Bottom Power is on the other side of sexual harassment, which is the offence of hassling another for a sexual encounter. Those who employ this opportunism viz Bottom Power are often going to use it to their advantage and often wouldn’t complain about the attention that they receive.
Functionally, sex happens for two reasons. These are for procreation and recreation. Besides these functional uses for sex, other reasons why people engage especially in recreational sex that often yields Bottom Power include:
Fame: Since and even before the advent of the Internet, sex has brought fame to many people who are called celebrity. Many of them live the high life and gossip blogs have made their escapades interesting to many people. You know many live shows feature the lives of such people in soap operas and other drama. Television Shows such as Big Brother Africa, Big Brother Naija, Desperate Housewives, Modern Family and even Keeping Up with the Kardashians and such reality shows, feature stories about people’s sexual lives and interests in recent time. Let me not bore you with my story. Whether it’s popularity or notoriety sex has become very common nowadays. Some women have even become known to the general public just for being sexually linked to a famous person either for recreation or procreation. It has become common place to call a woman a baby mama. Some popular musicians even have several of them who are waiting to be awarded the title of Wife or Madam. Hmm….
Clout: Sex for clout for which this post and the one preceding is about makes Bottom Power an interesting dynamic. Those who have sex for clout are trying to control others. Many of them are control freaks. It doesn’t matter whether they are male or female. They like to control their women, for the men while the women would use the opportunity to wield great advantage for themselves.
Compensation: Sex for compensation is prostitution or harlotry. It’s not recommended in most societies. In Nigeria, it’s considered a crime to engage in prostitution. But many women and even men engage in this crime. It’s not always easy to differentiate prostitution from a relationship that aids either party. In some instances, it’s called sex with benefits, which is mutually agreeing that sexual intercourse was casual and with no strings attached. In many advanced countries, there’s no remuneration for this type of sex and it means that it’s non committal and yields little emotional gain. It’s not unheard of that women have had to inherit from their husbands’ upon their death. This is why people prefer to marry into rich families or marry rich men. It has also been known that men could marry rich women. It’s frowned upon when people exchange sex for money or wealth even in a marriage. Sex for compensation has crept into marriage since brothels have been removed in many cities around the world assuming the partner is a person of easy virtue. In a marriage, a man unsuspectingly loses his life earnings to a woman who married him for the money and outwits him to claim all that he had earned. People have guarded against this new trend in marriage in recent time by doing a prenuptial agreement also called a prenuptial or simply prenup. This way everybody gets out of the marriage with what they brought to and/or into it. No need for Yahoo Yahoo.
I noted in the last blog on this topic that biblical accounts show that people should guard against falling prey to men and women who honour this sort of power play.
Why Not Bottom Power?
There are several reasons why this menace is bad for you. You hear all over Nigerian campuses about sexual harassment. People don’t complain much about Bottom Power. Why? This is because many people benefit from it. Many men love the attention that bitches or wayward girls and women give them. Many lecturers use these girls to negotiate deals, sell drugs and even pimp them to politicians for money. I don’t know anybody who does all these would still complain of sexual harassment. And those who don’t complain and do use these lecturers have found it easy to wield sexual clout also known here as Bottom Power. However, Bottom Power is bad and is fired by corruption, which is a general name for dishonest and illegal activities. It is the failure of an authority to act within the bounds and conscience of his assignment. Here are some of the demerits of Bottom Power, which include:
1. Promiscuity: Sex for power is very alluring. Don’t believe the lies of romance novels. Many people have many sex partners owing to the lure of premarital sex with its attendant power and wealth. Owing to over population and the advent of cell phones and the Internet, promiscuity has become rampant. And young women and young men are taking advantage of these phenomena. They travel far and wide to meet and greet personalities. They are seen at night in cities where politicians use them for all sorts of runs including drug peddling. In fact, it appears that prostitution has become a rite of passage before marriage in many Nigerian societies.
