iswallker: @op this is plagiarism. why didn't you tell us you culled this stuff from a website:

http://www.punchng.com/opinion/before-all-our-children-become-musicians/

mods please do the needful and reverse the likes...

tecmon:

I think you are the "bad belle" fellow here, i doubt if you ever went to school, or you were among those that cross the window as the teacher crosses the door. you feel that to increase salaries we have to create scarcity of professionals, and to create the scarcity we have to derail the youths and waste a whole generation. We are talking of something that affects national development here, If the US have scarcity of professional, do you think they would have become a world power , and you still cant see the reason why they are the ones drilling the oil in your backyard and constructing your airports, while all you do is sit and type rubbish on the iphone they also manufactured for you. Yet your mediocre mind cannot escape the centripetal force of salary. Is Dangote a salary earner or is he a comedian , is Bill Gates a rapper ?, what of Prof Barth Nnaji, Nnamdi Ozobia, Innoson etc who are professionals and also big time employers of labour. if we have more of these one in Nigeria , wouldnt our country be better and there will be more employment for the deserving ones ?

musaajebor:
No be d op be the writer
nlanders no get sense aswear

the write up was culled from punchonline.com

PassingShot:

You make me laugh, @ the bolded.

Are we not already feeling the effect? Are you not aware that some of our teachers/lecturers are products of the half-baked intellectualism?
The damage is done already. We only need to work to salvage something out of the unfortunate situation we already find ourselves in.

Urine:

Young man, the op has a point. There's nothing wrong with being a rapper, in fact to be a good rapper you must be highly intelligent because rap is lyrical poetry. Now ask yourself this question, what's is your plan b if your plan a to be a rapper fails? Somewhere in your mind something is saying you won't fail, I agree but the greatest rapper Nigeria has ever produced is mode9 and we can't comfortably say he is successful. Think about it deeply, you might be 14 but whatever you do today will affect you when you're 30.

Also, when writing stop the unnecessary abbreviations like yr for your or d for the. It will ruin your writing skills and we both know you still have many important exams to write.

mrworldwide1: To much write up make a niqqa mad

Lilimax:
But the message have been passed across except that the credit was not given to the
original Author- Mr Azuka Onwuka

Teeted: Quite sad; but I don't even know how to blame.

Parents

Most of our parents who did well during their time, did so because our grand-parents/great-grand-parents trained(disciplined) them well. But maybe the character couldn't be inculcated in most of them for posterity.

suxxman: Music (Entertainment) is where the money is. That's if you work hard or luck finds you.

dabriggs:

Please go and read the expose again and see his point. He is saying there should be a balance. And frankly, betwneen me and anybody who cares to be on the other side of the divide, we need more doctors and engineers than Davidos. We celebrate the obvious absurd in Nigeria. No where in the write up did he call entertainers lazy people. You see what the system has done to you all. You cant read and comprehend.

And please, teenagers who cant even spell words correctly should stop coming here to claim upcoming stars. Youths who are seriously intellectually disabled.

As a matter of fact what is special about Nigerian music and entertainment industry? Is it "skelewu!skelewu" or "doro..doro..doro". or "chorkini chorkin"? And frankly I am not expecting much from the so called aspiring stars of Nigeria. We will keep hearing the same senseless repetitions in their music.

One day we may all be affected by the effects of half-baked intelectualism from our prolonged neglect and lack of foresight. Until Kings become intellectuals or intellectuals becom kings we cannot develop.

Anyway,to be a bit cynical, what are we even talking about? Afterall even when Nigerian Stars were unappreciated Nigeria hardly developed. Standarsds coul have been better back then,but it wasnt much really.

Ptoocool: BBA sponsored by Coca-Cola: $300,000 (N48m). MTN Project Fame: N7.5m & SUV. Etisalat’s Nigerian Idol: N5m & multi-million naira contract. Glo naija sings: N5m & SUV. Gulder ultimate search: N10m plus endorsements & SUV.

