'We’re Setting Boys Up to Fail': Bob-Manuel Udokwu BLOWS HOT, Sparks Debate

Nollywood actor Bob-Manuel Udowku is blowing hot about the burdens being taken up by men, how boys are being raised in comparison to girls, and citing a number of things he believes needs to be changed. The conversation is one that sparks debate regularly because people still wonder if gendered groups are discriminatory or not, and it's clear Bob-Manuel Udokwu has his feelings on it. Here's what the veteran actor had to say.

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During his interview with The Sun, Bob-Manuel Udowku was asked why it is that we see a lot more men in the entertainment world coming out to seek for help as opposed to their female counterparts. That's when Bob-Manuel Udokwu expressed himself saying:

BOB-MANUEL UDOKWU: Saying that women are fine with no issues is not totally true. We live in the society where disclosure is an issue.

Generally, people in the entertainment industry might be going through different phases of life, but one hardly knows. Apart from being in the industry, how many of our public officers do we know their health status? It is not peculiar to the men or our industry, it is simply because we are in the eyes of the public. What happens to men is that they hardly get help from anybody and it is societal.

Back during childhood, if a five-six years old boy and girl are playing and the girl falls down, the whole crowd will gather, lift her up and pamper her to stop crying. When a boy falls and begins to cry, no one rushes to him, from a distance it will be stop crying, don’t you know you are man, men do not cry. Then the boy swallows all the pain inside, that was what we grew up with.

Men run to nobody because no one is willing to help them. For women, they do not readily come out like that, some would have died in the industry before family sources open up. This goes to say that men have a lot of burden to bear. To think that women billionaires still expect their thousand-counting husbands to take care of the bills in the house, and this is our own society. Yet, women still want to be given equal status on the table. Our women should also begin to think more about assisting the men while the men should also learn to swallow their pride as some of our colleagues did when they were in difficulty.

This brings me to an important matter. Women have gone so far in advocating for the girl child in every ramification to the total exclusion of the boy child. We are running a risk of creating boys that will become men and become problem in future. Otherwise, why the different association for women? There are umbrella bodies like Nigerian Bar Association, Nigerian Union of Journalists, Nigerian Medical and Dental Council, why then would women form their own women association when the parent associations are existing?

It is discrimination and I think the men should take them to court for discrimination. Let us balance this because the same women give birth to the boys like they did for the girls. So, when advocating for the girl-child, spare some thoughts and action, also advocate for the boy-child for the sake of the future.

What do you think about what Bob-Manuel Udokwu had to say? Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment either below or on my Jide Okonjo Facebook post.

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