'90 Day Fiancé: Before The 90 Days': Benjamin pays "bride price" for marrying Akinyi, but fans slam his actions
Benjamin Taylor has always expressed his love for Akinyi Obala, but it seemed like her parents were not quite convinced. However, the pair faced problems when it came to asking for Akinyi's hand in marriage. According to tradition, a groom has to pay a certain amount of money if he wants to ask for the bride's hand from her father.
While Benjamin seems to be open to this idea for the sake of respecting tradition, things did not seem to go as expected. Benjamin arrives at Akinyi's house for the "bride price negotiation", but her parents do not seem pleased with the marriage. Akinyi is called out and joins the negotiations, which stands as a worrying sign for Benjamin as brides are not allowed to emerge until after the negotiation is over.
Akinyi's father tells Benjamin that handing them money is a gesture that denotes that he is serious about the relationship and wants to marry their daughter.
Benjamin hands over the amount in an envelope to Akinyi's parents. Benjamin adds that when he "sees Akinyi there is no value that I could add to her". However, he added that he did not have the money they expected him to have. On finding this out Akinyi remarked that she was embarrassed as she expected Benjamin to pay more for her.
Despite this, he assures them that he would pay the rest of the money in the coming days after Akinyi's father says he cannot accept the amount given to him because Akinyi is a well-educated woman who is from a good family.
Hearing this Akinyi's father accepted the proposal and the family went on to cut cakes in order to celebrate the occasion. However, the biggest surprise came when Akinyi told the producers that Benjamin was wrong to not ask her father how much he wanted him to give because that could mean he would be paying them for the rest of his life.
Meanwhile, fans were left shocked when Benjamin decided to pay the bride price with many questioning his decision to marry Akinyi. "I don't approve taking money for ur daughter like she is on sale. but 600usd is a joke. I'm sure his phone cost more than that," one user wrote.
Another added, "I think they'll milk him! I think they'll take advantage of the fact they didn't settle on a price before. Now he's stuck! He's so dumb!" Meanwhile, there were others who thought that Benjamin should have used that money for his son's education.
"He’s got a child so he really should focus on his son," read one comment. Another chimed in by adding, "you're right. put this money into your son's education fund or something."