Why I allowed my daughter pierce her navel – Actor Bolanle Ninalowo

Actor Bolanle Ninalowo said he allowed his 18-year-old daughter, Aliyah, to pierce her navel.

Aliyah is the second child from Ninalowo’s marriage to Bunmi, which ended in September 2023. The couple married in 2007 and have two children – a son and a daughter.

In an interview with VJ Adams on BET Channel 129, the 44-year-old actor revealed that Aliyah initially asked to pierce her tongue, a request he said made him uncomfortable.

Ninalowo disclosed that he declined her request for a tongue piercing but encouraged her to explore other options.

The accounting graduate from Devry University in the United States of America noted that he recognised peer influence as a factor in Aliyah’s interest, as many of her friends had similar piercings.

The Lagos-born actor said: “I remember one day my daughter woke me up, and she was like, ‘Daddy, I want to get a tongue ring,’ and I was like, ‘What? I could never say something like that to my daddy; I can’t tell my daddy I wanted to grow a beard.’ I thought and took a moment and said, ‘Yo Aliyah, a tongue ring? I wouldn’t want to kiss a girl with a tongue ring, but I said think about something else.’

“She said, ‘Okay, I will think about it.’ Because I know this is what her friends and her peers are doing, and it’s hard to tell her differently when she goes to school and sees that, okay, four out of every five or six have tongue rings or whatever, or tattoos, or whatever.”

Navel piercing

However, the actor revealed that he gave in to his daughter’s second request for a navel piercing, considering it more acceptable and easily removable if she changed her mind.

Ninalowo further explained that his decision was driven by a desire to show his support and strengthen his bond with his daughter.

He shared that he approved her idea of getting a navel piercing, drove her to the appointment, covered the cost, and brought her back home.

“So she came back and was like, ‘Yo, Daddy, I now know what I want.’ I asked, ‘What?’ she said, ‘I could get a belly button ring.’ And I’m like, ‘That’s more like it because you can take it out.’ So I’m like, ‘Okay, make an appointment so we can go.’

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“I took her there myself. I paid for it and brought her home, and then she showed her mummy that she got her belly ring. As much as I would rather not want that, it was an opportunity for me to connect so that I wouldn’t stop that,” said the actor.

Success and failure

Ninalowo further stated that his daughter believed he would not agree to her request because she saw him as a strict father who always insisted on doing things his way.

He said his initial failures ultimately paved the way for his success in the entertainment industry.

Reflecting on his Nollywood journey, Ninalowo attributed his eventual success to his early setbacks, emphasising that moments of struggle can open unexpected doors for self-discovery.

“When you fall flat on your face and are backed against the wall, you get the greatest opportunities to discover who you truly are. I tell people that when I entered Nollywood, the secrets to my success were buried in my failures,” he said.

The author of ‘Shame to Fame’ made his acting debut in 2014 with ‘Husbands of Lagos’ and gained recognition for his roles in movies such as ‘Picture Perfect’, ‘Coming from Insanity’, ‘Night Bus to Lagos’, ‘Ratnik’, and ‘Breaded Life’.