Popular Nigerian designer, Yomi Casual, and brother to one of Nigeria’s finest comedian, AY Makun, was recently in the news for blasting a fan who had begged him for money via his Instagram page to feed his family.
The designer was reported to have asked the fan how she got money to subscribe for data while she couldn’t feed her family. This got a lot of mixed reactions from both fans and his colleagues. He was applauded by some and berated by others.
Now Yomi Casual has come out to say he is still young and upcoming and so people should not expect much from him in terms of catering for their needs.
In a chat with The Punch, he said:
“People are very funny. They do not know what celebrities go through on social media. On a normal of days when I wake up in the morning, majority of the messages I see on my phone are more of people asking me for different favours.
There are some I can help while there are others I cannot help. Sometimes all these things work with the current mood I face at that moment. You do not know which side of the bed I woke up from, you do not know if my landlord has increased my rent, you do not know my mood at the time but you bombard me with requests.
I have experienced it so many times. Some of them are fraud while some are genuine, sadly, we cannot differentiate those who really need help from those who do not. That message was just an innocent message but people misunderstood what I meant and they began to say all manner of things to me.”
The celebrity designer described himself as a ‘small boy’ and would not be able to solve people’s problem when the government had failed them.
“We all have problems. I am still a small boy and I cannot solve the problems of everyone on Instagram. Even people bigger than me cannot solve their problems. A problem that the government cannot solve am I the one to solve it? I would give out money tomorrow to someone and the same person would move to D’banj’s page or Harrysong’s.
This is what we face every day, how long are we going to keep doing this. At some point, you would get tired. Even if you keep approaching your church or pastor for money at some point they would get tired and advise you to find something lucrative to do. I would have appreciated it if the girl had sent me a message asking me to empower her.
I am sure that if I had told the girl that I had a job for her, she would not come for the job and the reason is that they are used to begging. It has already become a lifestyle for them. Some people are used to shame. Even if I had offered her a job, she would still not accept the job. At the end of the day, you cannot explain to everybody,” he said.
He stated that he was not surprised at the insults hurled at him over his response because there are some people that just dislike him for no reason.
