Nigerians have taken to social media to react to the comment made by Nigerian Super Eagles captain, Mikel Obi about some attitudes of their families.

Mikel Obi who was speaking during a chat on LiveScore 6, shed light a major challenge faced by athletes from Africa.

He narrated how families burdens are placed upon them when financial success is achieved.

According to him, family members and relatives leverage the athlete's success for their own gain

In his words, "When we come from Africa, and this is something that I don't think we speak a lot about. When you make money, it's not your money. You have all these relatives, cousins...whatever you call it. And your sisters, they get married to some guy who just wants to get married into the John Obi Mikel's family because then "my life is sorted". You send money to your sister, the money goes to him, and he does whatever he does with it. This is something nobody knows about.

"So you get your salary, you say okay, now I'm going to put this aside for this person, put this aside for that person, put this for mum and dad. Before you know it, where is it? You get nothing."

"And they keep having so many kids and so many kids and you look at it...Okay, you are having this much kids who is going to look after them? It's you. They look out to you for you to look after the kids, husband, and the husband's family. And it becomes really and absolutely crazy. For them, you owe them that."

He further said; "So sometimes you have to be strong and say you know what guys enough is enough. I don't care. For me that was five years ago, I said F it, no more. Because I've been doing this since I started playing football."

"The reaction is you become the bad guy. They stop answering your phone calls."

His comment has since sparked massive reactions from Nigerians. While some agreed and sympathized with the footballer, other queried him for speaking about his family challenges.

@DKingfre: FAMILY FIRST, a man doesn’t help his family and then gives to outsiders, that’s is complete Showboating. Except he has good reasons not to but from his podcast he said total rubbish. Same way i see people from poor family give millions to their pastor.

@Ifechukwu_21: I'll just say, let us not be putting mouth in everything... Secondly, nobody should speak about his family like that, Sadio Mane adopted an entire village and we dey hear word. If your family fuck up, move on from them. If you are not from Neni too, don't argue on the matter.

@Naija_bleeds: God bless you bro! Mikel is talking out of experience and those that has not even for once helped someone are here blabbing.
Oya go play football and make money then use all your earnings to help your extended families to keep procreating with reckless abandon.

@AdeoyeOlasoji: Anybody who criticises Mikel has a mind of entitlement to others people success. Nobody owes you anything. You owe yourself success if your family is rich he is not responsible for your own life. Many African footballer are being drained by their families.

@Catechistal: Our problem as a people has always been our oversized sense of entitlement! Mikel owes nobody or everybody nothing!

Nobody should ever say Mikel Obi didn’t help people, the same Mikel Obi during the Rio Olympics 2016 when the players threatened to pull out due to unpaid allowances, stepped in.

He organised travels, paid for meals and booked training pitches while preparing for the matches as… pic.twitter.com/S7lXa5FwqK

— SportsDokita (Odogwu ☝️) (@Sports_Doctor2) November 17, 2023

Mane who takes care of his whole village building schools, hospitals, banks etc cannot come on any interview and talk about his generosity even.

But Mikel who hasn't built anything in Neni is blowing hot. Because you're taking care of your family you're complaining.

Smh https://t.co/g9UnuPdAzY

— Obumneme Osuchukwu (@MarkOsuchukwu) November 17, 2023

Mikel Obi has:
⁃ the Mikel Obi foundation to help the homeless
⁃ the Back2Base initiative to create a career path for young and talented Nigerian athletes looking to pursue a career in Football, Basketball and Tennis
⁃ donated $30,000 to the cash-strapped Nigeria Rio Olympic… https://t.co/Bqvh6AgzIb

— Series ‘Baj (@Engr_Series) November 17, 2023