A nation that once took pride in raising “strong men” is now reaping the consequences of generations of emotional suppression and it’s breaking our men.

The recent attack on 25 Year-old Nigerian influencer, Enioluwa Adeoluwa, for crying at his best friend, Priscilla’s wedding is more than an internet scandal. It is an indictment of our collective failure to raise emotionally healthy men.

Enioluwa, in a raw, beautiful, and deeply human moment, shed tears as he celebrated a life milestone with someone he loves platonically.

But instead of compassion, he was met with venom.

The internet erupted with disturbing comments from Nigerian men, the very people who should understand the weight of unspoken emotions.

“Men used to fight lions and tigers but little boys have to watch Enioluwa shed tears like a woman on her period.”

“Enioluwa is such a terrible role model for younger men.”

“When I have a male child, when he turns 10 years old I go first break five bottles for his head make he know say men mount.”

“I go wear crown of thorns make he know say life no be bed of roses.”“See simp behavior. You dey cry because woman marry? Na wa for you.”

A man who cannot cry is often a man who cannot connect, cannot heal, and cannot love fully.

“He must have been sleeping with her. Why else would a man cry that much?

”These cruel commentary is not just about Enioluwa. It is about every boy who has been told that his tears are unacceptable.

It is about every man who has been shamed for showing emotion. It is about a culture that would rather raise broken, hardened men than whole, healthy ones.

There is nothing wrong with a man crying. There is nothing wrong with a man expressing deep affection for a friend.

There is nothing wrong with a man being emotionally present in a moment of transition, joy, or loss.

What is wrong is the fact that our society punishes softness, ridicules empathy, and weaponizes masculinity.

Boys in Nigeria and many parts of the world are taught from an early age that masculinity means stoicism, dominance, and emotional detachment.

“Be a man” often means: suppress your feelings, deny your pain, and never under any circumstances show vulnerability.

Over time, this has created men who are emotionally constipated, unable to process grief, incapable of expressing love, and ill-equipped to build emotionally safe relationships.

This recent incident also brings to light another disturbing facet of toxic masculinity, the idea that men and women cannot be friends without sex.

Enioluwa was accused of being a “simp,” “emotional,” and “pathetic,” simply for valuing his platonic friendship.

Some even went as far as suggesting that he must have been sleeping with his best friend because, to them, no man could possibly show that kind of love unless there was sexual benefit involved.

This thinking is not only immature, it is harmful. It denies men the full range of human connection.

It teaches them that friendship is only valuable if it comes with physical reward. And it strips them of the beautiful, non-sexual intimacy that makes life meaningful.

The idea that a man cannot cry over the marriage of his female best friend without ridicule is a sign of deep emotional poverty.

We are grooming our sons to become emotionally unavailable men and it is showing up in our homes, our relationships, and our society.

Men who cannot express emotions also struggle to be present partners, affectionate fathers, and loyal friends.

They retreat from vulnerability, and in doing so, they retreat from the very thing that makes them human.

The emotional repression we’ve normalized is killing our men literally and figuratively. Suicide, substance abuse, domestic violence, absentee fatherhood all have roots in unresolved pain and emotional illiteracy.

A man who cannot cry is often a man who cannot connect, cannot heal, and cannot love fully.

There is nothing weak about a man who cries. There is nothing shameful about being soft and compassionate.

There is nothing unmanly about being vulnerable. In fact, it takes immense courage to feel deeply in a world that tells men to shut it down.

Healthy masculinity is not born from emotional numbness, it is nurtured through compassion, empathy, and self-awareness.We must raise men who are free to feel.

Men who understand that crying is not a sign of weakness, but a release of strength.

Boys who will grow into men who can be tender with their spouses, emotionally present for their children, supportive of their friends, and kind to themselves.

The backlash Enioluwa faced is painful, but it has started a conversation that we cannot afford to ignore.

If we truly care about our men, their mental health, their emotional well-being, their future we must rewire the way we raise them.

No more broken bottles. No more crowns of thorns.

No more silent suffering. Let us raise men who cry, who feel, who love, and who heal.

Let us raise whole men.

• Halima Layeni, Founder Men’s Mental Health Advocate / Life After Abuse Foundation, wrote this piece

Once a humble N50 snack in the 2000s, Gala has now evolved with a premium N500 offering — igniting a heated cost-of-living debate. N500 Gala.

Social media and public discourse reflect Nigerians’ deep attachment to Gala as a cultural icon tied to its former N50 price.

BusinessDay reports that since February, the snack has been at the center of widespread discussions after UAC Foods introduced a new variation at a retail price of N500.

“How can I buy a Gala of N50 for N500?” Tolani, a final-year student at the University of Lagos said. This same sentiment was shared by Ann, a fresh graduate from the University of Port Harcourt.

She said “It feels weird buying Gala for N500, even though it’s a bigger size.”

Many Nigerians argue they would never pay N500 for a product they still associate with its N50 legacy.

However, what many fail to recognize is that the new product is almost double the size compared to what is now called the “old Gala”.

While the former product was 65 grams, the N500 Gala was 120 grams.

Are you aware that some of the world’s political leaders, global business leaders, and even religious leaders are not comfortable with the second coming of the 47th President of the United States of America- Donald Trump?

This is understandable. After all,  it’s been said that heaven has favourites.

Immediately Donald Trump came back to the White House on 20 January 25, he hit the ground running by starting to deliver his campaign promises.

During his inauguration, he boldly re-affirmed his “Make America Great Again (MAGA)” agenda with sweeping statements on how he intends to use Tax and Tariff on foreign countries and foreign businesses to better the lot of Americans.

Here’s the highlight of his thundering that sends fears running through the spines of people around the globe:

▪︎Trump, who confidently said: ” I was saved by God to make America great again, declared: Today, I will sign a series of historic executive orders.  With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense.  It’s all about common sense. 

 ▪︎First, I will declare a national emergency at our southern border.  All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.  We will reinstate my Remain in Mexico policy. 

I will end the practice of catch and release.  And I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country. 

▪︎ Under the orders I signed today, we will also be designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.  And by invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities.   

▪︎As commander in chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is exactly what I am going to do.  We will do it at a level that nobody has ever seen before. 

▪︎Next, I will direct all members of my cabinet to marshal the vast powers at their disposal to defeat what was record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and prices. 

The inflation crisis was caused by massive overspending and escalating energy prices, and that is why today I will also declare a national energy emergency.  We will drill, baby, drill. 

▪︎America will be a manufacturing nation once again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have — the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on earth — and we are going to use it. 

We’ll use it.  We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again right to the top, and export American energy all over the world. We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it.  

▪︎With my actions today, we will end the Green New Deal, and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American autoworkers. 

In other words, you’ll be able to buy the car of your choice. We will build automobiles in America again at a rate that nobody could have dreamt possible just a few years ago.  And thank you to the autoworkers of our nation for your inspiring vote of confidence.  We did tremendously with their vote.  ▪︎I will immediately begin the overhaul of our trade system to protect American workers and families.  Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens. For this purpose, we are establishing the External Revenue Service to collect all tariffs, duties, and revenues. 

It will be massive amounts of money pouring into our Treasury, coming from foreign sources. 

 The American dream will soon be back and thriving like never before.  

▪︎To restore competence and effectiveness to our federal government, my administration will establish the brand-new Department of Government Efficiency.  

After years and years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression, I also will sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America.  Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents — something I know something about.  We will not allow that to happen.  It will not happen again. 

▪︎Under my leadership, we will restore fair, equal, and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law.   And we are going to bring law and order back to our cities.

  This week, I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life. We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based.  

▪︎As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.