Veteran Nollywood actor Adebayo Salami, popularly known as Oga Bello, has sparked fresh debate after arguing that women create more problems in relationships than men do, and that cheating remains the one issue many wives refuse to overlook.
The comments come from a recent interview on the African A-List platform, where the veteran actor spoke candidly about marital tensions and his own large family. He claimed that if ten couples with problems were brought together, eight of them would point to infidelity.
“Women give men a lot of problems. We men don’t really give women problems. If you bring ten couples who have issues together, like eight will talk about cheating. Even if the man is very responsible, she won’t look at that. She can even condone the irresponsibility but not cheating,” he said.
The remarks quickly circulated on social media, with some viewers accusing him of justifying male behaviour while others saw it as an honest, if blunt, observation from decades of experience.
Oga Bello also addressed his well-known polygamous household. He has long described having many children and more than one wife as something he did not plan but eventually accepted as destiny. In the interview he repeated that acceptance while still cautioning against it for the next generation.
“There were times I wasn’t proud of it but now I’ve accepted it as destiny. I have accepted my large family as destiny but I still warn my children against polygamy because their destiny is not that of Bello,” he stated.
He went further on the practical risks.
“There are dangers in marrying two or three wives. Our great mothers even tried, not to talk of children of this generation.”
This is not the first time the actor has spoken this way. Over the years he has repeatedly said he met his first wife, Alhaja Risikat Ejide, in their school days, married her in 1975, and later expanded the family after stardom arrived. He has put the number of his children at around 18, evenly split between sons and daughters, and has insisted he prioritised their education over leaving them property. He has also told interviewers that not everyone has the grace to manage what he manages, so he advises his own children to stick to one wife.