Looking beyond several controversies surrounding him, Mike Nwalie, popularly known as Pretty Mike, has a calm demeanor. Well focused with a game plan to reach his goals as a club manager. He speaks to ADENIYI ADEWOYIN about why he is seen as a woman oppressor, his intentions to launch a women empowerment programme and other issues. Excerpts.
How have you been able to penetrate the Nigerian media space within a short period of time?
When I came back from the States, I figured the only way to drive traffic to my business was through controversy and that was how it started with my several stunts I’ve pulled over the years. So, for me, it’s just a way of life. That’s how some people might end up saying ‘he is a controversial guy, he’s this and that’ but to me it’s just a way of life. With that being said, there are several projects I’m working on.
Can you tell us about the projects?
It’s a woman empowerment project.
How could that be; for someone who is seen as a woman oppressor?
One of the biggest problems we have in Nigeria is misconception. For those that don’t know me, they will tell you that Mike takes advantage of women but for those that actually know me they will tell you that I am probably one of the biggest supporters or women over the years.
I remember when I had the same issue with the state government, the news out there was that I was taking advantage of girls but when I sat with the governor. I said basically this is a women right movement, he said there are several women right hotlines out there that have worked so hard on women right that every woman who has a problem in Lagos knows where to go. But I said ‘no, that’s not the truth. Look at the young ladies on the street if they are abused, please, where would they run to? They can’t run to the police, the police will automatically segregate them and call them ashawo, neither can they run to their family they will probably kick them out. If they are college students they can’t run to their professor because the professor also wants to take advantage of them, so who do they run to? They have to run back to the street and I am their favourite person on the street. The only person they can probably talk to one on one without judging them.’
Women rights should not be segregated but should be across the board, which is why I am championing a non-profit organisation that will cater for these people. Already, I’ve been doing it; me being in the nightclub business has given me ability to touch some lives that our so-called society probably cannot help because they reject them.
In a circumstance where there is clash of interest between some of your girls and your deep pocket patrons, how do you balance a situation where your girls report a patron to you and you really can’t chase him away?
I am a big advocate of peace and fairness at every given point irrespective of who it is, except for those who probably just started the business. I have very big patrons that I have told “you are wrong” and what I found out is that shame will not let them stay far away, it keeps them even closer. They are like, ‘Mike, no be like that, ok make we buy drinks,’ so they don’t go far after I have judged the case. In fact, I always like situations like that; I like to hit it hard on them because if you hit it on them soft they will think you’re scared of them.
What would be the nature of your empowerment programme?
Between now and next year I want to be able to support five hundred to a thousand businesses. This laziness, idleness or whatever you want to call it starts from a student. A situation where you have lectures on Monday, Wednesday and Friday but half of the class would be cancelled first of all. There’s no college student that has a job but they all want to work and that’s why you see some of them on the streets, that’s where the word “runs” start. They want to wake up in the morning, get dressed and go somewhere but the opportunity is not even there, which is why when they wake up the first thing they do is to check their Whatsapp to see which boy has messaged them, if there’s no boy, they go to Instagram to check which boy has sent a DM, if there’s nobody they go to Snapchat, if that doesn’t work they now have to make videos and post because no how, a guy will text them and that’s it. It becomes a work.
How are you planning to take them off such hustle with your programme?
What I want to help them do is to establish a business. With the help of social media, if you look round, young ladies are taking advantage of it. Make up business is on the high, cream business, clothing, these are businesses and opportunities that are about there and are flourishing left right and centre. These are businesses that we can train our college students and for me as a philanthropist, I am also ready to empower them with money to start the business, and I’m going to do that for the ones who fall under my horoscope. The girls that I take out to events are even happy because they know that at the end of the day, there palms would be greased with money. What the social media paints and what is happening are two different things.
How has your family reacted to your several stunts?
My family are my biggest supporters; they say an apple doesn’t fall far from its tree. Sometimes when they see me pull some stunts, my father will say ‘that looks like what I did thirty years ago, guy you bad.’ For example, when I took dwarfs to my friend’s wedding and they had the calabash and smoke coming out of it and everybody was shouting ritualist, my dad called and said why only three or four dwarfs? Next time carry masquerade (laughs).
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