While some Kenyan celebs were going through heartbreak this Valentine’s, Atlanta-based Tanzanian musician, Vanessa Mdee was enjoying the loving attentions of her fiance’, Rotimi.
The former ‘Power’ actor went all out and surprised the mother of his only child with a six-bedroomed multi-million mansion as Valentine’s day gift.
Many wondered whether the gift from the Nigerian-American singer/actor was really hers? Vanessa herself confirmed that it was in a revelation she made during an interview with Tanzanian journalist Lil Ommy.
She said,
“It (new house in Florida) has 6 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, exclusive area, and it costs half a million dollars $500, 00. And it’s under my name, so I’m the rightful house owner in the US,” she bragged.
She went on to tout the value of the home saying it was an investment as it is located close to Disney World.
“We gonna use it as an investment property, and it’s located right next to the Disney World,” she said.
Now at this juncture, you’re wondering why I wrote all that? Here’s the reason; people have started mischaracterising loaning as ‘gifting’.
I believe Rotimi’s way of gifting is authentic and the only way it should be done. In many modern relationships, many men will ‘give’ their women a gift but with the caveat that it still remains in the man’s name.
So if it is a car or a house, the woman really doesn’t own it. It becomes an exercise in semantics when the couple breaks up (which they ultimately do) as the woman loses that ‘gift’.
A gift by its essence should be unconditional. If it has any (like staying with that man forever), then it isn’t a gift anymore.
At the end of the day, modern relationships are rife in cynicism and pessimism, something that is reflected in the ‘gifting’ culture we have.
Ladies (and the few sponsored men out there) if a person gives you a ‘gift’ and still retains ownership of the item, then it isn’t a gift! It is a loan. Remember that!
An example of a loan that was disguised as a gift was that of a certain flashy governor who took back the ‘gifts’ he had given a certain TV journalist after she lost favour with him.
Among the ‘gifts’ he took back were a Porshe Cayenne car and the apartment she was staying at. In fact, the car was impounded by the governor’s henchmen as the TV anchor drove along Mombasa road.
It was so bad that the TV anchor had to beg and plead with the governor to allow her to remove her clothing and the furniture from the apartment.
I hope you get it now.
BY MPASHO NEWS