2. Rigging/Cronyism: Job rigging happens when dishonesty is employed during recruitment. Have you had your hopes dashed when you had written an aptitude test, gone for oral interview only to be told that letters from Abuja got some strangers who didn’t attend those events your dream job? Hello! This is Nigeria where a letter from a senator is all the qualification that Bottom Power doers have in order to secure a job especially one with the Federal Government. In many instances, there are often many lists. There’s the Governor’s List, the Senators’ List, House of Assembly List. Now, the country can hardly pay its bills because it’s likely the country hired the wrong people.
3. Harassment: Women who have powerful boyfriends throw their weight about. Need I say more? They know that one phone call can get anybody into trouble. It’s very bad that this country allows such arrogance to float around. And they gossip…. It’s not just their problems but those of their friends’ friends because they are going to use every opportunity to show the world how powerful they are. Tufiakwa!
4. WAG: Wives and Girlfriends of rich and famous men are powerful determiners of social solutions. Unfortunately, they hardly solve any problem. They slap men around especially when their husbands are the governors or senators, permanent secretaries, commissioners etc of important portfolios. They determine how contracts will be awarded often contacting their friends and families for important government and public decisions. They are also many in number because of the greed among the men. WAGs have been a problem that nobody wants to take care of men. Nigeria must tackle greedy men in order to solve the problem of WAG, unemployment and proliferation of crime. They manipulate every government programme including the National Youth Service Corps in order to accommodate WAGs and their avaricious demands.
5. Low Productivity: There is low productivity in the country while the world population has hit 8 billion people. When everybody has fixed nails both male and female who’s going to even drive the tractor that will produce food? Many young people have eschewed agriculture preferring more interesting and rewarding occupations like entrepreneurship and entertainment. Bottom Power has ensured that the lure of fancy living has kept the country at low productivity when it comes to traditional occupations. Advancement in entrepreneurship can change this up if agribusiness in encouraged and utilized by the government.
6. Crime Increase: It’s common that when crime goes unpunished it goes up in the society because the people in charge are afraid of repercussion. Law enforcement agencies such as the police have girlfriends and mistresses who usurp authority and cause trouble for others. I believe that the police use such women as spies and even plant them in homes in order to cause problems. After all, they are never without witnesses. The police mustn’t be allowed to usurp power and authority in the Nigerian society. Even the police should be investigated and convicted if found guilty of complicity in any crime.
7. Indiscipline: Drag queens or drama queens love the attention that their indiscipline brings to them. They like having people fired even for crimes or offences that they committed. Hagar was an obedient maid until she had a baby boy for her master Abraham. She began to insult her mistress who upon her delivery of a baby boy asked the husband to discharge the maid. Was sex never a factor in that dispute?
8. Systemic Decadence: A system that allows Bottom Power to permeate its fabrics will crumble like a pack of cards. When line managers ignore company rules because of their relationships with subordinates, they are asking for total disobedience from such workers. Eventually, the system crumbles because what used to be important was taken for granted. Failed banks, collapses of empires, bankruptcies are some of the examples where both men and women failed to take responsible risks with their associations.
9. Entitlement: This becomes the norm when the expectations of WAGs and male friends bare met even at the detriment of the common good. First ladies in many states slap men around because their husbands are in charge and would come to their defence. Government properties are kept for personal use. The police are mortgaged, the armed forces are corrupt and the general public is in trepidation. Summary execution of suspects in police and military cells without trial becomes the order of the day because the harlot must be pacified. It’s a shame.
10. Vanity/Egoism: Bottom Power hampers learning, growth and development because it borders on egoism and vanity. Doers of Bottom Power aren’t teachable people and find fault with any correction given to them. They oppose any suggestion that doesn’t come from them and believe that they are capable of ruling the world. They throw up you a curve and throw up tantrum because the world is their oyster. They hinder progress often by lying about events, making unwarranted demands and threatening any opposition. Bottom Power destroys FEMINISM because while the former cares too much about power the latter is about responsibility.
Still coming…How to Eradicate/Tackle Bottom Power
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