TV Host Apologises To Husband For Controversial Statement

Nigerian television host Morayo Afolabi-Brown has apologised to her husband 48-hours after unwittingly casting him as a potential child abuser on a show on Television Continental.

“I absolutely trust my husband, but I won’t take chances and allow him bathe my daughter, because whether we like it or not there is something flying in the air these days that is encouraging imbalance and immoralities,” Afolabi-Brown said.

Afolabi-Brown insisted that she trusted her husband but she was “just being careful because people that have experienced this kind of situation, also trusted their husbands and yet, it happened.”

Her comments were not in a vacuum. UNICEF reported in 2015 that one in four girls and one in ten boys in Nigeria had experienced sexual violence before the age of 18. In a lot of cases, girls, as young as 2 years, are raped by persons with whom they are familiar.

According to a survey by Positive Action for Treatment Access, over 31.4 percent of girls there said that their first sexual encounter had been rape or forced sex of some kind.

More worrisome is that there seems to be no reprieve in sight for the victims as children’s rights advocates complain of weak child protection structures in Nigeria.

Another statistics by Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development said 60% of childhood sexual abused victims were molested by relative or similar faces.

24 hours after, her claim attracted criticisms, she said her utterances was being misinterpreted.

She said, “My husband is not a Paedophile. He is a highly responsible, decent man. He will never do anything to hurt any of his children. But I’m speaking for those women who know their husbands is molesting their children or sexually assaulting their daughters and yet, they are not talking.”

Despite her supposed clarification, the criticisms increased and Afolabi-Brown after 48-hours of the initial statement on air apologised to her husband on the same TV platform.

“The last 24 hours have been tougher than I expected, my sincere apologies to my husband, I love, trust and respect you! It was an error and I’m really sorry,” Afolabi-Brown said while apologising to husband on air.

“The last 24-hours has been difficult. I honestly do not know how seriously the comments i made on Wednesday went. I would really love to express my sincere apologies to my husband for the backlash. It was not my intention. I love, trust and respect you. It was a slip, Brown.”

“I’ve learnt my lessons from this drop. It will not happen again. You do not deserve anything people have been saying about you on social media. I truly apologise. I did it on TV and on TV I’m doing this. You don’t deserve this,” Afolabi-Brown said.

In contrast to the calm atmosphere at which she expressed her view, citing her husband as an example, there had been a counter uproar in the public space, especially on social media.

Majority of reactors were against Afolabi-Brown’s opinion, thereby accusing her of labelling her husband as Pedophile.

Paedophile is an adult or older adolescent who is sexually attracted children.