For most of 2018, the rumour mill has spun non-stop around the relationship between singer Tiwa Savage and Wizkid.

This rumour mill began when the two collaborated on a song on Tiwa’s SugarCane EP, her first major project since her marriage crumbled amid allegations of drug use and abuse.

That collaboration led to a joint music video and Tiwa Savage choosing (quite smartly) to join forces with Wizkid as he took on the world in a blitz of global performances.

Once the rumours began to surface, Tiwa and Wizkid began to play up on them, showing varying levels of intimacy in their public performances and attending events together.

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It is very common for celebrities to fake intimacy as a way to drum up public interest in their projects.

It is virtually the blueprint with which media giants like Kim Kardashian have built their brands.

However, when Tiwa Savage didn’t come out to debunk the rumour, a deep misogynism came to colour the discussion around her assumed relationship.

Some quarters called Tiwa Savage a ‘slut’ for purported sleeping with a significantly younger man, even more, because Wizkid had left his own trail of illegitimate children, many of whom he was accused of abandoning.

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Other factions accused Tiwa of being stupid and ‘falling in love’ with Wizkid, and chalked her supposed romance with him to her inability to form healthy relationships.

Overall, the obsession with what Tiwa does with her vagina hinged on the fact that she was now a ‘mother’ and was shaming her ex-husband and her child by entering a relationship with someone that was considered ‘acceptable’ for her.

Tiwa thankfully has ignored these comments all year, choosing instead to launch a successful comeback on the backs of our collective and toxic obsessions.

That is not to say that even with her status, she is completely immune to the immense pressure Nigerian women in the public eye feel to conform to patriarchal standards.

Just last month, out of the blue, Tiwa put up this glowing statement praising her ex-husband for ‘making’ her career and asserted she was ‘nothing’ without his guidance, a fair understandable if very inaccurate statement.

RELATED: ‘TeeBillz was stealing from me’ | 5 shocking things we learned from Tiwa Savage

So when a new image of Wizkid and Tiwa surfaced, Teebillz felt the need, even though they have been separated for two years to assert his ownership of Tiwa Savage and remind all of us that in spite of him accusing her of being a prostitute and blaming her for his personal failures, his ex-wife is required to remain loyal to him and vet her sexual partners by him, so that he isn’t ‘disrespected’ by men he considers beneath her because he used to have sex with her.

 

In his rant, Teebillz says Tiwa is only allowed to sleep with billionaires like Dangote and Otedola, one of whom is happily married, and subtly threatens Wizkid with violence if he indeed has been having sex with Tiwa.

The violence against Tiwa if she shames him by sleeping with someone he considers his ‘boy’ is also implied in his rant.

He even brings his toddler son into this needless and entitled rant.

It is important to note that Teebillz is supposed to be receiving religious counselling to deal with his depression and anger, instead of actual medical therapy that he needs.

The entire social media rant reeks of abusive behaviour and lays credence to Tiwa’s accusations two years ago that Teebillz emotionally abused and manipulated her.

RELATED: The series of events that led to Tiwa Savage’s split from TeeBillz

If a woman of Tiwa’s means and influence cannot escape the entitlement of the men in her life, how much more the average woman who because of our transactional society has to depend on men for survival.

How is it, that in 2018, adult men are threatening their ex-wives on social media for the approval of other men, and allowing their egos override common sense or even decency.

How deeply does the misogyny run in our society?