Nollywood actress and media personality Toke Makinwa has offered a fresh perspective on the debate about materialism in relationships.

Speaking on the MENtality podcast hosted by Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, she argued that modern Nigerian women are not entirely to blame, pointing out that relationships have always carried a transactional element.

Makinwa asserted that the current degree of materialism is the fault of men, noting that many Nigerian men have little else to offer beyond money.

She explained that once a man makes money, he often throws it at the hottest girls, even when a woman tries to connect with him on a deeper level. She concluded that men taught women to make demands by offering the strangest things.

She said:
“From time immemorial, a relationship between a man and a woman has always been transactional, right from the Garden of Eden, right from our parents’ days. And the degree at which it is happening now, I will blame the men. Sometimes, that [financial benefits] is all men have to offer.

“Nigerian men don’t have games aside from money. Once a Nigerian man makes money, he starts throwing it at the hottest girls. Sometimes, you meet a man and you want to know him but he is offering you money.

“Men have offered women strangest things and it made me realise that men feel cash is all they need to show you. Most girls who are materialistic today, men taught them how to make demands.”