The Big Deal About Age

Michelle is a 4-year old pretty little highly inquisitive young girl who wants to unravel everything about life in no time. She hates it whenever Dad couldn't provide answers to some of her probing and would naively brake into tears. She doesn't understand that no matter how generous a man is, he has things closely hidden away in his heart of hearts.

On this fateful day, Michelle asked: "Daddy, How Old Are You? and just before his dad could answer she asked again, "Mum, How Old Are You?" In order to avoid further probe, her dad quickly answered and said "I am 32 years old" just as her mother gave her answer as 15 in quick succession.

Few days later, Grandma came visiting and after few minutes of intimate private session with Michelle, she expressed her displeasure with Michelle's Dad disclosure of his real age to the young girl asserting that everyone around could easily "get the figure" from Michelle. What more, she feel people can easily launch a dictionary attack to detect the true age of Michelle's Mum deducing facts from his Dad's.

The aforementioned story is indeed a true reflection of attitude of most people towards the disclosure of their real age. Many hold this information so closely to their hearts that when you ask a simple question as "How Old Are You?, they return a counter-attack one like "Why Do You Ask?" Contrary to the belief that ladies mostly lie about their age, I recently discovered guys who jealously hide their true age. I was wondering why Michelle's grandma feel the true disclosure of one's age could be a cheap political point in favour of inquisitive friends or anyone who long for such figures. I also realised that people are more eagerly interested in knowing other people's real age before deciding on whether to say the truth about theirs or not. Things have gotten so bad that when you mention your real age to people, they doubt the figure because to them, it is a normal thing to lie about it.

Prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of a person's age might be enough reason for some people to lie about it while saying the truth about it might make one the odd man out. It is indeed a menace of Internalized prejudice when we are living in the belief that what we are is less than what other people are; when we have bought into other people’s prejudices (which do exist) and perceive danger even when it doesn’t exist.

There are situations when honesty about sexual orientation, HIV status, or religious allegiance are not taken as serious as declaration of age. Though sensitive issues about religious affiliation could result into war and anarchy, people proudly and intentionally too disclose their affiliations but aren't so generous when it comes to information about their real age.

Asking people about why they lie about their age, few respondents gave reasons in what follows:

OLAMIDE (F), an undergraduate at CEDEP Abeokuta: THEY ARE NOT PROUD OF THEIR AGE Ni

SOLA (F), married woman: EVERYONE WHO REDUCES AGE HAS A MOTIVE FOR DOING SO

DAPO OKE (M), married man: SOME LADIES REDUCE THEIR AGE SO THAT A GUY WOULD NOT FEEL INTIMIDATED. I KNOW A LADY WHO CELEBRATED 21st YEAR ANNIVERSARY TWICE

TOLU KUSIMO (M), married business man: I DON'T THINK I HAVE EVER LIED ABOUT MY AGE. MOST PEOPLE AROUND ME KNOWS MY AGE.