Popular gospel artiste, Tope Alabi has said that she regularly takes public transport as part of conscious effort to move beyond the celebrity hype.
The “Logan Ti Ode” singer made this known in an interview published by Saturday Punch.
She said, “I still go to the market to buy groceries ; I don’t like the idea of living the life of a celebrity . Sometimes when I want to go out , I take public transport. There was a day I boarded the BRT bus in Lagos to get to the popular Balogun market ; I could hear the passengers whispering to one another .
“They were arguing if I was the one or not. They were saying Tope Alabi is not a poor person so there is no way she will be on a public bus . When I was about to alight from the bus , I revealed my identity to the driver, and this made many of the passengers to also get down from the bus to take pictures with me .
“Sometimes , it is necessary to have a taste of what it feels like to be an ordinary woman on the street. Many celebrities do not live their real life and are not free to do whatever they like ; that is why I don’t restrict myself . When someone is not free to do what they feel like doing, like every other person on the street, it causes depression which can even lead to death.
“Some people try to sell fabric worth N 20 ,000 to me at the rate of N 100 ,000 because I am a celebrity ; they don’t bother to find out if I have that kind of money or not. Living a fake life can lead to indebtedness as some celebrities always want to meet up to a certain standard.”
She added, “ Someone once told me to get escorts for security reasons , but I declined because I didn’t need them and still don’t need them . I am still discrete about my movement but I still live a normal life .
“I believe in buying only the things I can afford ; I ’m not materialistic . I always hear different stories of celebrities that lie about their material possessions ; there is no need to live an extravagant life at all.”