INTERVIEW: I wouldn’t have responded but he said I was hungry, says UI student tagged #5kBae

When Ore Oyebola, a 300-level sociology student of the University of Ibadan, agreed to go on a date with Adeniji Ayodeji, little did she know that she would become a trending topic on Nigerian social media or become a first gem ambassador for First Bank.

Oyebola told TheCable that her initial decision after seeing Adedeji’s tweets was to ignore him but the camel’s back was broken after he insinuated that she was “hungry”.

“I met Ayo on Twitter and we started talking, we decided to hang out at the movies to get to know each other better and he was pretty cool,” she said.

“On his birthday I wished him a happy birthday and we had a normal random conversation. Later that day he called me and that was when the disagreement happened. A few minutes after the call I checked twitter and I saw his tweets.

“I was pretty shocked because I didn’t expect him to do that, I was even willing to let it slide after I saw the first tweet. When I saw the first tweet, I told myself that he didn’t mention me so I’d let him rant in peace but when I saw the next one where he said you should have told me you were hungry, I lost it.”

‘HE SPENT MORE THAN N5,000‘

In a previous interview with TheCable, Adeniji Ayodeji, known as @PabloAyodeji on Twitter, said he spent more than much-publicised N5,000 on their date.

Corroborating his claim, Oyebola said: “At first, I just thought about sending N5,000 to him but I wanted to make sure I didn’t leave out anything so I calculated everything.

“People misinterpreted what I wrote, when I said two, I didn’t mean for the both of us, it was just what I ate. I didn’t see the point in paying for him because we both watched the movie.”

“I had his account number before now because there was a day we were talking and he said he was hungry and he wanted chicken. He said I should help him. It was just bants but he sent the account number.”

NOT ENTIRELY A FEMINIST MOVE

Although her decision to refund the money spent on her got the nod of many feminists, Oyebola said her action wasn’t motivated by any feministic agenda.

His insult, she said, prompted her to give Ayodeji a dose of his medicine.

“I think I am a feminist because my friends and I have discussions about it. I have a friend who is a feminist and she talks about these things but that was not on my mind when I tweeted that,” she said.

“There is this mentality that you take a girl out and you pay for what she eats because she is hungry. I felt insulted that people say these things about girls.”

‘ANNOYING’ 15 MINUTES OF FAME

The direct effect of such a public episode on social media is relative popularity.

For one who has lived a life of simple obscurity up until now, the publicity is starting to get very annoying.

Oyebola is not sure of what to make of the publicity because there are good and bad sides to it.

“I don’t know what to think of everything because there has been a positive side and it’s all the publicity. I didn’t want the publicity, I wasn’t thinking about the publicity.

“If I knew it would be like this, I probably wouldn’t have done it because honestly, it’s starting to annoy me but I guess it was just meant to happen.

The University of Ibadan undergraduate said she was chided by her parents for responding in the public space.

“My friends have been really cool and that my feminist friend has been really supportive. My parents have criticised me because they got some insultive messages,” she said.

“If I could go back in time, I would have ended everything with the phone call. Everything is fine and I would like to tell people not to troll or bully him, he is a sweet and nice person. Mistakes happen.”