Nollywood actor, Aremu Afolayan, has alleged that any actor that owns a house in Lekki, Lagos is into “something else”.
In a chat with Punch, published on Saturday, the younger brother of Kunle Afolayan said he is not convinced that such people made their money through the craft.
He added that he lives in a rented apartment because he cannot afford to build one.
Hear him: “By the way, I live my life, people tend to think that I am the richest Yoruba actor, but that is a lie. Nigerians assume a lot. I live in a rented apartment because I cannot afford to build one.
“When they see me buy a new car, they don’t know if I paid for the car in instalments; instead they call me a big boy. What type of big boy lives on N50,000 or N100,000 income per film as an actor? I challenge any Nigerian actor that is living larger than life to state how they made their money because I am sure it is not from the movies they make.
“I am talking about both the English and Yoruba actors. If they like, they can say they make N5m per film, they cannot afford to build or buy a house at Lekki or Victoria Island or Ikoyi. It is impossible. They should call out mathematicians to figure it out. It is a lie. It is because they meet some influential people that give them businesses or they have side businesses.
“Since we do not all meet such people or make the kind of money they make through these people, we just have to be content with what we have. In my life, I have never seen an ‘educated illiterate’ country like Nigeria. Nigerians are very gullible when it comes to judging other people’s lifestyle since they do not know anything, they assume. Then social media came and it made things worse.”
Aremu, who is often referred to as controversial, said he was tagged homosexual simply because a picture of him pecking a man surfaced online.
“I went to a store with a friend to pick up a wristwatch I had been paying for in instalments. My friend was taking pictures when I told him that we should cause trouble on social media with a picture of me pecking him. When I posted the picture, it went viral within 15 minutes.
“In fact, we were still in the store when the picture went viral. I was shocked that Nigerians would even conceive the idea that I am gay because I love women. Anybody can be gay and I mean no disrespect to them but as for me, the picture was just done for a publicity stunt. I never knew it would go viral that fast.”
