Linda Ikeji’s new range rover: Inspiring ladies or sheer pride?

Nigerian blogger, Linda Ikeji, recently acquired the 2014 Range Rover Sport Supercharged for N24m and if you thought the over-3000 comments on the post she put up at 12:47am on Tuesday was clear indication she had an idea of what was about to come after, you should read up the ones on Facebook and you’d be amazed. The reactions that followed the post are by far a beautiful mixture of glee and antagonism as expected of course, vanity and pride being the most mentioned.

The question then is, was Ikeji right to have purchased the car? I’m unabashedly happy for her, knowing she has come a long way like she mentioned in the post and ‘deserving’ would be an understatement. But is she right to buy a N24m car?

Of course she is! It is her money like she rightly said and she has every right to how she spends it. She doesn’t owe anyone any obligation whatsoever morally or otherwise. Societal expectations have and will always be an obstacle to what anyone wants to do.

We’ve seen ugly reactions to expenditures done so buoyantly by the rich and flamboyantly displayed. Everyone expects you to save the world rather than spend a few bucks on yourself. It’s a human (read Nigerian) thing and so, yes, a larger negative reaction is expected when that need is neglected.

But my question is, was she right to have publicly displayed it (like she does of others) on her blog? On that, I have my reservations. Linda has a reputation for showing off things. There was, in fact, an incident where her sister supposedly put up receipts of her shopping in Dubai and posts of houses she built for her father, not to mention those on former automobiles.

Now, I still don’t have a problem with that. What she chooses to post on her blog is entirely her business but why seek validation for a decision she took alone. First off, saying her father ‘’finally gave the permission’’ leaves a lot on the mind to ponder on why she needed his permission in the first place? Did she need his permission? If she did, isn’t that a family matter?

Then she went ahead to talk about feeling guilty for acquiring the car. Why would you venture into something to come out publicly to then say you feel guilty about it? For the purpose of public sympathy? No member of that public is going to take turns driving the car, so why the need to explain yourself?

I believe if you want to do something and you’re convinced within you that it is what you want to do, then you damn the consequences and do it. At least, take a cue from the lives of the people whose stories you post on the blog for doing similar thing. They don’t come back after the post to apologise for it. If you’re afraid of the reactions that would follow or you feel like you have compromised the trust of your followers by almost proving you “are better than them”, then why post it in the first place?

Notwithstanding, a lot of people did find the post inspiring. I thought it was a good chip in. What with the need to be your own (wo)man and not be dependent on men. Ironically, among the people that were asked, it was only a man who found that post really inspiring, considering the fact that it was written for girl power over man.

What happened to independence of the male folks as well? Speaking vis-à-vis equality. Who says the men don’t need such liberation as well, why limit it to women? Then what killed me was the need to start a campaign right after the announcement (and would there be a bigger giveaway if this hadn’t happened?) Really? It all reeks of validation and the need for it.