₦airaland Forum

People simply love them. Their sight elicits ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from regular people who wish to be like them. They walk tall when they grace the TV and radio stations. To many, they are idols, but we all know them as stars because they are famous.

But then, amid the fame and (maybe) facade, these celebrities are first regular people who also experience the hurdles of life like every other person.

They are expected to be saints than sinners. And when they make mistakes or commit perceived crimes, their careers automatically suffer setbacks (in most cases) and their fans instantly turn to become foes.

The life of a celebrity, especially in Nigeria, is not bread and butter as ordinary people may want to think. In their closets, some of these celebrities would give an arm to live like other people whose private lives are not under scrutiny at every opportunity.

‘Our fame, our pain’

The fame, no doubt, has opened doors for some Nigerian celebrities but most of them still complain about the bad side of fame and what it has put them through.

Speaking to our correspondent, actress, Mercy Aigbe, said she has had to live with the pains of being a celebrity.
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“People sit and make up bad stories about us. Some people see us in bad light because of the bad things that have been said about us. We are forced to live fake lives. We are now prisoners of our fame because we cannot even do some of the things we would have loved to do,” she said with a tinge of frustration in her voice.

Her opinion is not different from that of Anita Joseph, another Nollywood actress, who sometimes wishes she was not a celebrity.

“We just don’t have our privacy. We are under scrutiny. Our lives are no longer our own. To be candid, at times, I wish I was not a celeb. It is not as easy as many people may think it is,” she said.

For Nollywood actor, Chinedu Ikedieze, popularly known as Aki, fame has its ‘other’ side and is not all rosy every time.
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“Sometimes I want to walk down the street to visit some of my friends or stop by the road and buy boli (roasted plantain), but I cannot do that. Our privacy is not our own. If I have to relax, I would need to go abroad where people don’t know me. That’s how I’m able to relax with my family,” he said.

What’s sauce for the goose is not always sauce for the gander

Marriages break up every second all over the world but once a celebrity’s marriage breaks up in Nigeria, expectedly, it makes headlines and becomes the topic of public discourse. People who don’t know them come up with many unfounded reasons the marriage broke up, another set of people would claim that the estranged partners were involved in extra marital affairs, which led to the break-up.

Actress, Ini Edo, is a typical example of an actress who has experienced many hits since she came into the limelight. She wasn’t spared when her marriage hit the rocks few months ago.
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As much as the young lady had come out to say she was never unfaithful to her husband, so many people have taunted her through social media, accusing her of infidelity.

In the same vein, multiple award-winning singer, Tuface, is not the only man that has children from more than one woman. But as soon as news that he got three ladies pregnant hit the public domain, it instantly became sensational. In fact, Tuface was ridiculed and he had to bear the brunt of many jokes by comedians.

And the fame crashed…

For some celebrities, their past mistakes have cost them their careers.

Anita Hogan’s marriage to her foreign husband may still be intact but the actress kissed her acting career goodbye some years ago when her nude photographs hit the internet.
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At the snap of the finger, the actress’ career nosedived and nothing was heard about her again… no thanks to the pains she suffered for being famous.

In an interview with Saturday PUNCH some time ago, Anita said the scandal had toughened her, although memories of the scandal have remained in the minds of the public.

“Sometimes I think of that scandal and I become very sad. It has become part of my personal history now. There is no way anybody will mention Anita Hogan and that scandal will not be remembered. But it depends on the angle you look at it. My children will hear about it. My grandchildren will also hear about it and say their grandma is a ‘hot’ mama. What if I hadn’t married the same guy?

“We were just two people fooling around in our privacy. Should other people have told us how to sit down in our home? It depends on the angle you look at the scandal. Many people are psychologically and emotionally harassed. My own case was harassment from the pit of hell. Some people need encouragement. They are not as tough as I am. I want my book to touch people who are being harassed. No matter how much you have been pushed, you can get your life back.

“I was brought up to understand that stares will not tear your clothe. Embarrassment will not tear your clothe. It is good to live a perfect life, if you can achieve it. But if it doesn’t happen, there is nothing you can do but to move on with your life. I have forgiven the guy that published those pictures. In fact, I forgave him that first week. My pastor called and said I should forgive. He said I should just kneel down and say ‘I forgive him.’ I didn’t know how to do it. I thought it wasn’t going to be possible. But somehow, I did it. I have forgiven him,” she said in the interview.

