3 things about Tonto Dikeh's interview

Some days ago, Tonto Dikeh granted a sob-all interview, detailing some of the abuse she had suffered at the hands of her … estranged husband. There was crying, revealing, more crying and a shockingly bad interviewer.

Three things that baffled me:

1. The interviewer

Isn't she the same one who did that hatchet job on Tiwa? The same person whose defence for her terrible interview was “I am a print journalist, I wasn't trained to do TV” or something just as nonsensical? How can an interviewer not know anything about the subject, except what she admits gossiping or hearing rumours about? The age of Tonto Dikeh's Foundation was news to her.

What is the relevance of the question “What if he becomes a Christian and says he has changed?” Her guest sat there and bawled her eyes out, but nobody had the presence of mind to offer her tissue or a glass of water? She ended the interview with an admission of her confusion.

As it appears she is the one they call whenever the marriage of a Nigerian female celebrity breaks down, could someone do us all a favour and train this woman? She also needs to get over her persecutory delusions; nobody is out to get her like she laughably claimed after the interview with Tiwa.

She needs to upgrade her knowledge and skill-set before another actress feels the need to sit down and cry about a broken marriage.

2. What Instagram gonna cause

When the going was good, we were regaled/harassed/taunted on social media with sermons on being drunk in love and being prayerful. Now, we learn that they were carefully-constructed lies and the going was never good.

Yet, there are some chics on Instagram tapping into other people's blessings and setting up physical meetings with the supposed givers of those blessings.

3. I went through this to bring other women out

This is a nauseating mindset that appears to plague a lot of Nigerian female 'celebrities'. Hun, when you are in a bad situation, it's because you made a mistake, operated in ignorance, were wilfully stubborn or chose not to see things that even the blind saw.

It's not preparation for future ministry, except the one that you called yourself into and that gullible people will buy into. So, dispense with the god-complex. You are not anyone's deliverer. You couldn't even deliver yourself. Please, go and get physical and psych treatment.

The weird part is I can't bring myself to feel sorry for her; Tonto is now a self-confessed, MFM-attending, born-again praying wife who is counselled by two other pastors. I saw pictures of the bruises.

Then, I remembered Tiwa who didn't even say she was any of these things. And how her own ended.

Chioma Nnani is the award-winning author of FOREVER THERE FOR YOU and BECAUSE HOME IS. One of Africa's most fearless storytellers, she was a 2016 CREATIVE AFRICAN Awards finalist in the category of “Best Fiction Writer”, and a DIVAS OF COLOUR 2016 finalist.

Chioma has also been nominated twice for a UK BEFFTA (Black Entertainment Film Fashion Television and Arts) Award in the “Best Author” category, was named “One of 100 Most Influential Creatives” in the world by London-based C.Hub Magazine, lives in Abuja, where she runs THE FEARLESS STORYTELLER HOUSE EMPORIUM LTD, can be reached on @ChiomaNnani and blogs at for which she has won a 2016 Blog of the Year BEFFTA.