Filmmaker Charles Novi writes on Linda Ikeji’s Birkin bags controversy

Nollywood filmmaker Charles Novia has expressed his thoughts in writing following the controversies surrounding the two Hermes Birkin bags (worth about N7 million) Linda Ikeji posted on Instagram last month and her followers insisted they were fake.

The 35-year-old Nigerian blogger has since deleted the posts....

Read  Novi's full article below...

''Let’s go back to the ‘Birkin-ning’ of this story.

I keep reading comments online made by some people who technically miss the point. Those folks think that how one wishes to spend one’s money and on what is one ‘s prerogative and none should have opinions on such actions.

I agree to an extent. Your money is your money. But these days, when you post your acquisitions and indiscretions on social media, you automatically lose the right of privacy because that post you put up about what you have acquired is akin to calling for more scrutiny in your private affairs.

Perhaps the tone of the comments should be less vitriolic in most cases but Hey!; not everyone has tact or decorum in expressing themselves. Social media platforms have trolls and demons as well as angels and saints. You chose what you will.

Zoning it down to celebrity acquisitions in Nigeria, I actually think it is insensitive of anyone right now, in the present and moderate economic realities in Nigeria, to flaunt private expenses in public for whatever reason. To what end? Nigerian celebrities, more often than not, are a lot ridden with poverty mentalities and persecution complex.

What kind of money do those of them who flaunt expensive wrist watches and shoes and bags even have?  Why do they think they ‘need to greed’ for them to gain more respect from the public? The lives of these celebrities are more aspirational than inspirational. And when anyone with hindsight comes out to point out these infractions, he or she is labelled a ‘hater’. Amusing.

I keep saying that our tax authorities should really go after those celebrities who flaunt their ‘wealth’ on social media. Elsewhere, artistes think twice about showing their acquisitions to the public because of the tax guys but here they don’t give a hoot. All that should change.

No one is struggling your money with you. No one says you shouldn’t enjoy your life but your right to be a showoff ends where the other’s right to be incensed begins. It’s bad enough the life of lies and doctored public perceptions many celebrities live.

Let’s Birkin to be a bit modest too!''