ATTENTION: NIGERIA’S ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY

Iam writing to bring the attention of the entertainment industry especially the music industry to the fact that the Boko Haram insurgency, the agitations for secession and restructuring of the nation, and issues of the Fulani herdsmen are impacting negatively on the entertainment business more than we think.

Turkey has suffered from a negative image for a long time, and perhaps people find it easy to just label the country as the “problematic Middle East” in the words of Alican Yuksel. Istanbul was once a rising star of the international live music circuit, but the city is finding itself increasingly off the map for many touring artists. Murat Abbas, the executive director of ZORLUM PSM provides more numbers: “In our case, eight out of 10 artists we approach refuse outright to play in Istanbul, while one asks for fees that are way above what they normally charge. We can only carry out a normal conversation with one out of the 10 artists we approach.” The great mass of musicians, artists and writers had remained uncharacteristically quiet in response and now it has knock-on effects on their entertainment industry. I acknowledge the efforts made by Innocent Idibia (Tu face); he attempted a nationwide march which was to hold in February of 2017. He also pledged to donate proceeds from new songs to IDPS. They are many more others such as Davido, Kcee, E-money, P-square, etc.

I charge artists like Flavour, Phyno, Psquare, etc., from the east and artist from the North like M.I, Ice prince, Jesse Jags, ClassiQ, Morell, etc., that have millions of loyal fans/ followers to use their influence to calm the tension in the country.

Show promoters like Cecil Hammond, Femi Akande, Prince Adeyeloye Lipede, Chin Okeke, H-Money and Xpensive of Abuja Gossips Magazine, Osagie Osarenkhe, Biola Adebajo, just to mention a few, have a social responsibility which they ought to perform.

Not only does terrorism claim the lives of innocent people, ” we can unite,” as Bala Mohammed, former FCT Minister said, “be it in the music and movie industry to produce sensible or credible music that will fight terrorism in Nigeria because music is a global language.” Austen Idiodi, Abuja