Are Nigerian Men ‘really’ Ready for Richer Spouses?

I don’t think so.

On one of those wild days on Nigeria Twitter the trending topic was Side chicks. For the uninitiated, side chicks are women (mostly single women) who are in intimate relationships with married men. As it is with topics on sex and sexuality, opinions raged right, left and centre as millions of thumbs scrolled and stabbed at phone screens to pitch on either side of the argument. Supporters clamoured that side chicks’ lives mattered too; that it took two to tango and married men were equally complicit. Opponents decried the moral deficit of people who engaged in dalliances that had potential to hurt people they claimed to love.

Purse Strings and Passenger Seats

As I read the comments, I noticed a general sentiment, especially among the men. It was the notion that a man was ‘naturally profligate’ and that a woman’s destiny was tied to her husband’s purse strings. A number of people (both men and women) inferred that it might be in a woman’s interest to ignore her husband’s side affairs as long as he was a ‘provider.’ In these wave of sentiments, there was an automatic assumption that men were the providers and women were the recipients of men’s magnanimity. On the chicks’ side, there was an overwhelming emphasis on the financial gains they benefitted from…