Project Shame- Written By Etcetera

I’ll love to appeal to Nigerian entertainers to stop the
habit of going about cap in hand begging for votes each time they are nominated
for awards. If your materials are good enough and the award process is
transparent, I see no reason why you should go about embarrassingly soliciting
for votes like a politician. No award should be given based on public opinion.
There should be a “competent” panel of judges selected to review the nominated
materials and advise the organisers who the winners should be. It calls to
question the motives of award organisers. Same goes for the numerous music
talent shows in Nigeria today.

Have you ever wondered why all telecoms companies in Nigeria
have a talent hunt show attached to their names? It is very simple. Television
is the biggest means of communication in the country today. It reaches millions
of people residing in cities, towns and villages (those who are lucky enough to
have electricity). You can find a wide variety of entertainment on TV daily.
From soap operas for (jobless) housewives, news for the working class to catch
up on the happenings across the country after a hard day’s work, cartoons for
kids and of course the talent shows for the gullible enthusiast who has been
tricked to thinking he or she decides the participant’s future via the
organiser’s voting system.

A lot of Nigerians may never realise how much money they spend
voting on these talents shows because they don’t get a monthly giant-sized
telephone bill. The telecom companies have washed the public clean with
detergent because it doesn’t look like the voting is going to stop anytime
soon. With the amount of talents claimed to be harvested yearly, one would
think that by now Nigeria should be the world’s leading exporter of talent.

Every day on TV, we see a bunch of unknown individuals
locked up in a house together, begging for our votes. I do agree that voting
makes the masses feel like a part of any competition and it also gives them a
sense of importance. But the question is; why do they bother asking us to vote
when they have already employed judges to decide the winners? Isn’t it criminal
requesting people to spend their hard earned money voting when it’s obvious those
votes don’t determine eventual winners? And seriously, does it occur to the
telecoms companies that a great percentage of the masses don’t have the
required qualification for judging what a real talent is? Won’t their votes be
influenced by factors such as regionalism and tribalism?

And what do they have judges on the show for? They are
invited and asked to judge the contestant and you still ask the public to vote
for the most deserving? So these experienced, eminent personalities are defined
by the public’s opinions? Why invite judges to the show when you are going to
put your money making tactics to use anyway?

The point of talent hunts is to search for the best. And
almost always, the best get eliminated because they did not appeal to the
Nigerian audience. Is it fair to manipulate audiences to increase SMS income at
the cost of shattered dreams? What do we vote for? To see disappointed faces go
back home because they didn’t get enough votes? To see talented individuals who
have sacrificed a lot to get where they are, discouraged by the masses
inability to discern what true talent is? Should the public be allowed to
choose the best as opposed to a panel of fair judges with experience? We also
have to consider the contestants who have worked really hard to fulfill their
dreams in these reality shows hoping they will be given a fair opportunity by a
group of competent judges. Since I have been watching most of these talent
shows in Nigeria, there has been no indication whatsoever that public votes count
or will ever count.

The entire voting thing is a sham. It is only a money-making
machine that makes a fool out of the unsuspecting public.

SMS voting is a very lucrative method of making millions out
of an ignorant public.

Do the telecoms companies care who wins? Finally it is the
general public that is the biggest loser. Even the participants have already
amassed great fame being on TV. They have become known to the industry. And if
they are talented, somebody is going to employ them. While the TV stations have
already made millions out of the advertising sponsors of the show, the judges
are paid huge amounts by the producers. A mediocre singer from a wealthy family
with money to spend might become the winner because they have all the money to
purchase recharge cards for friends and family members to vote as many times as
required.

What is the public’s knowledge of music? Does even 10 per
cent of the voting public know one music note from another or can they even
make wild guesses at saying where the participating singer goes wrong, or
misses a note? The public only knows that a participant comes from ‘my area,’
she is beautiful and s*xy with sumptuous lips and nice body curves. And so the
most inappropriate person wins only because of the greed of the telecoms
companies.

A music talent hunt show is supposed to be the “music world
cup”, and the decision making should be left to the umpires not the spectators.
You can imagine if winners of all sporting competitions are determined by
votes, China would be unstoppable.