COWBELL Mathematics competition: N100k. Lagos State Spelling Bee: N50k. School scrabble: N25k. Cool-FM spelling game: A goodie bag filled with Amila drink. And someone is asking why there is so much failure in WASSCE?” That was a message I received on my phone some days ago.

My friend, Ayodele Adeyemi, told me a similar story recently. Someone saw the brilliance of his daughter and told her that she would be a doctor. The girl said no: She would be a musician. The person was surprised.

That story is not strange today. If you ask children in primary school or even secondary school whom would they like to be like in future, they would mention Davido, Whizkid, Omawumi, Don Jazzy, Genevieve Nnaji or Ali Baba. It is a good thing that our entertainment industry has become a source of pride to our nation and a source of livelihood for thousands of youths. Youths who could have been at jobs they hated or even derailed into crime have found themselves happily and richly employed. Rather than being mocked by society, they have become a source of envy and admiration. But therein lies the problem…

Since the entertainment industry has become a money spinner and a glamorous industry, every child wants to be in it. But, why not? Currently, the TV programmes with the highest prizes are in music or entertainment. Unknown faces become celebrities almost overnight. Their mates watch such transformation and are filled with envy and admiration. Children watch their intelligent uncles and parents go unnoticed, uncelebrated and impoverished, while entertainers – many of whom are not particularly book-intelligent – become the stars of the day.

On the contrary, how many big-budget programmes or prizes are dedicated to rewarding excellence in creativity or the like? Very few. The NLNG Prize for Literature was virtually the only big prize until recently when Etisalat Prize for Literature came on stream.
The doctors, lecturers, teachers, etc are frequently on strike over pay and conditions of service. Nigerian writers have to move to the United States or the United Kingdom to be appreciated.
Beside entertainment, politics is the other field that is very attractive because of the direct and indirect money that oozes out of it as well as the glamour that goes with it. It is more rewarding – financially and socially – to be a local government chairman than to be a professor. If you are lucky to be a senator, a minister or a governor, you are made for life! Beyond amassing a lot of money, you are also initiated into the political circle, which ensures that even when you leave office, you are made an ambassador, a chairman of an agency or the like. You would not like to go back to the university, your medical practice or whatever you were before. As a doctor, an engineer or lecturer, your money comes in trickles, but as a senator or governor, it drops into your account like a bomb regularly.
But if you can’t be a politician, why not be an entertainer?

President Goodluck Jonathan may not feel cool when shaking an
engineer, computer scientist or professor, but when he is shaking hands with a musician like D’Banj or an actress like Genevieve, you will notice that his smile will be broader. Why? He is shaking hands with a star. Unlike before when our entertainers just had enough to take care of their basic needs, today’s entertainers earn up to N5m for a 10-minute solo rendition of two of their songs on stage. For those who have up to four shows per month, even if they earn a million naira per show, that gives them N4m monthly. Many CEOs of top companies don’t earn that. And this amount excludes the money made from commercials, endorsements, celebrity appearances, fees to act as a judge at shows, album sales, and any other private businesses the celebrity is involved in.

So, it is not surprising that many of our young ones want to be entertainers. In their views, excluding the money and glamour in entertainment, it does not look as strenuous as reading and sitting for exams to be a pharmacist or a professor. Being a musician is fun. You stand on stage (in the limelight) while others huddle together in darkness, watching you. You don’t need to have all A’s or come first in your class. But once successful, you overshadow your siblings and parents. Your parents and siblings are identified from your standpoint: Omawumi’s mother, Omotola’s husband, Okocha’s sister. You travel from one city to the other or from one country to the other, stay in the best hotels, eat the best foods, and drink the best wines – all the time.
No wonder, parents railroad their children into entertainment. They organise three or four of them to sing, put it in CDs and send the children to filling stations and shopping malls to sell the CDs. Some parents push their children to participate in all music competitions in the land. Those who are wealthy use their wealth or connection to push their children to be featured regularly in the media.

