed for divorce because total happiness seemed to elude her; after 7 years of marriage, she realized she was unhappy.
“I just want total happiness,” she said. “Obviously, I understand that complete bliss is not a complete reality, but all I want is to have it more of the time.”
Critics would argue that this is childish because no one can be completely happy in this world and that it is simply a sign of immaturity and being a spoilt brat. She claims she can’t believe she’s worked her whole life and made so much money to be unhappy. Forbes recently named her a billionaire with a net worth of $1.8 billion.
“I’m numb like, tired of that, but I know I’ll be happy,” she said, almost in tears. “I didn’t come this far just to be unhappy,” she explained in a recent interview.
They say that money can’t buy happiness and this is proving true in her case. Additionally, studies show that happiness comes indirectly and as a result of self-sacrificing love for others. For instance, a mother is happy indirectly by making sacrifices for her children so that they grow up happy and strong, and hence a mother’s true happiness is to see her children happy. Kim and Kanye had four children as a result of their 2014 marriage, and it’s heartbreaking to imagine what those children must be going through seeing their parents shunning each other and reuniting with total strangers.
What can Kim and Kanye’s children learn from them about fidelity, love, and keeping a promise? I doubt they would be able to learn anything good from two fickle, arrogant, thick-headed parents. Indeed, the availability of no-fault divorce makes it more difficult for parents to seek honest solutions to their problems, with many opting for the easy way out that divorce offers at a significant cost to their children. Indeed, every child has the right to a stable home and relies on their parents’ love and bond as irrefutable proof of their enduring love.
Kanye and his daughter, North
Her eldest daughter was recently shown in the paper meeting her new stepmother, which is sad and must be very upsetting for children, and until adults understand that marriage is not just about them, and that their children’s happiness also matters, this type of thing will never end. In any case, Kim will not find happiness and her forever love by hopping from one husband to the next, and unlike her ex-husband, Kanye, who can have any woman regardless of age, she does not have that option because her clock is ticking.
Scooby-Doo, a childhood favorite from the 1980s, has been remade for an adult audience. According to FoxNews, the Scooby-Doo spinoff “Velma” is supposed to tell the story of one of the main characters Velma Dinkely and is full of adult-themed scenes such as limb hacking, the character going to strip clubs, and high school sex and lesbian kiss. As a result, there has been an immediate and spontaneous outpouring of wailing and scoffing. The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is less than 50%, and the IMDB history score is a paltry 1.3 out of 10 stars, with viewer comments so damning that Velma’s official Youtube channel has turned off the comment sections.
Why is there such a commotion? It should be obvious that people live their lives as they think, and their works reflect their thinking. That is why it is critical to think right and live according to the right values because everything you do will reflect your inner thoughts. Thus, people writing scripts for big studios like Disney or Pixar and others are thinking woke, and thus writing woke scripts, but can you blame them? If they truly believe woke is right and lesbianism is good, it is unavoidable that this will come out in their work; no one can help it. You live the way you think, and what you love eventually manifests itself in your works.
The fact that Velma shows have bombed and received negative reviews is relevant, but more so is the question of who will fill the yawning demand for wonderful classic cartoons that have all the proper virtues but none of the wokeness. Millions of kids are crying out for artists with brilliant ideas and non-woke film directors to fill the void left by the 80s cartoons they grew up on. No one should be shocked that woke cartoonists are filling the vacuum with their ridiculous woke ideas if the classic intellectuals are too lazy or unmotivated to rise to the needs of the people.
Instead of complaining about the disturbing drift of scriptwriters into woke ideologies, classic writers should buck up and market their own ideas through children’s cartoons. If the world is a free market, there is no reason for governments or authorities to ban woke ideas from the public sphere. Let everyone make what they want, flood the market with good, poor, and ugly options, and let the buyer decide. As the creator of the new Scooby-“Velma” Doo’s found out when the film garnered the worst IMDB rating ever for its woke ideas, the woke won’t save a bad product.
In short, the poor performance of the adult remake of the 1980s Scooby-Doo at the box office proves once again that many people do not like woke movies, and that these people make up a sizable portion of the audience interested in fine classical films and woke movies will continue to garner less and less attention until they eventually fade away on their own once positive content producers take on the job of delivering clear, clean, fun-filled movies.
McKenzie and Jeff when they were young and going was good
The recent news that McKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, is divorcing her second husband in two years should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with previous research on divorce, which confirms the disruptive effects it has on victims, particularly women and children. McKenzie appears to be the innocent party in her 25-year marriage to Jeff Bezos, the father of her four children when Jeff’s obsession with another woman became public. Indeed, Jeff Bezos announced the divorce in a tweet in January 2019, following the public revelation of his adulterous relationship with a married woman, Lauran Sanchez.
