I’d rather be naked than...

If you live in cyberspace you probably have seen some pictures currently making the round on the internet, especially in Nigeria. The first time I saw the photographs I almost puked. I was repulsed so much that I wanted to let out a big ‘damn you all, you idiots.’

The pictures in question are those of a man and a woman, both members of staff of Zain Telecommunication in Uganda. The man’s name I learnt is Basillo Sadindi and the woman simply identified as Rossette. In the said pictures they are both seen naked inside what is said to be a hotel apartment. In some of the images the couple is actually seen making it out. Hell no, I can’t post any of the pictures here for you to see.

The pictures were reportedly taken while the couple was on vacation in Dubai. Somehow they misplaced the memory card containing the images and someone got hold of the card and leaked the nude photographs of the couple to the press and unto the internet. A slightly different version of the story says the pictures were discovered by an IT guy who unearthed them in one of the couple’s computers and demanded a ransom to cover it up. Instead, he was reportedly given a written warning after the owner reported him to the human resources department of the company. To get back at the couple, the IT guy exposed the pictures on the Internet.

Trust us Nigerians, the sanctimony and moralisation I have seen and heard thrown at the issue is what repeatedly makes me want to puke. When I saw the pictures for the first time, my reaction was, ‘how the hell does it concern anybody what someone else, especially two consenting adults get up to in the privacy of a room?’ That reaction has not changed one bit. Many of us get up to nastier things in the private comfort of wherever we find enough privacy. And I am not talking about sex and related matters alone here. For me, it’s an invasion of privacy for anyone to leak such obviously very private part of another man to the public.

The couple are said to be married, but to different people. And it was highly indiscreet and negligent of them to let such a private affair slip out to a third party. Besides, they both sure as the current global credit crunch have questions to answer before their respective spouses, but it still doesn’t change the other mechanics of the issue.

1. They didn’t do it in public

2. If, as I heard, it’s true that their employers forced both of them to resign, it is highly unprofessional of the employer. Why? They didn’t do it in the office or even while on official engagement. Hence, it is first and in all, a private thing for them. Moreover, whatever they did out there has not affected their productivity at work, has it?

3. That IT guy deserves to be sued.

4. Show me a virgin saint amongst us and I will eat my head.

Let’s all get a life, please.