So Basketmouth has joined the growing list of celebrity marriage collapses. It has been turbulence in Lala Land as marriages and couplings are collapsing like a pack of cards.
The other day, it was my brother Juluis Agu who lamented that as a result of his ill health diminishing resources his wife left him.
It is now almost a daily affair with the gossip blogs going to town with all the salacious stories that usually comes with these occurrences.
Some lose their lives in the process, like the car dealer who lost his wife in a fire allegedly lit by her in a scuffle for dwindling resources, amongst others.
There has been many reasons posited by onlookers for this rash of uncouplings all stemming from incompatibility, public pressure amongst others.
But I have decided to look at the economic angle. Now this is assuming that there are no illegal source of income being masked by a music or comedy career.
My take is simple. In a discussion with veteran show biz man Olisa Adibua , he told me that the average music career has a life span of 10 years.
That they usually remain on top of the game for that period. Some cross it others don’t but in the average, that is the time
Comedy is even more flitting. The very best gets like 5 years and that is why only very few like Alibaba , Ay and Bovi can still fill up Eko Hotel. Even these ones have to pull in a lot of comedians to join forces to achieve this.
Now what am I saying. At the peak of the fame, liquidity is assured and pours in with a massive hit on lifestyle.
Residence, cars, school, clothes are upgraded massively. They push into a secluded income bracket that is made up off genuine corporate giants.
So you see them move into the exclusive havens of the super rich. Banana Island, Nicon Town and Parkview amongst others.
Some buy up properties others rent but either way cost of living has taken a 1000% jump.
As its often the case with the new rich, they go overboard in living the life and showing off. Private jets become the choice of Air transport and the super exclusive boutiques of New York’s 5th Avenue and Milan become a second home for gradually getting spoilt wives who usually are often with no talent but with the looks of small goddesses.
The wives having entered that circle would live the life to the fullest and the need to ramp up income becomes imperative and with the 10 year band still very far off, this is not a problem.
Life is good. Posh Beckham is a personal friend of the family and oga smokes Cuban cigers with Steve Harvey and he is hosting the Oscar’s so the train will continue.
The lavish lifestyle may or may not allow for investments. So we are lucky, Oga has Edgar as financial adviser so he would have done some little investments in stocks and has bought some houses in Osapa London but the bulk of the funds coming in have entered lifestyle
He is now paying service charge in dollars with Mike Adenuga in Banana and doing like N4m per term in Day waterman for the children.
The cars must represent and the N5m weekend jaunts at the night club must complete
Then the career starts wanning down and a dbanj begins to happen. The songs are no longer selling and a hotter new kid on the block is now the rave.
Liquidity begins to slow down and we can no longer do the Private Jets but we can still manage Business Class.
The house is ours so no rent but maintenance is becoming sturdy and Estate dues are getting paid a little bit late.
The wife starts getting irritable. She doesn’t understand why she can’t just go to Los Angeles for Mo Abudu’s daughters wedding. What if she just came back from Wimbledon nko , how does that affect anything. So because of that she won’t join them at Fidelis Anosike’s Royal wedding at the old castle in England?
It is getting worse o. Bookings are drying up. His fees are now too high cos they are not placed side by side his market value but are placed to cover immediate financial obligations.
He has a N10m bill to pay Cosharis for the last two servicing of the Range and u are asking him to take N3m because Sabinus will take 2m. Am I Sabinus?
Problem starts at home. Things that were not issues suddenly becomes issue and the fleeting nature of the career begins to stare at the man.
He had placed her in a circle. She now has better options. The big daddy who has three Oil wells that wil never dry and who also needs the super stars wife for bragging rights is more than willing to step in and maintain the lifestyle pending when oga blows again which in most cases never happens.
I am not saying that this is the main reason we are having these rash of celebrity divorces cos there are other reasons like the need to showcase a power coupling instead of true love leading to no real foundation for the marriages.
The next thing, ‘ we see a statement asking us to respect our privacy’ at this time.
‘which yeye privacy, when they were all over IG showing us the latest $6,000 G string they just bought and him walking with bowlegs into his Range Rover and begging MTV to show us his crib he didn’t knw privacy that time o
Mbok no privacy..lets hear all the stories abeg.
Seriously, the economy is really part of this. Companies facing dwindling fortunes are cutting marketing costs so instead of paying a comedian N10m to come and compere the end of year party, the Head of HR will do it.
This Is my own take on the matter. You really don’t have to agree cos it’s the way I see it but then again be watching.
More celebrity marriages will come crashing. My bet is on that black tailor that will be driving exotic cars and be pretending that he is a warri person but na Yoruba person.
Another na him brother wey don branch into films that has bought him an extra 10 years after exhausting the first 10years on the comedy track
God protect us all
Duke of Shomolu
