Within me, I was fulfilled that I had done a good job for the week. But 10 minutes after I dropped my pages for publication, my boss stormed out of his office. He was so furious as if I had done something outrageous.
I thought I had committed one unpardonable error in one of my articles because he wore a look he puts on whenever my writings upset him. So, I waited with bated breath for the imminent scolding.
But I had done no wrong. He had only been angered by one of the stories, which was about a new music reality show, The Voice Nigeria.
He saw one or two things that he found troubling in the article. According to him, why would they leave their country and go to South Africa to host a show meant for Nigerians. He said, “Something is called The Voice Nigeria and you went to another country to host it. Does that make any sense? Does that mean we don’t have the facility to host such a show?” He was worried about the development and spoke passionately about the anomaly.
However, the editor’s argument woke up the newsroom. The newsroom was divided, as some people felt the reason they settled for South Africa as the venue was to get quality. The other group countered it, insisting that they had no reasons to take it elsewhere since they could actually mount a studio to suit their standard in Nigeria. That is actually true. If they didn’t have confidence in the facilities here, they could as well bring what they saw in South Africa to Nigeria.
On June 26, the highly rated The Voice Nigeria, sponsored by one of the telecommunication firms in the country, had its first live show. And the producers felt it was nice to call the media, entertainers and people from all walks of life to witness the milestone. I was privileged to be part of it.
Though, a winner is yet to emerge, as the competition is still going on, they started the debut outing with 20 talented singers.
When I saw the invitation, it didn’t occur to me also that I was only going to Landmark Event Centre at Lekki, Lagos, to watch a screening of the live event holding in South Africa. I felt betrayed and cheated. Apart from the need to get good stories, I went there because I wanted to have some fun.
Though, I was disturbed that it wasn’t a live recording session, I could do nothing about it. At first, I thought the show was still being held in Nigeria but in a different state. I thought they wanted to change the tradition of most reality shows, by taking it to Calabar, Port Harcourt or any other state. If it were to be the case, I said it was an idea well thought out because Lagos had always enjoyed a monopolistic status. Perhaps, reality show organisers might want to look into that too. Lagos is generally known as the hub of entertainment, but we could as well start developing other states to get to its level.
Though, they did everything possible to bring glamour and fun to Landmark, nothing could be compared with the feeling one would get from seeing a live programme of such magnitude. There was so much to drink and eat. But by taking the show out of the shores of the country, they had obviously denied Nigerians that first-hand fun and other accruable economic benefits. In a sense, it was also a disrespect to Nigerians.
I asked questions from some of my colleagues who sat close to me, but none was able to give a definite answer. The only exciting response I got was that Multichoice is also one of the sponsors of the show and their headquarters is situated in South Africa. But it was still not convincing.
I am certain the organisers would have reasons to justify why they took the reality show to South Africa. Nigerians, at least, deserve an explanation. They deserve to know why a programme meant to celebrate and showcase the talent Nigerians have, is being held in another man’s land.
