The other day I was coming from work late in the evening and a friend had given me a ride. Somewhere near RDF headquarters, a taxi-moto guy overtook the car with a female passenger nicely dressed in a relatively short dress. The guy who was driving the car I was in immediately said the woman was looking so good and was definitely going to ‘eat’ someone’s money, what he meant by this is the lady on the moto looking sharp was going out to spend a man’s money, not her own. I immediately lashed at him because this was not the first time I was hearing a comment like that from a man. I put myself in the lady’s shoes; I have on several occasions taken a moto to go hang out with my friends on an occasion where the bill would be split among females. Having spent my own money on an outing I would be very irritated if somebody saw me on that moto and said the things this man had said. Why do some men think that when a woman goes out at night she is going to ‘eat’ a man’s money, why is it never her money because there are more women in employment today than years ago? There are women living large and fully funding it because they are in positions that make it possible for them to afford it. Eunice is a renown entrepreneur, when we recently went out for lunch she flashed her card saying how she wanted to pay for that lunch and many other lunches because her company would pay taxes on that money whether she spent it or not. Eunice was employed until six years ago when she ventured into private business through loans she acquired on her own. Today, a business she started with some little money in her bank account has expanded to the level where it is taking care of her and her family. There is someone who would see Eunice in her big car and say she is driving her husband’s car, yet this woman runs a successful business. Now, this is not to suggest that there are no women being taken care of financially by men, but it is wrong for us to assume that every good looking or sharply dressed woman falls in that category. If that were the case we would all stay home, shower, cook and wait for our husbands, unfortunately that is not sustainable—not for many women. Today there are homes where a man is married to a lady who heads a corporation and so that house and expensive car could be her investment, but to the man’s relatives and outsiders, there is now way these things can belong to a woman. The saddest part about the ride that evening is that the guy was not remorseful neither was he apologetic. He insisted on it being the ‘nature of women’. What a shame!
