Just
like a typical game of numbers, bloggers have taken the quest for traffic to a
different level by mostly taking the side of sad or bad news.
With
my record as a writer, someone can actually quote where I said in the article,
‘Entertainers: The terms and conditions they forget’ that “This is a plain truth which I will
tell every entertainer that no matter how much people love you, they will be
the first to open links to stories that say bad about you”.
This will surely remain one truth no one can ever change in the industry as
well one of the terms and conditions anyone vying for a top spot in the
entertainment industry will have to accept.
Why a mixture of
wrongs? It is so because in Nigeria, we mostly cross the limits for everything
we learned to do from the west. We often abuse the ethics of whatever we do and
in most cases, quarks take up professional titles, flaunting themselves more
than the real people.
A country where a
mechanic and bricklayer call themselves engineers, a country where ordinary
drug sellers handle prescriptions and are often referred to as doctors by their
customers. It is simply a country where waywardness is never wrong and gone are
the days when Don Williams’ I believe in love made a single sense “…that right
is right and left is wrong, that north and south can’t get along, that east is
east and west is west; and being first is always best”
Nothing is right or
wrong anymore, the single principle has become anything that is worth doing, is
worth doing well. Anything that fattens your bank account, is worth doing well.
The quest for traffic
can often make a blogger do things, and for sure we have seen it in the way certain
celebrities enjoyed funny privileges like having their meaningless selfies
blogged on numerous platforms.
The disadvantage has
been seen in the blogging of artistes’ full album and while the readers
complained of the meaningless posts about these celebrities, they have their fair
share of the complaints when their full albums and private affairs are blogged.
Both complaints are
products of desperation and we all know it.
In
February when my bosom friend, Prince Noel Tochukwu Unegbu was murdered in
Owerri, I asked myself if he was really worth all the publicity his death
received. Some blogs looked like they were fighting for justice, but the truth is
that they were fighting for traffic.
After
the burial of this young man, no one has ever written a single line to ask why
Imo State Police command is yet to say who killed him, even when the alleged
killers were paraded by the same police.
Upcoming entertainers
have actually seen how much they are loved by bloggers in Nigeria. A simple
news about them can only appear on 80% of entertainment and news blogs in the
country if the title says the entertainer is dead and it makes a better news
when the entertainer died a mysterious death.
Death news has turned
out to be most selling news in Nigerian entertainment media industry and when I
go through search engines to see how a certain story had blown, I see blogs I
have never heard of finding a top stop on the search result because a fellow
has died.
Because of traffic, we
end up making celebrities at death. Who would be happy to appear on the major blogs
in the country at death? I am sure no one would want that and if nothing is
done to cub this trend, entertainers might start faking their own death just
for fame. That would be a wonderful publicity stunt.
I have often seen radio
presenters scouting for songs by a dead artistes, just to give a worthy tribute
to an artiste they would have turned down if he had come alive without money.
This is so wrong and devilish.
We are supposed to be
making new celebrities, not killing them. This is a mixture of wrongs, the way we
take matters of their death so serious but delete mails that would help in
promoting them.
My prayer is that we
all see with our eyes when blogs and newspapers will publish our stories free
of charge; when magazines will book appointment for us to grant them
interviews; this gesture will never be a gift of tribute in Jesus name, Amen.
Through
this article, I call on bloggers, newspapers, radio and TV stations in Nigeria
and entire Africa to do whatever they can to support the ‘hustles’ of upcoming
entertainers, because these recent happenings are surely scary to them.
We can actually support
these guys and perhaps we could make our own celebrities rather than scouting
for bad/sad news about them just to gain traffic.
Everyman will surely
die someday and if entertainers are men they will surely get their share. However,
we must not make it look like we are always waiting on their death all the time
just to have a hard news, we can actually create our own stories and make our
readers happy.
Prince Noel had it done
for him and just few days ago, it was Cynthia Jonah aka Cynthomania. I wonder
if the likes of Linda Ikeji ever did any story on her when she was alive, but
her death proved to be a hard news for all.
For
every upcoming entertainer reading this, you need to say a prayer to whatever
deity you believe in. Tell him you don’t want to make headlines when you are
dead. Say the prayer with faith because you need to be alive when your fans
will be telling you congratulations not RIP.
Chinedu
Hardy Nwadike, writes from Owerri, Imo State. chikinow@yahoo.com, 08038704454,
Pin: 763D08AE,
@hardynwa
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