How Will Sunday Orisaguna, Husband of Bread Seller Turned Model Cope With Her New Status?

We found this Op-ed piece by Lucas Togan on YNaija. Read below…

I can bet your first question was “who is Sunday Orisaguna”? Well that’s Jumoke Orisaguna’s husband who until last week lived and worked in Osun state with their 3 year old son. Sunday has obviously been drawn into the whirlwind of Jumoke’s fairy tale but the angle I want to explore with this piece is how all this attention, exposure and attendant wealth will affect Jumoke’s decision should it come down to choosing between he and her career.

SLIDING DOOR INSTALLER – that’s Sunday’s vocation in Osun state. Who does Sliding door installation for a living? I know Aluminum workers who get the pipes and cut them into shape et al – that’s skilled labour. But a sliding door installer suggest that he gets the finished product and just installs it at the site. This exposes 2 things – either TY Bello did not bother with the details of Sunday’s life (no surprise there) or Sunday is a real low life in Osun state.

Jumoke lived in Lagos with their toddler while Sunday was in Osun with the 3 year old boy. This situation suggests either a troubled marriage or an extremely dire financial incapability. The press wants us to believe the latter.

Nigerians in typical fashion have run to their various deities to “tap” into the grace that made Jumoke an overnight success story without thinking of what she went through, what she is going through or how her marriage will benefit or suffer from this sudden exposure. They are only seeing the positives. Na so we be sha!

No one is talking to or about Sunday. If I know anything about the African man, he is very petty about his Ego and demands submission always. I don’t expect Sunday (a semi-literate at best) to be any different. The question to ask then is
– how is Sunday coping with the avalanche of attention that his family has suddenly been subjected to?

How will Sunday cope with the fact that Jumoke is about to be exponentially richer than he is?

Their family has been offered a home and Jumoke an English polishing class, what happens when Jumoke starts to “politely” ask Sunday not to spoil the kids’ diction with Yoruba or pidgin English?

In the time since Jumoke started this Cinderella journey, she has obviously come in contact with many industry giants and upward mobile people. Her orientation would naturally have changed. She has started to view life from a new paradigm but has Sunday started?

The above points highlight a huge deficit in our collective consciousness where we are so drawn into the present situation that we fail to anticipate the dangers of some otherwise very good stories. There is no gain saying that Sunday is about to face the biggest challenge of his life – An African man living in the shadow of his wife. But the way he handles it will ultimately expose the type of man he is, determine the future of their marriage and the type of home their young kids grow up in.

In my opinion, the handlers of the Orisaguna story should pay very important attention to getting Sunday to a position of self actualization. TY Bello’s job is not done until she finds a balance in that home as well. We should all sincerely pray for that union to survive the realities of fame – especially sudden fame.

I personally hope that Mr Sunday is man enough to support his wife through this positively turbulent period in their lives. This is not the time to be stereotypically African but a time to love her wholesomely and always remind her of how much love they share together. It is the time to be her FRIEND, BROTHER, FATHER, LOVER and HUSBAND. Above all these – her security man.

SPARK! Let’s change it.

What do you think?