by Ifreke Inyang

Shakar is a Nigerian born artiste based in the UK. Shakar’s music is presently making waves in Nigeria, the UK and all over the world. Right now, Shakar’s latest single has topped the Channel O Video charts for several weeks. He was born and bred in the Coal city, Enugu, and attended the University of Nigeria Secondary School and later the University of Nigeria Enugu Campus to study Law before he moved to the United Kingdom to continue his career in music.

In this interview, Shakar whose real name is Chukwudi Ezeagwa tells us about his experience on twitter so far.

How did you get on twitter?

I got on twitter in September, 2009. I was seeing some updates on my Facebook news feed at that time from a blog called ‘Radio Palmwine’. They were using twitter on a real time, so any song playing on their site comes on Facebook news feed as a tweet. So I went to twitter’s website and I opened an account. But I never went back to twitter until early 2010, when the Blackberry craze caught up with me. It was from that point that I started enjoying twitter. That is why I still don’t enjoy tweeting via the web. If it isn’t from my blackberry then I might not be tweeting at all. I might be the only one still using the twitter for blackberry instead of ubertwitter (ubersocial these days). Yeah I’m that classic!

Who would you say is your favourite tweep?

Right now, I don’t even know who my favourite tweep is. I like tweeps for different reasons. Some tweet sense today and tomorrow they will tweet rubbish. One person I’m sure that have never let me down is @ositaiheme a.k.a paw paw. His tweets inspire me most times. Also, @revrun, @diddy, etc. Inspire me. I follow people for different reasons. Some for their music updates, showbiz news, funny personality, inspiration, etc. I will be lying if I say I like all my tweeps.

Is there any particular tweet you’ll never forget? Tell us about it.

I can’t remember any tweet at the moment but anytime I see a tweet that inspires me, I tend to favorite the tweet. I think I got a couple of them as favorites on my profile.

What are the downsides of being on twitter?

The downsides are when I see people I respect tweeting some low life tweets, ‘ass licking’ as they call it. Some people are simply what they tweet no matter how they try to make it look funny. Most times I forget that people tweet their personal opinions but since I have since realised that their tweets are their own individual opinions, so I don’t bother anymore. But I think the reason we have unfollow buttons is so there will be no downsides!

What are the upsides?

The upsides are the very interesting games we play on twitter. There was a day we played the infamous number game on twitter. I was surprised because of the response I got from some of my followers and what they think about me. Truth is, I don’t really go about thinking that everyone likes me or trying to do things for people to like me. I just do my thing.

Has twitter enlarged your fanbase?

Yes it has, although I haven’t really used twitter as a major form of promotion. I tend to tweet more personal things than about my music career. I am sure I got some new fans from twitter but I haven’t really done anything much about getting followers. I see it as a place where I express myself and laugh at funny tweets. Maybe I should get more serious with it as a way of promotion. Most of my followers are celebrities and industry people, I still need to reach out to my fans on twitter and let them know that I am on twitter and show them what they are missing.

Do you follow back readily? Why?

Of course I follow back and won’t waste time to unfollow if the host is no more interesting to my timeline. And I don’t have problem if anyone unfollows me because it means they are not feeling my tweets. It doesn’t mean that they hate me. I can unfollow my mum if she is on twitter too and she no come tweet sense like I expect.

What would possibly make you close your twitter account?

I didn’t close my hi5 though I don’t go there anymore, so I don’t think I will close twitter. I might just sell my followers to people that need them to survive while I move to the next trend. Who knows if it will be YNaija next? I want to buy shares in the next social network site that will be bigger than twitter. I need to buy it before it becomes big sha.

TWITTER STATS (As at 11.45am, 11th May,2011)

Handle: @Shakar_El

Followers: 1,082

Following: 254

Tweets: 17,377

Favourite tweets: 42