Though McKenzie received a large portion of Bezos’ billion (approximately USD37 billion) in divorce settlements, it pales in comparison to what she lost: a family trust built over 25 years, shattered; betrayal by the father of her four children; the security of a familiar life all gone up in smoke, and the feeling of having to start life almost all over again, and launch out in search of love when her beauty and youth have already been spent. Some may argue that having the option of dating other men is part of the excitement of being single again, but that is not the case. Those who claim this are incorrect. There is a special joy in having a trusted confidant who has accompanied you on your journey. McKenzie and Jeff built Amazon from the ground up, and what a journey it must have been, with so many shared memories spanning decades, so many shared adventures, so many dangers overcome together, and so many bullets dodged. All of this is gone.
Hence, divorce hurts women more than men because they age faster, are more vulnerable, and lose their fertility at a younger age. Despite variations, research confirms that a significant number of women lose their ability to bear children (menopause) between the ages of 47 and 54. A man, on the other hand, is very capable of bearing children even at the age of 70 and above; in fact, the world’s oldest new dad, who is from India, fathered a child at the age of 96, according to Livescience.com (https://www.livescience.com/24196-male-fertility-limit.html). Furthermore, divorce, according to Reynolds (2017), is harmful to children’s well-being; it is unjust to wives, who need their husbands’ protection rather than being dismissed when their good looks begin to deteriorate (Reynolds 2017). That is why, according to St. Thomas, divorce is unnatural because it places the woman on an unequal footing with the man who, after having enjoyed her youth, is able to cast her out when her youth is failing.
Furthermore, divorce is also wrong because it puts both couples on guard as every temporary union does and hence, both couples may not be able to give themselves completely to each other without reserves, but rather deliberately hold back, keeping something back in case the marriage fails. Hence, the Catholic Church insists that marriage is for life and that the bonds are irrevocable, and that it is not a union based on the satisfaction of the two adults’ passions, but rather, based on justice, which includes keeping promises made for better or for worse. “The promise, made when I am in love and because I am in love, to be true to the beloved as long as I live, commits one to be true even if I cease to be in love,” wrote C.S. Lewis.
Hence, if this is understood, there would be less emphasis on being in love, which has resulted in so much divorce and broken marriages, and when people realize that they are no longer in love. Jeff Bezos abandoned his wife of 25 years because he was no longer in love with her but with another woman, it demonstrates that human passions are fickle and nothing lasting can be built on them. “The Christian idea of marriage is based on Christ’s words that a man and wife are to be regarded as a single organism—for that is what the words “one flesh” mean,” writes C.S Lewis. Marriage is not for personal fulfillment, writes Seth Smith in his article “Marriage isn’t for you,: You marry to make someone else happy, not to make yourself happy. More importantly, you’re marrying for a family, not for yourself. Not just for the sake of the in-laws and all that nonsense, but also for the sake of your future children. in addition, C.S Lewis argues that there are several sound reasons to remain married even if love is gone: to provide a home for their children, to protect the woman (who has probably sacrificed or damaged her beauty by bearing children from being dropped whenever the man is tired of her.
In conclusion, we could argue that McKenzie’s second divorce, which occurred less than a year after her first, proves that her separation from Jeff, her husband of 25 years, was detrimental to her, as studies show it is to women due to the greater sense of loss and insecurity women experience after a divorce due to the earlier aging and loss of fertility that affects them compared to men.
Reynolds, Philip L. “St. Thomas Aquinas.” Christianity and Family Law: An Introduction, edited by John Witte, Jr and Gary S. Hauk, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2017, pp. 161–178. Law and Christianity.
In an online spat with some critics, the winner of Season 7 of BBNaija, Ijeoma Josephina Otabor, also known as Phyna, revealed that she has had two abortions despite being only 25 years old. This young lady won the hearts of BBNaija fans with her open and easy manner in which she spoke her mind while pulling no punches. But behind those brilliant facades and quick smiles are pains, anguish, and broken hearts that drove her to terminate the two pregnancies. She stated that the first time she had an abortion; she was 19 years old and a student at Auchi Polytechnic, where she was studying Agricultural and Bio Environmental Engineering Technology. In an attempt to explain her reason for choosing to abort her baby, she said, “I knew am from a very poor background, we used to eat once a day then, especially in the afternoon and then carry it till the next day. So keeping the baby was out of the question.”
