The word of God says if you want to know the content of a man’s heart, listen to what comes out of his mouth. This is how Jesus puts it in Luke 6:43-45: “For a good tree does not bear bad fruit nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks (writes).”
Proverbs 4:23 also instructs we guard our heart with all diligence because from it, flow issues of life.
When the Simi “sexualisation” scandal broke, the first thing that hit my core was the Yoruba take on a better-forgotten past returning to hound and hurt. The proverbial 20-year-old pounded yam that still singes.
Despite her rebuttal/fightback bravado, the sweetheart singer is in a rabbit hole and would be damned if any parent from her mum’s crèche of those yesteryears when she made those controversial, sexually-explicit tweets about children in her mum/her care, should return with a molestation claim.
Now that the case has officially gone under probe by the police and the Lagos State Government, she faces a life sentence if successfully prosecuted for child molestation (which could be multiple in her case) without an option of fine, as recently prescribed by the Godswill Akpabio-led Senate.
Aside from the legal import/imperil, she becomes a sex offender for life, even if eventually granted pardon and her sentence commuted.
That would be a sad way for the Duduke singer to end. Beyond her undeniable lyrical capabilities and obvious musical talent, Simi’s laid-back persona and the omo mission (child of clergyman raised in a mission house) visage and carriage, no doubt, bought her a lot of goodwill with many, including yours sincerely. Until the 12/14-year-old tweets resurfaced, she represented for many Nigerians, an epitome of morals and decency in a seemingly decadent industry of bare-it-all; bodily, closet matters and personal life. Always appearing calm since she came to a close range of the critical and emotive Nigerian public and sustained consciousness of music lovers, she had never been a subject of intense scrutiny, let alone being under police probe, until the digital maelstrom, raging to consume her.
When a Manhattan federal court on October 3 last year sentenced entertainment mogul and star singer, Sean “Diddy” Combs to 50 months in jail, it was for sexual offences committed around the same time Simi was free-styling with those wrong-headed tweets. The past surely has a way of catching up especially with the internet that never forgets and with the narratives around sex offences seen to be heavily skewed against the male gender, there is likely to be no let or breather for her until what looks like justice is done.
In her immediate reaction, she poorly defended the erotic thoughts directed at male children in her and her mum’s care as playing around her thought jaunts with netizens, while trying to make a sense of her musical dreams. How does that absolve intent? Then doubling down and having no remorseful apology to give? That was a poor one from her advisers/management. Such grandstanding could sink her faster if police decide to really probe her past, digging into her call logs and every digital interaction of the past. The Yoruba will say no matter how perfectly you have learnt to walk, the head must shake. Father of nations; Tuface Idibia will say nobody holy pass, as a knock for the regular criticism directed at his proclivity to father children from almost every woman he dalliances with.
But there is a kind of relief for Mrs. Gold. The Lagos State agency handling alleged sexual sins, Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA), says the suspicion around the singer would be difficult to establish without witnesses. The hardworking lady at the helm there, Lola Vivour-Adeniyi, sister to the Labour Party 2023 governorship candidate in the state, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, is now calling on survivors (and likely witnesses) to step forward.
According to Vivour-Adeniyi: “The truth of the matter is that it’s going to be very difficult to prosecute the lady without a survivor being present, a victim of whatever it is, whether it’s sexual abuse, rape, defilement or sexual assault by provocation.”
Well, we are talking practically about toddlers here when the alleged sexualization intent was communicated and though young adults now, their memories of 12, 14 years ago, would be at best, blurry. Their parents too, might not remember much of the time, maybe since no major scandal broke out at the crèche then. Even if they noticed an unusual attachment of Simi, then a damsel, it was probably construed as marketing affection, to sustain patronage. But if there are hirelings who assisted Simi’s mum at the crèche during the time in focus, as long as they aren’t scorned ex-staff, their testimonies should go a long way in unraveling what actually transpired with the toddlers on Simi’s watch.
If you ask me, methinks she was just being naughty, an idle hand that broke a tool in a devil’s workshop, though I knew nothing about her past and even her music career (I don’t really do secular music) until her blockbusting evergreen ‘Duduke’. Those who know her days of little beginnings should speak out candidly about who she truly was in those years of no-stardom, since most of what we get from stars are curated images by their management. I was particularly struck when she said she disagreed with her management digitally scrubbing some of the offending tweets. Maybe she is truly real but if those tweets were her realest early days of career dreams, then something bad had cooked her mind up, but maybe not towards the toddlers.
I agree, people have sexual fantasies; old and young, male and female, even hermaphrodites. How it’s communicated is the issue. Feeling like dipping the head of a four year old under you (puking) can’t be a cruise, even if your libido is on steroids. Can the government make CCTV cameras a sine qua non for the establishment of baby care centres nationwide? When Simi expressed those wild thoughts, for her sake, I pray she was more of a young woman in murky waters than a real shark snarling at and snacking on cradles, though I still shudder at how gory it would be between a pervert and a four year old, regardless of gender.
But whether it was goofy gone wrong or she was truly finding outlets for bridled sexual tension, I still pity Simi. Her good-girl brand is now likely to be replaced with girly-girly imagery and her career may suffer irreparable harm. If there are real victims, they deserve justice regardless of Simi being households’ sweetheart through her nightingale voice. If it is established that the obvious intent to commit, is a case of victimless crime, it’s hoped lessons would have been learnt; the government, federal and state, using the moment to demand more guardrails from those operating child care homes, to prevent real future abuses. I will also like to assume none is currently operating without at least, local government permit. It’s not enough to collect tenement rates or other outrageous levies local authorities are following in the footsteps of Abuja to impose on businesses. Business entities directly impacting lives, especially of children and other vulnerable demographic, must be well monitored.
For Simi, she should find rest for her soul if her conscience clears her. Truth will make her prevail. With or without jail term, it’s believed she has learnt; the hard way. Disgrace says when it wakes, it heads to the home of one with a name. Maybe Simi, like many others behaving recklessly on social media now, never believed she could blow (be successful) this big, becoming a national icon, when she was sharing her sexual fantasy with faceless online “friends”, who now use it as a keepsake to hurt her. She should however still be thankful it isn’t America. She would have been taken into custody by now, with the entertainment industry giving her a wide berth. Just like R. Kelly, jailed in 2022 for child porn, Simi’s descent into infamy would have unraveled faster. No star is too big for them to bust, slam, cancel and wear an orange jumpsuit.
For me, when I see a man (human beings) in crisis, I watch out for how he walks through it. Proverbs 24:16 says “For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again”. Ecclesiastes 7:8 also says “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof”. If Simi is certain she had done no omolomo (someone’s child) any wrong, even this too shall pass though not without scars.
Meanwhile, for the sake of balance of probabilities, let’s say she had done the cringeworthy thing with the toddlers. While justice must be dished, I will still refer to the crowd baying for her blood to the story of a woman caught in adultery in contravention of the law of God through Moses. Just a question from Jesus and the crucifiers voted with their feet.
And you holding that sling and stone, aiming Simi’s forehead, I say cast the stone if you never entertained thoughts impurer than her’s. And you asking for John the Baptist treatment for her, hoisting a platter for her head, can you stake your’s first, for never doing anything wrong?
Then for those who may want to start looking at her as a low-key slut, they should remember Rahab, the Biblical prostitute who became Jesus’ granny. Moral of the story; Never define a man whose journey hasn’t ended.