At the auditions of reality shows, there is no manner of people you won’t see. Even those who croak like toads participate, believing that they are the next “Tu Baba” or “PSquare.” It is all because of how lucrative the entertainment industry.
TV stations have also caught the virus. While new all-music channels and programmes are springing up, almost all the local channels have dedicated the hours of 12 noon to 2pm to music.
It is a great thing that our entertainment industry is booming. Many African countries are envious of our achievement, but we need to emulate the US in our national development. The reason the US is different is that it is not a one-product economy. While it is the headquarters of entertainment in the world, it is also the headquarters of academic excellence and research. It consciously encourages its doctors, engineers, scientists, lecturers, broadcasters, writers, etc, to be the best by providing a wonderful environment. It does not create the impression that a senator is better than a professor by paying the senator higher than the professor, or giving the senator more recognition than the professor.

Even though it glamorises the actor or musician, it does not give the actor or musician any impression that he is better than the police constable or primary school teacher. Politics is not made so lucrative that every media person prays to be appointed a politician’s press secretary. Many broadcasters actually earn more than politicians; so politicians can’t talk down on them or buy them over. The street cleaner does her job with pride. She knows that one day she can write a book on strategic street cleaning and it will become a bestseller that earns her millions of dollars and fame. She does not need to become a musician, a politician, a contractor, or a girlfriend to a politician before she can become successful as a street cleaner.

That is how a robust economy is built. It is an economy in which people have the potential to excel, to be rich and get national recognition in whatever field they operate in. That way, children who have the proclivity for research or teaching are not discouraged by such fields’ low-rewarding prospects and get lured into music or acting. Those who will sing will sing. Those who will act will act. But the nation must not make those who should be in other fields to jump into entertainment or emigrate, just because they believe that their natural field is unappreciated.

mrworldwide1: To much write up make a niqqa mad

Leqsy:
this is not your crib niccu..you'd find the sexuality section or entertainment more appealing bro

Urine:

Young man, the op has a point. There's nothing wrong with being a rapper, in fact to be a good rapper you must be highly intelligent because rap is lyrical poetry. Now ask yourself this question, what's is your plan b if your plan a to be a rapper fails? Somewhere in your mind something is saying you won't fail, I agree but the greatest rapper Nigeria has ever produced is mode9 and we can't comfortably say he is successful. Think about it deeply, you might be 14 but whatever you do today will affect you when you're 30.

Also, when writing stop the unnecessary abbreviations like yr for your or d for the. It will ruin your writing skills and we both know you still have many important exams to write.

Lilimax:
But the message have been passed across except that the credit was not given to the
original Author- Mr Azuka Onwuka

bjtinz: Mtn, African idol, BBA, etc r not charity organizations. They need to make money and to do so means appealing to the desires of the public.

who wants to watch a boring show of cowbell maths competition or jets?

bvc: I can identify with the topic. On the 23rd was my birthday so I offered to give a free e-copy of my book 'A Student's Guide to Financial Freedom' firstly to a maximum of 100 people. But, just to do check their reaction, I thew it open at anybody that was interested. Only a handful requested and got it. Now I'm thinking a greate percentage of those student will either not complete the book OR not put the principles it suggests to effective use.

But, it gets better!

wasak: I've personally talked about this severally. it is quite disturbing that the notion of 'talent ' has been reduced by the society albeit inadvertently to showbiz. Almost all academic talents go unnoticed or at best under-noticed.
it is a societal travesty promoted by out media houses, i watched with dismay a video of the project fame auditioning last year, i could only but laugh at the faultless stupidity of jobless youths looking for the shortest path to stardom.

earlier this year, a club i currently head in my university was organizing a series of socio-academic programmes to mark our annual week, i approached MTN and DIAMOND BANK for sponsorship , my request was entertained with levity and rejected.
Believe me, these same companies sponsored so many party activities within d same university. It's an unfortunate national disaster, one, which many of the populace are too blind to see.