There is African socialism and then there is Adebayo's family

My heart goes out to Togolese football star Emmanuel Adebayo, whose Facebook post has made headlines across the world this week.

For those who missed it, the Tottenham Hotspur striker, and who has very deep pockets–he reportedly pocketed some Sh5 billion between 2012 and 2013 in wages – laments all his family want is money and nothing else.

Which is not bad, only that it doesn’t matter how much he gives; they want more and more. The problem is that what he gives is hardly put to good use, mainly because his family expect him to fork out even more.

Adebayor, or simply Ade as he is known to his many fans, outside his own family, I should clarify, says he once bought a plush home somewhere in Ghana for a cool Sh100m, and put his step-sister there.

But when he returned there for a well-deserved rest, Ade says he initially thought he had gone to the wrong place because he found so many cars parked outside. As it turned out, the step-sister had rented out the 15-room house to different individuals it must have resembled a Nairobi exhibition hall.

Think of the nails driven to the walls by so many tenants to hold clotheslines and family portraits, the soot on the ceilings.

Ade says all he received from the step-sister were insults when he demanded answers. I think he should have done what Jesus did when he found merchants in the temple, which is to grab a whip and drive them out of his mansion.

But since Ade is a peaceful man, he simply counted his losses and returned to Europe to play. Apparently, that has been the story of his life; he built the first home for his family when he was 17.