Nollywood actress Opeyemi Aiyeola has spoken out following her recent exchange with colleague Eniola Badmus, addressing the issue in a live Instagram session on Friday and appealing to fans not to escalate the matter.
The tension began after Badmus commented on Aiyeola’s hair in a way the actress found offensive. “Ope, where is your front hair?” Badmus had asked on Thursday — a remark that prompted backlash and led Aiyeola to call her out for being insensitive, especially considering Badmus’ own past experiences with body-shaming.
During her live video, Aiyeola stated she wasn’t reacting to Badmus’ apology, which has since been deleted. She described the apology as disingenuous and manipulative.
“I would like to state sincerely that I am not doing this live stream because of Eniola Badmus’ apology. I’ve seen her comment on the initial video, where she put the comment that kind of spiralled into this. I think I deleted the comment because the comment just didn’t go down well with me.
“Unfortunately, her comment or apology comment or whatever she would like to call it, to me is like gaslighting. To me is not genuine. This is something that a lot of you do not understand, you can’t hurt me, and still have control over how I react,” she said.
She went on to explain that her frustration came not just from the comment itself, but from the public space in which it was made. Aiyeola stressed that she and Badmus have never been close enough for such familiarity.
“I could not understand the banter, we are not banter mates, we’ve never done that together. We’ve known each other for over 20 years. We have seen each other live one-on-one, we have never thrown banter,” Aiyeola said.
“We’ve only been hello. Hello. How are you? I don’t think we’ve even ever sat down to gist. I don’t think so. We’ve never sat down at the same table and we’re talking about ourselves. That’s never happened. We’re not enemies but we’re not that kind of friend. We’re not on that level.
“We don’t go into one another’s pages to like or comment. You don’t come like in my post you don’t come on my children if I’m celebrating anything I don’t do the same I don’t come on your on your post. I don’t do it with you. You don’t do it with me,” she added.
The actress further criticised the setting of the comment, noting how toxic social media can be — something she believed Badmus, of all people, should have understood.
“Even if you know what to throw me a banter, you throw a banter at me in a public space? A public platform where you know is toxic. Not only do you know it’s toxic, but you have also experienced it. You have experienced that hurt that pain. You’ve experienced it so much that you had to do something about it.
“That is where my anger came from. You don’t throw banter at me on a toxic platform. Then not only did you throw that kind of banter, but people went under your comments. You could not even deem it fit to delete the comment that people are taking it farther than you thought.”
She then urged her followers not to fight on her behalf or take the issue beyond what it already is.
“Nobody should take my fight, I don’t wish evil on anyone. A lot of them were telling me ‘Ope, don’t worry, we will deal with her.’
“I’m pleading with you, I was the one who was hurt. If she has offended you before, don’t use me as a reason to fight her. I don’t do social media fights. I don’t have any team.
“I was the one who was hurt and I spoke from how pained I was. Either I overreacted or not, I’m not doing any team Ope. We offended each other but it’s possible that we meet tomorrow and become intimate friends. That’s how life is.
“That’s why I came to this live video to caution you. I posted it and I deleted it myself. I’ve deleted that video and it’s not because of Eniola Badmus. People are taking it farther than I thought.”
