A Nigerian man has left many people in shock after marrying about 97 wives who have now given him over 180 children. He insists that he is healthy and can satisfy his wives.
Abubakar Masaba says he is healthy and alive
Bello Abubakar Masaba is an exceptional Nigerian man from Niger State. Masaba is popular because he has 97 wives and about 185 children. In an interview with a foreign newspaper, Masaba disclosed how he continues to write his name into the Guinness Book of Records, as Nigeria's most prolific man, by marrying even more wives.
How does Masaba satisfy his women sexually? The octogenarian ascribed his sexual power to the Unseen God, saying: In his wisdom, God has given me the power and strength to give them the sexual portion they need, he says. If I didn't satisfy them, they would leave.
So far, Masaba's record is unmatched by men in Nigeria. But his prowess in attracting women pales into a distant second to the polygamous record of King Lukengu of the Bakuba tribe in Congo.
Masaba has condemned reports making the rounds in some media that he is dead, saying 鈥渋t is the work of my detractors.鈥�
The media had rumoured that Masaba, who had worked as a teacher and Imam, died after a brief sickness in Bida, Niger State.
But, the octogenarian, said the rumour was baseless, adding that 鈥淚鈥檓 neither sick nor dead.鈥�
He added, 鈥淢y dear, I am very much alive, hale and hearty. The rumour is baseless. It is the work of my detractors because they are envious of what God is using me to do in the lives of the people. I am talking with you live and direct from my house in Bida.
鈥淲hat I am doing is divine. It is an assignment and I will keep doing it till the end of time. I just want to advise those fighting against me to stop because such people are waging war against God, their Creator.鈥�
Masaba had earlier married 107 women but later divorced 10 of them. Out of his 185 children, only 133 are still alive.
Here is how Los Angeles Times detailed Masaba's story: "He fell in love with his first wife because she was sincere and eager to please. His second wife, a cousin, was irresistible because she did everything he wished and nothing he didn't."
That alone made me love her.脗
His third wife won him because she submitted to his every request.
I saw her, I liked her. I went to her parents and asked for her hand in marriage.脗
Wife No. 4 was very obedient. So was wife No. 5. Wife No. 6, the same. As were wives 7 and 8 and 9.
Well, by then鈥� it was the late 1980s鈥� things had taken off for Bello Masaba, an Islamic faith healer in this city(Bida) in Niger state. He went from a wedding every few months to one every few weeks. ..
He begins with his family history, almost singing the story of his roots.
After school, he led an ordinary life for 21 years, involved in the clothing business and later working for a sugar company, keeping just two wives. Life was normal until a religious vision in the 1970s, which he says involved a visit from the archangel Gabriel. He fell deeply ill, unable to eat or sleep for days, and all the medicine the doctors gave him only made him worse.
He gave up work and became a traditional faith healer who eschewed medicine. The angel also instructed him to take wife after wife after wife.
I get a revelation from God telling me any woman I'm going to marry. If it wasn't from God, I wouldn't have gone beyond two, he explains in a wispy, singsong voice.
Masaba has to pause to remember the number of children he has: an ever growing figure, with the youngest just 1 month old. He has fathered 185, and 133 are still living. He has acquired an extended family of some 5,000 people, many of whom live in the sprawling compound in the block surrounding his house.
It takes three enormous sacks of rice a day and prodigious quantities of meat and vegetables to feed his enormous clan. He's rich because of the handsome fees paid by those who come to be healed.
Masaba's many marriages underscore the gulf between modern urban Nigeria and traditional rural towns, where women often have few choices Masaba is unyielding in his refusal to seek medical care, even if his wives or children are dying.
When any died, I didn't feel annoyed or upset, he says. I didn't feel anything because it's God who gave them to me and it's God who takes them away.
But when a child becomes ill, that can try a mother's obedience.
I told them not to go to hospital, Masaba says. They must report to me and pray. Some of my wives don't have that confidence. They would take them to hospital behind my back. If anyone goes behind my back, the child will develop a swelling in the body and will eventually die.脗
Some of the wives, wearing bright costumes of pink and blue, gold and yellow, meet visitors to the house in a white-tiled entry room, chorusing hellos. Others, surrounded by a clutch of children, cascade down a wooden staircase and peer curiously around a door.
As Masaba talks, they are hidden within, listening to the squawking speakers, as the delicate question is finally posed. With so many wives, how does he meet their romantic needs?
He smiles. Everyone asks him that.
In his wisdom, God has given me the power and strength to give them the sexual portion they need, he says. If I didn't satisfy them, they would leave.
Then he stands up, and his aides rush to him, putting his white shoes on his feet and arranging his white costume."