Opinion: The lamentations of a ‘mama-put’ addict

by Omar Nelson

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I am a twenty-something year old woma…err babe, and I do not like cooking. Yes yes, I said it. And before all you domesticated females and chauvinistic males start judging me, cut me some slack and applaud my bravery for speaking up. Believe me I am not the only one. When did it become a taboo ehn? Can a lady not dislike cooking?

In this trying time in our country where everyone is trying to put out serious opinions (doesn’t mean that this one is unserious) in overly intellectual pieces, I am wondering about cooking and why some people enjoy it. So to hell with Jonathan and his ambitions for 2015, ASUU and trade unions. Today, I am going to put out something that people are not even thinking to talk about.

I am a twenty-something year old woma…err babe, and I do not like cooking. Yes yes, I said it. And before all you domesticated females and chauvinistic males start judging me, cut me some slack and applaud my bravery for speaking up. Believe me I am not the only one. When did it become a taboo ehn? Can a lady not dislike cooking?

Its just a double standard. If all guys are not required to love football or root for the same club, why should females have less choices?

If we attend the same lectures, write the same exams, work in similar capacities, wake up at wee hours, get stuck in the same traffic and return at the same time, cooking at that hour should be a privilege not a right (equal rights anyone?). Or do companies run by females get free or magic profit at the end of the year simply because the world understands the need for the female to multi-task?

I must however commend kitchen-loving ladies and super women. You get the opportunity to bring lots of things together and produce something that people are going to consume. The reward being the satisfaction on the faces of the consumers after consumption. It is an art that takes a lot of time, concentration, brain activity (yes, brain activity), risk calculation, physical strength and expertise only grows with practice.

For instance, to prepare vegetable soup (the igbo way), the cook must be able to guarantee the quality of the ingredients (now that meat sellers are been arrested for using embalming liquid for dead bodies to fatten their kpomo, the task has become onerous), boil every kind of meat used till tender whilst making sure that the spice used and water added is adequate, melt the ‘right’ quantity “achi” in bleached oil for just the right amount of time before introducing the meat stock to the mixture and waiting for a calculated amount of time before adding the different vegetables which must have been thoroughly washed and cut. The efforts of the cook is also wasted if she doesn’t know when to turn off the cooker.

So you see, it is like any full time job.

And since I already have a full time job, I’ll rather drive to “Ola mummy”.

Oh and by the way, I said “I do not LIKE cooking” not that I DON’T cook. Who am I kidding? I go see husband marry?

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

One comment

  1. you are a spoilt fool!!!,if u marry..tell ur house-maid to be d chief-cook for ur husband!,#smh

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