Again, I'm going to go out on a limb here to talk on a subject that
may not be very popular or nice to Nigerian celebs, especially the
guilty ones. I have said it severally that just because someone is a
celebrity doesn't mean they are smart. They may have a talent or skill
but many of them are not smart especially when it involves their
finances. The old saying, "your lies will come back to haunt you" has
never been more true than the recent cases of D'banj, Iyanya and
Wizkid who are being kicked out of their homes after lying they owned
the properties.
The residents of blogosphere boulevard were stunned when the news
broke that D'banj got an eviction notice from his landlord and was
also said to be highly indebted. Yes, it is hard to believe that
someone of D'banj's status could actually be thrown out of his house.
But for those who know that the Nigerian entertainment industry is
built on lies and more lies, it didn't come as a surprise or a case of
a cranky landlord. Entertainers are well rehearsed liars. They are not
what they make you believe they are. Even the upcoming artist with
just one song on radio issues a press release that they've bought a
mansion in Lekki Phase One and a Range Sport SUV?
There was a time when it was strongly whispered that Don Jazzy and his
crew owned Club Jonzing until the truth came out. You must have also
heard that D'banj owns Koko Lounge. My brothers and sisters in habit
of believing everything you hear, I wish you all knew how your
favourite celebs laugh in their closet seeing you swallow the lies
like fufu and draw soup. Let me give an example of how some artistes
can be terrible liars, we were on a tour of five Nigerian cities with
Basketmouth and his then Humour Unlimited monthly show sponsored by
BAT.
When we got to Enugu, a certain artiste was snoring like a broken
trailer exhaust pipe in the bus on our way from the event centre to
the hotel. I tapped him hoping to stir him up to reduce his noise but
I was shocked when he woke up immediately swearing that he wasn't
snoring, that he was only trying to get our reaction. Our reaction?
After snoring for about 20 minutes with a trail of saliva from one
corner of his mouth to his shirt collar! O'boy some people can lie in
Africa.
Did you hear it on breaking news when Iyanya bought a house in his
dreams? His management must have thought it was a fantastic promo
strategy then. If only they knew that not far into the future, Iyanya
would be dragged by his balls across the floor of the internet, and
that his aggrieved brother would take to twitter to inform everyone
that Iyanya had been evicted (not from Project shame) from his dream
mansion. Yes, it is double wahala for deadi-bodi and the owner of
deadi-bodi but won't it be tripple wahala for Oritsefemi and his
management when fans eventually discovered that the N200m mansion he
purportedly bought some months back was actually bought in his dreams
and not in the real world?
How much does he charge per gig and how long has he been playing
these gigs to be able to afford a mansion of that amount? Isn't it
wonderful how naija entertainers think their fans and everyone else is
shallow and gullible? Common sense should tell every artiste that
these lies won't achieve anything but hurt their careers in the long
run when the truth is eventually revealed. Like it was revealed this
week that Wizkid's car hasn't been paid for.
True, some naija musicians make a lot of money, but not the kind of
money they want you to believe. Does Oritsefemi look the part of a
N200m house owner even with all his body cream? The telco brand
ambassadors who are being coerced into lying about their endorsement
fees can't make such a preposterous claim not to talk of someone with
no endorsement deal. I shivered when I saw in some blogs over the week
that Genevieve just bought a house in Ghana for a whopping $4m.
This will go down as the grandmother of all lies told so far.