Though she did not say who the father was, it is reasonable to assume that it was someone who was supporting her and paying for her education, and taking advantage of her poverty. She was 24, had just finished school, and was possibly looking for marriage when she had her second abortion. She claimed she was ready to keep the child, but it was clear that the father of the child had no intention of marrying her and was abusive, so she chose to free herself from his clutches by having an abortion and ending the relationship.
Furthermore, Phyna believes that abortion is common among girls, and she claims that 98 of a hundred girls have had abortions, though many of them would not be so open about it. She is also quick to point out that having those abortions was a mistake, especially since she is Catholic; the Catholic faith views abortion as nothing less than the murder of an innocent child, and thus imposes a strict penalty of ex-communication on anyone who has done it or even assisted in procuring an abortion. The beauty of it is that, while the church is very strict, it is also very concerned with bringing healing and reconciliation with God for those who have fallen into this grave sin, which is why Pope Francis recently empowered parish priests with the power to lift the penalty of ex-communication and absolve the sin of abortion, which was previously only the prerogative of the bishop. As a result, Phyna went to confession and asked for forgiveness.
The lesson here is that every woman’s decision to have an abortion has a story, and understanding and compassion must come first before anyone casts a stone. In addition to the mistaken belief that abortion is the only way out of a toxic relationship, the main lesson here for young girls is that sex before marriage, no matter how rosy the promises made to them by their boyfriends, is ultimately the leading cause of abortion, and abstinence until marriage remains the only truly effective remedy. Understandably, this is a difficult sell for impoverished girls looking for money to pay for school, and thus an easy pawn for men with money and power. Nonetheless, any girl who is truly determined would be able to abstain from sex before marriage, even if it meant cutting her coat to her size and foregoing the nice toys that her rich girlfriends or rich boyfriends have. It is difficult, but it is possible with a spirit of humility and Godliness.
Even though Phyna now claims that she has repented and would never abort another child now that she has enough money to feed ten children, it is difficult to believe her because abortion is a moral choice to accept what is inconvenient, to shoulder responsibility, and to be willing to forego the easy way out and take the long and difficult path, and all of these are characters that require self-sacrifice, characters that cannot be bought with money. Furthermore, a key component of repentance is the willingness to avoid future opportunities that could lead to sin, which in Phyna’s case is not so obvious given that she recently participated in the infamous BBNiaja, a show that is reputed to encourage sexual immorality and provide an opportunity for sin not only for the participants but also for those who watch and enjoy such shows.
Furthermore, repentance and willingness to make amends must go hand in hand, and hopefully, now that she is rich with a 100 million naira prize, she can begin to make amends and lead a clean life worthy of a catholic Christian girl and role models for the young, and as the winner of season 7 of this last show, she has inadvertently taken the role of a model for many young girls who would wish to be like her, and thus she carries an even greater moral obligation
It would be nice if she thought about donating some of her money to help less fortunate girls who, like her, were forced to have sex in order to pay their school fees. Phyna could consider establishing a trust fund to provide scholarships to young girls who lack financial resources, so they don’t have to rely on men who will exploit them. Finally, those who would judge and condemn Phyna for her previous abortions should learn to suspend judgment and temper justice with mercy, knowing that love and understanding are far more effective than judgmental condemnation in providing lasting healing to women who have had the misfortune of having abortions. Indeed, Phyna should be commended for her bravery in speaking out about her grave guilt, and her remorse and true repentance would be evident in how she organizes her life and atones for past sins. Every saint, as the saying goes, has a past, and every sinner has a future.
According to an old Cherokee legend, a grandfather told his grandson, “My son, there are two wolves fighting inside us all. One is the devil. It is a combination of rage, jealousy, greed, resentment, inferiority, lies, and ego. The other is good; it is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy, and truth.” After some thought, the boy asked, “Grandfather, which wolf wins?” The old man replied quietly, “the one you feed.” The story shows that depending on which wolf you feed, you can go from being a good person to a bad person; thus, in order to do good and avoid evil, you must feed the right wolf.
This appears t to be the story of Afrocandy, a Nigerian-born porn actress, who recently revealed that she was once a good homely wife. She shared photos of herself from 2001, dressed in traditional Igbo Christian mother attire complete with scarf and wrapper, and revealed that she was a regular churchgoer and parishioner at St. Leos Catholic Church.
Judith Mazagwu 2001
Judith Mazagwu
So, what exactly happened? How did a Christian mother become a pornstar? How did a well-groomed Nigerian woman become a notorious Afrocandy seductress now poring over the internet in her underwear? Her real name is Judith Chichi Opara Mazagwu, she is an Imo state native, a wife, and a mother of two children, and she has a bachelor’s degree in public administration and a bachelor’s degree in business management.
