‘We’re not banter mates,’ Actress Opeyemi Aiyeola addresses feud with Eniola Badmus

Nollywood actress Opeyemi Aiyeola has taken to Instagram Live to further address her feud with her colleague Eniola Badmus, clarifying her intentions and urging fans not to escalate the matter on her behalf.

Aiyeola’s live video comes after she publicly slammed Badmus for making a public comment on her hair loss, which she perceived inappropriate.

The comment from Badmus which read, “Ope, where is your front hair?” led to a backlash from Aiyeola who criticised her for the remark, despite her past experiences with body-shaming.

In her live stream on Friday, Aiyeola made it clear that her live session was not in response to Badmus’ apology, which she deleted because she considered it insincere and sounded “like gaslighting.”

“I would like to state sincerely that I am not doing this live stream because of Eniola Badmus’ apology. I’ve seen her comment on the initial video, where she put the comment that kind of spiralled into this. I think I deleted the comment because the comment just didn’t go down well with me.

“Unfortunately, her comment or apology comment or whatever she would like to call it, to me is like gaslighting. To me is not genuine. This is something that a lot of you do not understand, you can’t hurt me, and still have control over how I react,” she said.

The actress explained that her frustration was not simply about the comment, but the platform and context in which it was made.

According to her, she and Badmus are not close friends and have never shared a personal rapport that would justify such public banter.

“I could not understand the banter, we are not banter mates, we’ve never done that together. We’ve known each other for over 20 years. We have seen each other live one-on-one, we have never thrown banter,” Aiyeola said.

“We’ve only been hello. Hello. How are you? I don’t think we’ve even ever sat down to gist. I don’t think so. We’ve never sat down at the same table and we’re talking about ourselves. That’s never happened. We’re not enemies but we’re not that kind of friend. We’re not on that level.

“We don’t go into one another’s pages to like or comment. You don’t come like in my post you don’t come on my children if I’m celebrating anything I don’t do the same I don’t come on your on your post. I don’t do it with you. You don’t do it with me,” she added, describing the nature of their relationship.

She added that the environment of social media can be toxic and pointed out that Badmus, having once been a target of online ridicule herself, should have known better than to make such a comment in a public forum.

She continued, “Even if you know what to throw me a banter, you throw a banter at me in a public space? A public platform where you know is toxic. Not only do you know it’s toxic, but you have also experienced it. You have experienced that hurt that pain. You’ve experienced it so much that you had to do something about it.

“That is where my anger came from. You don’t throw banter at me on a toxic platform. Then not only did you throw that kind of banter, but people went under your comments. You could not even deem it fit to delete the comment that people are taking it farther than you thought.”

Aiyeola also used the opportunity to call for calm among her supporters, revealing that some had sent her voice notes and messages threatening to confront Badmus on her behalf.

She firmly rejected the idea of social media war, saying, “Nobody should take my fight, I don’t wish evil on anyone. A lot of them were telling me ‘Ope, don’t worry, we will deal with her.’

“I’m pleading with you, I was the one who was hurt. If she has offended you before, don’t use me as a reason to fight her. I don’t do social media fights. I don’t have any team.

“I was the one who was hurt and I spoke from how pained I was. Either I overreacted or not, I’m not doing any team Ope. We offended each other but it’s possible that we meet tomorrow and become intimate friends. That’s how life is.

“That’s why I came to this live video to caution you. I posted it and I deleted it myself. I’ve deleted that video and it’s not because of Eniola Badmus. People are taking it farther than I thought.”