Before You Post That Next Car On Instagram… Wait & Read What 2face Says- Charles Novia

Charles Novia’s new article talks about celebrities
flaunting and living a fake life. But the most important part of the write-up was
the points he quoted Tuface to have said. Real words from a wise man.  Find the article below.

Among the present crop of Nigerian musicians, I would vote
for Tuface Idibia as the most humble of the lot. His humility is well-known by
a lot of people as one of his greatest assets added to a very warm and friendly
disposition. Apart from his humility, one appreciable virtue he has is his
sense of modesty even when he is easily one of the richest musicians in
Nigeria. You don’t really see Tuface going on instagram or other social
networks to flaunt a new watch or new car or some material possession. Not
because he cannot afford them but because he has sense of proprietary.

I had an informal conversation with him in Atlanta, USA in
October 2013 one evening when we were both hanging out with a bosom friend and
brother, Chris Ikpefua of Vogue Entertainment, USA and Tuface told me something
profound. I have known Tuface since 1997 when was a member of the then
duo-group, Plantation Boiz with Blackface and I was a contract staff with the
network service of the Nigerian Television Authority. I was a Presenter of a
youth programme on NTA Network then, ‘Youth Dimensions’ and I featured Tuface
and Blackface for the first time to a national audience, over 30 million
strong. Tuface wistfully took my mind back to that episode and kept regaling
everyone with tales of how ‘this man helped his career way back’. He was also
effusive in his praise about how I brought back and rehabilated Majek Fashek in
2005 back to the music scene, after Majek’s years in a self-imposed wilderness.
Personally, I was pleased at Tuface’s verbal obeisance to me. In an industry of
short memories, he knows where he has come from and remains who he is even
after getting to his destination.

Tuface then told me something profound and touching. ‘ You
know what? Sometimes I look back and remember how I started, who I started
with, the other musical groups we had when we started and the solo artistes
then. I look around now and for some reason God has made me still relevant till
now for close to twenty years in the music industry. It humbles and chills me.
I feel sad that most of my peers are not where I am too. Artistes who struggled
with us to build the music industry to this level with their talent when there
was no structure. I feel very sad for them, Bros. I am also aware that many of
the young and even the established artistes look up to me as a role model of
sorts.  If I screw up, they too might
screw up. So, Bros, I went into properties. Immediately I started buying
houses, the others looking up to me slowed down and began to invest in
properties too. It made me happy because they would have something to fall back
to later in life. Bros, I get properties but nor be wetin dem dey shout about.’

I was impressed by his sense of acumen and again modesty in
wealth. But Tuface is an exception and a cursory calculation of his income
from  worldwide concerts and endorsements
in the past decade would show that he has made money impressively to explain his
commendable investments.

I wish I could say the same for the crop of  Nigerian artistes who love flaunting their
material possessions for all to see. More often than not, those things being
flaunted are part of a hype culture. There is a need to ‘belong’ and most of
those acts, wracked by a poverty mentality, believe a $300,000 designer
wristwatch or an expensive car or SUV are the yardstick to measure their
wealth. No, they are not. Maturity and moderation matters. A rich person does
not need to tell the world he or she is loaded. The world perceives it.

Our musicians and actresses 
deluding themselves on social media with this flaunting fad are not
being true to themselves. The entertainment industry is a coterie community and
the statistics of income are not hidden. When you try to hoodwink the public
that you bought a house or a diamond watch just from the singing and prancing
on stage in an industry where CD sales are dropping, or that you bought some
house in Ikoyi just by being an unmarried actress when we all know how much an
actor is paid for a role, is stretching the story a bit too far. Granted, these
artistes might have other legitimate sources of income but such sources are
negligible in turnover.

One day, very soon, those wealthy shady barons and pimps
using the artistes in the industry as cannon fodder might just move to another
area of interest. And don’t get me wrong, how people make their money is
entirely their own business. What I am pissed about is the deception; the whole
stinking deception. These artistes hoodwinking the public that they made their
money through their art when there is more to it. Others who are not in the
entertainment sector make money through these same avenues these artistes use
but they don’t come out shouting about it as such.

In essence, what I am saying here is; Guys, make una cool
down. Make your money as codedly as una don dey make am. Make your work dey
speak for you for one side and your money dey quietly answer you for the other
side.

The fake life and lies don dey too much for many of una.
Shikena!