In 2005, she traveled to the United States to meet her husband, with whom she had two children. Unfortunately, the marriage ended in an explosion of infidelity accusations, leaving her stranded in the United States with two children at the age of 36. Desperate Judith first tried acting and modeling, but lacking the skill or talent to make big money, she devolved into racy porn under the alias Afrocandy, something so out of character and shocking to ordinary Nigerians.
Judith aka Afrocandy pornstar (2012)
Today, her Afrocandy production company is the arrowhead pushing Nigerian pornography into mainstream Nollywood, and while she is currently meeting some resistance in the industry because most actors and actresses still have enough self-respect for themselves and their families to avoid crossing the thin red line between the innocuous nudity already present in Hollywood and outright pornography, she must sense that it is only a matter of time before they cave, and she is optimistic.
Hence, some argue that what caused the unassuming Judith to take such a drastic turn was the pain and betrayal of her broken marriage. According to an online magazine, in an interview with the Daily Sun published on September 3, 2010, she said she tried to save her marriage but he wouldn’t take her back:
“There have been a lot of rumors going around about my marriage and only a few people know the truth. The truth is that I did not leave my husband; rather, he left because of some gossip he heard about something that happened in Nigeria before I joined him in the US.
I begged him, and he returned. When he left the second time, I felt compelled to issue him with a restraining order. I really don’t want to go into details because I see that as the past, and I want the past to stay in the past because I’ve moved on; talking about it takes me backward.”
Furthermore, her rumored marriage to an Ibadan millionaire, Chief Kamoru Okiki, did not appear to have materialized in 2011, adding fuel to her downward spiral into the porn abyss. No doubt, all of her setbacks and doubles should be considered when judging this woman; however, with her level of education, she bears significant blame responsibility for allowing herself to be thus manipulated and induced by an excessive ambition and love for glamour. She appears to be someone who is willing to do anything for fame and fortune, including abandoning all decorum and modesty.
As previously stated, everyone has two wolves fighting within them: the wolf of wantonness that we all carry within us, which we must refuse to feed or it will lead us to dark places. Judith aka Afrocandy appears to have fed the wrong wolf her entire life, and it has grown into a werewolf devouring that part of her that was once a good homely Nigerian Christian woman full of decorum and good sense. Nonetheless, she should be aware that this wolf will devour her and everything associated with her. Furthermore, given that she was once a Christian and a Catholic, she should remember that pornography has been linked to harm to children and young people. The widespread availability of pornographic media has been linked to unwanted pregnancies in young people, as well as the spread of STDs such as HIV/AIDS among single adolescents (Ojo and Fasuuba, 2005). According to Nwankwo, about a third of adolescent pregnancies are terminated due to complications such as bleeding, anemia, and exhaustion (1983). And, as a mother, I am sure she understands the grave responsibility that those who create or market pornographic materials bear.
It is a pity that she has allowed herself to be used as an agent and purveyor of a foreign malicious culture alien to Nigerians in order to pollute and corrupt the minds of young people in a country already plagued by poverty, a lack of clean water, a hospital, and food scarcity. It’s a shame that all she has to offer our youth is a bad example. Longe et al. (2007) argue that. In a country where poverty is on the rise, children who sell their wares to help their families make ends meet are constantly exposed to situations that can jeopardize healthy sexual behaviors.
Unfortunately, the Internet, more than any other agent of social change, has contributed in no small measure to the removal of guilt, fear, and shame associated with unconventional sexual activities, and thus these poor Nigerian children have already been swamped and robbed of their peace of mind and African decency by the foreign crude bestial images emerging from dark taverns or Eastern Europe and sordid porn from America one click away on the internet, which they aspire to. Afrocandy has now deprived them of their last line of defense with her Nigerian porn. However, she should remember that those who throw stones should not live in a glass house. If she succeeds in corrupting our youths for profit, she may not like what she sees when the results come in, and the Holy Book says that it is better to tie a stone around their neck and throw them into the sea than to lead children to sin.
In conclusion, the breakdown of her marriage and being abandoned to fend for herself transformed a once homely Nigerian woman into a porn star, proving that everyone has both good and bad passions and must struggle despite the odds to feed the good side of ourselves. Nothing justifies turning to the dark path of pornography, so she must turn and feed the good things in her life, transforming herself into a force for good.
