Venita Akpofure Says Only Younger Men Approach Her, And She Is Describing A Real Thing
Lagos · Sunday 23 August 2026
Venita Akpofure has said she only gets approached by younger men. It ran in six places and will be read as celebrity small talk. There is a more interesting thing underneath it.
The observation, taken seriously
A visible, financially independent woman in her late thirties or forties in Lagos describes a dating market in which the men approaching her are consistently younger than her.
The explanation usually offered is that younger men are less intimidated. The more likely explanation is about what an approach costs. In a market where men are expected to demonstrate provision, a man approaching a woman who visibly out-earns him is making an approach he cannot win on those terms. Older men, more invested in that framework, opt out. Younger men, less invested in it, do not.
It is not confidence. It is that the rules being opted out of are the ones the older group still believes in.
Why this keeps surfacing
Nigerian entertainment media returns to successful women and their relationship status with a persistence it never applies to men of the same age and profile. The question is asked constantly, the answers are treated as revealing, and the framing is almost always that something needs explaining.
Nothing needs explaining. A woman describing who approaches her is describing other people's behaviour, not her own situation.
The pattern in this week's coverage
It is worth noticing what else is running alongside this in Nigerian entertainment news: an actress discussing a monthly medical bill, another responding to comments about her body, a third talking about discrimination and legacy in Nollywood.
Four women, four stories, and in every case the hook chosen was personal rather than professional. That is an editorial habit rather than a coincidence, and this publication is not exempt from it.
Reporting: Legit.ng, Pulse Nigeria and Kemi Filani News.
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