Its untrue that I have Another Kid --- Saheed Balogun

The Yoruba people have a proverb that says 'A kii
ka omo f'olomo'. This literally means that it is
culturally wrong to say in the public the number
of children a person has.
While it may not be too difficult to understand the
sentiment the elders are trying to play up through
the adage, modernity has since laid the wisdom in
it to rest.
Nowadays, 'modern people' do not even wait for
an outsider to count their children for them. They
do so themselves. Apart from the fact that you
have to officially declare the number of children
you have on certain occasions, many people,
following what obtains in the western tradition,
are eager to 'broadcast live' not only the number
of kids they have, they also take to the social
media to announce to the world as soon as they
get pregnant. And seconds after the baby is born,
its picture is already everywhere.
Popular Yoruba actor, Saidi Balogun, says he
neither grumbles with tradition nor in any way
tries to resist the influence of civilisation. But he
adds that he detests something: the idea of
people carrying rumours about his family status.
Indeed, he is currently angry with some of
Nigerian bloggers who, he notes, are fond of
publishing false stories about celebrities.
"Recently, the bloggers said I had another child
from one woman. This is not true, and none of
them bothered to call me to verify whether or not
it was true."
The actor/producer, who recently premiered a
new movie - You or I - was spotted at Shoprite, in
Ikeja Mall on Sunday, where he went to shop
alongside his children. On sighting the fair-
complexioned actor, it was natural for the
correspondent to look out for probably a woman
- other than Balogun's estranged wife, Fatiha -
who could be carrying a baby, based on the
rumour that filtered through the Internet recently.
"This is me, and this is my family," he said.
"Although one cannot stop any blogger from
doing his or her work, it is also good to respect
the dignity of other people, and to respect the
rules of journalism too. How can someone just go
and hide in one corner and say anything he likes
in his or her blog?"
He declined further comments on the domestic
end as, according to him, many people tend to
misinterpret utterances of celebrities too easily.
On his romance with Ibadan - he is said to have
recently been seen with Governor Abiola Ajimobi
of Oyo State - Balogun explained that he only
'returned home' because of what he has observed
in Ibadan.
"There we go again o!" he said jovially. "The fact is
that I am a native of Ibadan. I am from the
Kobomoje area of the city. I am part of the family
of Chief Lekan Balogun, who was murdered some
years back. What happened is that when I visited
Ibadan recently, I noticed that the city has
changed. Many of the major roads are now free
and the dirt that used to litter everywhere has
disappeared. Grasses and flowers have also
surfaced in different places, like you have in parts
of Lagos. So, as an indigene, I felt somehow
inspired and decided to express this to the
governor."
On the way some showbiz stars now patronise
government quarters, he noted that what
mattered was the intention, while adding that,
that one is an artiste does not mean he does not
have anything to contribute to governance.