Nwankwo, J. Teenagers Need Protection from Unwanted Pregnancies. The Guardian, (1983, October 6), p.5
Ojo, O., & Fasubaa, O. . Adolescent Sexualityand Family Life Education in Southwestern Nigeria: Responses From Focus Group Discussion. Journal of Social Science,(2005) 10(2), 111-118.
In the recent stories making waves, the model Fancy Acholonu said in an interview that she and her boyfriend, the actor Alex Ekubo, had never had sexual contact during their five-year relationship, setting off a media frenzy. Predictably, her comment produced a wave of conjecture, criticism, and allegation rather than praise for the couple’s wisdom, nobility, and self-control in not engaging in sexual activity before marriage. People in today’s sexualized culture who apparently have trouble wrapping their heads around the ideas of sexual purity and abstinence have even speculated that Alex might be a secret homosexual.
There are numerous reasons why someone might choose not to have pre-marital sex. In an article titled, 10 Benefits of Remaining a Virgin Until Marriage, Nancy Hanna claims that there are ten solid reasons not to engage in premarital sex, one of which is the avoidance of serious sexually transmitted diseases (STD) such as HIV/AIDS, Human papillomavirus (HPV) and many more. Doubtless, premarital sex has been shown to increase the risk of contracting one of the many venereal diseases that are prevalent today, as well as losing fertility. People who engage in premarital sex are more likely to contract STDs because premarital sex has been linked to sexual promiscuity. Consequently, Anna Kemarch argues in her article 16 Lessons I Learned After Losing My Virginity at 16 that couples who engage in premarital sex have a higher rate of promiscuity and are more likely to have more sexual partners than couples who do not, increasing the risk of sexually transmitted diseases. In addition to HIV/AIDS, other harmful, incurable, and disfiguring diseases, such as herpes, which has a cure, can be contacted. Anna claims that the only foolproof way to avoid STDs is to be faithful to one partner in marriage.
Even more forcefully, Maureen Abah argues in an article titled, 10 Reasons I’m Glad I Kept My Virginity Until Marriage, that abstaining from premarital sex allows both parties in the relationship to be clear-sighted and objective in the relationship, whereas sexual intimacy clouds the vision and can create unhealthy emotional attachment in an abusive relationship. She contends that couples in sex-free relationships are often more free to consider whether to continue the relationship than couples in sexual relationships, which strongly enslave them to prolong an unhealthy relationship based on physical attraction or the need for security. She goes on to say that people who are having sex may feel “trapped” in a relationship that they want to end but can’t find a way out of simply because they are infatuated with the sex they are having or they feel that they have given away far too much of themselves and are ashamed and lost. On the other hand, someone who hasn’t had sex can more easily break the emotional bond with the other because there hasn’t been such powerful physical intimacy. Furthermore, if the woman becomes pregnant, neither partner feels as free to decide to separate, marry, go to work, and so on.
Indeed, Alex and Fancy are able to walk away from their relationship with fewer regrets because they were not having sex, and perhaps that why they are able to do so now easily without bitterness. Indeed, Maureen argues that there is more than twice the physical aggression among couples having premarital sex together without any commitment than among married couples. There is less jealousy and less selfishness in dating couples who decide to postpone sexual activity than in those who are driven by passion. Maureen gives the example of a friend who decided to end her relationship with a guy with whom she had sex, and the guy went to town bragging about how many times he had her and so on. Break-ups and the resulting pain are more intense when sex is involved. This is highlighted by the recent case of Empress Njamah’s ex-fiancé, who decided to start releasing nude pictures of her after they broke up. According to reports, Empress Njamah’s boyfriend, George “Baby Brother” Wade, decided to blackmail her by creating a WhatsApp group to which he added multiple people and began posting naked videos of her in her home. He has even threatened her with more, and as things stand, Empress may have to resort to lawsuits to end the humiliation, aside from the embarrassment of having her nude all over social media. More humiliation is on the way, since he has threatened it, and Empress may have to resort to legal action to stop it.
Empress Njamah
And for those who are making flippant comments about Alex and Fancy’s decision to avoid premarital sex, it is unfortunate that premarital sex has become the norm rather than the exception when it was once the exception.
In conclusion, Fancy Acholonu should be grateful that she and Alex never had premarital sex because there is no doubt that when you have not been sexually intimate and decide to break up, the separation is less devastating. Relationships based on sexual gratification are quite ephemeral and transient, and, as we have seen, there are quite a number of credible reasons for avoiding premarital sexual encounters. A few odd years ago, it was assumed by everyone that couples who are dating are clean and noble and avoid sex.