Hip Hop singer, Eedris Abdulkareerm used to be the rave of the moment many years ago; a concert was ‘no concert’ unless it was headlined by Eedris. His fame was unprecedented. He even became an Olympic torchbearer. Eedris made a mistake and boom, his career was no more!

The altercation he had with American rap artist, 50 Cents, some years back has remained his undoing. Eedris has become almost forgotten in Nigeria’s music industry.

Although he has tried to make a comeback with some singles years after and even apologised to 50 Cents, Eedris has remained a pariah; nobody wants to touch him with a long spoon, no endorsement deal, no concert, nothing!
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However, Eedris may still be under the illusion that his career has been intact as he once confidently told our correspondent, “My vacancy is still there. Nobody is singing my kind of songs. They are scared. They cannot wear my shoes because they are painful. I will always be relevant whether anybody likes it or not.

“If what happened to me when former President Olusegun Obasanjo fought me because of my song, Nigeria Jagajaga, and the 50 Cent wahala, had happened to another musician, people would have forgotten about that person a long time ago. But I am here and I will always be here. It was God that put me there… I am the reason everybody is getting paid today. I am the reason everybody is doing great videos. If I didn’t fight then, everybody would have been treated like dirt.”

Fame without fortune

The life of most of the celebrities in Nigeria is usually a smokescreen, an over bloated impression in order to make people feel that they have ‘arrived’. Contrary to the belief that these celebrities, especially actors, earn so much money, findings by Saturday PUNCH revealed that some of them accept a fee as low as N15, 000 to feature in a movie.

A movie producer, who didn’t want her name in print, told our correspondent how she paid her lead actors less than N20, 000 each for her soon-to-be- released movie.

“It was just the lead actress that I paid N40, 000. In fact, I have not paid her the balance. I have given her N20, 000 hoping to pay her the balance when the movie comes out and does well. The industry is bad. Days are long gone when actors earned so much. There are so many actors now. If one does shakara, we move to another one who is even ready to take less than what we offered the initial person. All they want is to see themselves on TV. They are just interested in becoming famous and not necessarily about the money,” she said.

In the Yoruba movie industry, it is generally believed that symbiotic partnership works very well among the players where the ‘do for me and I do for you’ is the order of the day.

A movie actor, Seyi Edun, who confirmed this to our reporter said, “It is still happening but then, it depends on the kind of relationship you have with the person. If a colleague has a cordial relationship with another colleague and they are both A-list actors, their charges will be different from when a producer is calling them for a job. But then, it is not always free, the fee might be 50 per cent less than their normal charges.”

It is still not an easy road for some of the musicians, even for those who are popular; there is really nothing attached to their fame.

A –list rap artiste, Mode 9, told our correspondent that he is one artiste who has not benefitted financially as a rap artiste in Nigeria despite his celebrity status.
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He said, “Music has got me fame but not fortune. The kind of song I do is hip-hop in its pure essence and the truth is that most Nigerians do not like it. I can eat three times in a day; I am not hungry but I am not as comfortable as I would love to be. However, the book has not ended, so let’s see what happens.”

It’s all about ‘packaging’

Since the advent of social media, celebrities, even those who are no longer doing well financially, do not hesitate to post pictures of their supposed wealth on the Internet.

But our correspondent reliably learnt that most of the pictures posted online are deceptive.

The manager of a popular musician who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, said celebrities post misleading pictures to give the public the impression that they are rich.

“All those cars they post on Instagram are not theirs. You would ask yourself how much they make for them to afford to buy such cars. It is just for the people out there to feel that these guys are ‘grooving’ and rolling in money. How many of them have landed property or live in their own houses? Is it that easy? It is all about ‘packaging’ and there is nothing wrong with that,” he said.

Goodbye TV, welcome politics

This year, it was as if most of the entertainers were on their marks and waiting for the whistle to blow. And just as the politics whistle blew, so many of them decided that it was time to leave the screen and face politics to “change the lives” of their people.

