[dropcap]I[/dropcap] am not a moral judge. I am not also in a position to purloin anyone’s moral agency. I am only concerned that its becoming increasingly fashionable and acceptable for young bachelors, especially the celebrities – footballers, musicians, TV presenters, entertainers – to sire children from several women before they eventually settle down.
They even get tons of congratulatory messages from fans and well-wishers whenever a willing woman drops a child for them.
I was kinda surprised when a popular politician/publisher publicly and boastfully congratulated his very young niece for bearing a son out of wedlock for a popular musician who has no plans to marry her. In fact, the popular musician still frolics with other women publicly on a daily basis.
If you drive down Ikorodu Lagos in Lagos, you’d see many abandoned edifices rotting away, with bold inscriptions of ongoing litigation regarding the property by the numerous children of the owner.
When these guys are no more, its commonplace to see their children scattered all over the world (of course from different mothers), engage in everlasting bitter feuds and protracted litigation over the man’s belongings.
Truth is that our legal and cultural systems are still inadequately equipped to resolve inheritance and intestate property struggles, most of which last an average of twenty years in court.
When the matter is eventually resolved, the children themselves are either too old, or that the property has rotted away and has no value anymore.
Is it that the society is not learning from these past mistakes or we just wanna live cool lives and damn the consequences.
Pray, tell.
Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri is a graduate of the Harvard Law School. She is on Facebook.
The opinions expressed in this piece are solely those of the author.