It was apparent they thought their fame and huge following on twitter and Facebook was enough to get into politics.

But then an inside source told our correspondent that most of the celebrities got into politics because music and movies are no longer ‘paying’.

“Piracy has dealt with them, younger actors and artistes have come on board and age is also not on the side of some of them. You wouldn’t really blame those who got into politics, they needed to find another way to survive in the country since their industry is not paying as it used to. They wanted to try out their luck,” he said.

Apart from Desmond Elliot and Funke Adesiyan, who were able to pick the tickets for the house of representatives in Lagos and Oyo states respectively, the likes of Kate Henshaw, Bukky Wright, Kenny Saint Brown and Dayo Adeneye, flopped at the primaries.

No hope for the sick, aged

As much as the current Actors Guild of Nigeria executive is trying to see if a health insurance could be established for its members, the sick and aged actors/musicians are always forgotten once they are no longer able to entertain and grace the screens.

The late Pa James Iroha, popularly known as Gringori of the New Masquerade programme, once told our correspondent before he passed on that he had been swept under the carpet in the entertainment industry.
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Gringory

“It appears that Nigeria has swept me under their carpet. They have forgotten their Gringori. People say I should not be living like this and that I should go and see the governors in the East at least. But how can I go? Who will take me there?” he asked.

His case is not the only one. Not too long ago, another actor, Peter Burno, cried out that his fans and colleagues had also abandoned him since he suffered a stroke.

“Since this thing happened, there has been no single actor that called me to ask about my condition. It is a shame on their part. Would they say they don’t know that I am ill?” he said in a recent interview.

However, some of them got lucky; for example, Ngozi Nwosu and OJB Jezereel, with public fund raised on their behalf, were able to travel out of the country for medical treatments when they were ill.

Uneasy road for up and coming artistes

Despite the challenges confronting people in the entertainment industry, thousands of Nigerians would still give anything to be in their shoes, little wonder the daily increase in the number of actors and singers.

Wannabe actors throng audition centres in Nigeria, hoping to get wakapass (extra) roles.

And since it is not an easy road, most of these wannabes fall victims to conmen, sexual harassment and often part with good amounts of money in their quest to become superstars.

Just recently, an up and coming actor, Seyi Hunter, told our correspondent how an established actor cum producer, duped her and made her sign 30 per cent of the proceeds of her yet to be released movie to him.

She said, “He didn’t pay more than 80 per cent of the people that worked on the set. He just paid two of the actors part of their fees. He told them I didn’t drop money for the production. He didn’t pay the crew members.

“I had wanted to collect my ‘rushes’ (unedited copy) from him but he refused to give it to me. He said he would get an editor to edit the movie for me and I insisted I had my own editor. It took the intervention of a senior colleague before he agreed to give me the ‘rushes’.

“He eventually called and said I should meet him at TBS. I went there and met him with two other men. I didn’t really know the men but I had seen them with him before. There, he brought out a contract and asked me to sign. In the contract, he wrote that he owned 30 per cent of whatever I made from the movie. I laughed and told him it wasn’t possible. How should I give him 30 per cent of what he didn’t invest in? He insisted he wanted that or nothing. I reminded him that I wanted to pay him N150, 000 as the coordinator but he refused and wanted his money in percentage.”

A Yoruba actress, Seyi Ashekun, wasn’t duped or sexually harassed but she told Saturday PUNCH how she ‘suffered’ while trying to make a name in the movie industry.

“I would use my money and sleep in the hotel anytime I went for audition. I could stay the whole day and I wouldn’t even be given a scene. At times, after featuring in some scenes, nobody would even ask you how you would get home let alone giving you any money,” she said.

From a psychologist perspective

In his reaction, a consultant psychologist, Professor Oni Fagboungbe, said the lifestyles of celebrities have to do with the way the society views them in comparison with the roles they play in movies, which influence the society’s expectation of them, in terms of status, wealth and personality.

He said, “In psychology, perception is a moderator of behaviour, so the psychological effect is their tendency to justify the perception of others, which makes them live fake and unrealistic lives and it makes them go out of their way to attempt to do things they are not capable of doing.

“Also, most of them suffer from delusional psychosis, which means seeing themselves as who they are not.”