[The Media Blog] Five Times “The Handover Show” was Great in 2017

Handover Show

What makes a good radio show can be too broad a question to answer. What makes a good entertainment show on radio narrows it down to a category, but there are a number of things to consider. Personal taste is one. And with how largely homogenized the Nigerian radio landscape is, one’s taste soon adapts to what that’s available. On the Beat 99.9FM, the show-to-show transition is conceptually shapeless and hinged on routine. And while the five-hour presenting slot for each OAP is flexible enough, only the relay between Toolz and Gbemi has taken a vibrant, triumphant form.

For as long as I can remember, I have always listened to the Handover Show, Toolz and Gbemi’s modest, youth-skewing brandcraft with an inbuilt cultural barometer. As presenters with their own individual shows, I hardly listen in on their separate belts but prioritize their joint hosting because, as I wrote back in April, “though constrained by time, The Handover Show has developed a nuanced, critical eye for trending topics beyond politics and pop culture, and delivered with an uncompromising air of intelligence and feminine cool.”

I will be surprised if there are a pocket of faithful listeners of the Beat 99.9 FM who are oblivious of the show. Or anyone at all. The reason could be The Handover’s sustained minimalism, anchoring itself to a primordial media environment despite the technological advances made in radio streaming. In 2017, and as the ineptitude of the Buhari administration became increasingly evident, the show was a cathartically-driven vehicle for positive political change. There were jokes, interviews, and lessons to be learned and out of the many brilliant broadcasts in 2017, here are the top five picks that made The Handover Show so enjoyable, unparalleled, and culturally acute.

5. The Fart Experience

In recalling a terrible flight she had after being briefly away from The Handover Show, Toolz gave her experience of having to endure repeated fart assaults from a passenger she couldn’t identify. The plane was far from landing and naturally the farts would be trapped within the plane’s enclosure.“It felt like someone had opened a sewer right in from me,” Toolz recalled, “and there was nowhere the smell could go.”

4. Breast and Cervical Cancer Awareness

October was breast cancer awareness month, and, to mark the occasion, a Dr. Ola Brown from Flying Doctors Nigeria was on the show with Gbemi and Toolz to enlighten the public about breast cancer, debunking its myth and preventive measures. Affecting a British-adjacent accent, Dr. Brown brought up the under-discussed cervical cancer, encouraging women to go for routine pap smears to which Toolz said to female listeners, “If you feel uncomfortable about a male doctor checking you down there, you can always request for a woman.”

Dr. Brown is the founder of FDN, a medical emergency service that specializes in air ambulance and remote site medical solutions. On Toolz’s request to share a story, Dr. Brown narrated how she had once encountered a Nigerian man who had been shot in the face and had to be evacuated off to London for surgery. While in the air ambulance, the man, though in pain, had complained that he won’t be able to attend his wedding six months away.

3The Weinstein Effect

In the past four months, the international news cycle has been filled with stories from Hollywood actresses accusing Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct, which further emboldened ordinary women to share their own experiences via social media. In Nigeria, and although women being sexual harassed is already a normalized culture, there was a fairly explosive case: a woman on Twitter came forward to say popular blogger Unilag Olodo raped her months ago while she spent the night in his house. Though their identities were left out, we all knew the people Toolz was referring to because the case had trended on Twitter for days.

2. The Tiwa Savage “men and women are not equal” Blunder

Technically, this didn’t happen on The Handover Show but was subsequently used as material. Savage had appeared on Toolz’s Midday Show for an interview in October, talking about her then-released Sugar Cane EP, motherhood, possible future projects, and Chris Martin’s dance moves. When a question from a fan came through, asking what she thought on gender discrimination, she replied, “I know I’ll ruffle a few feathers but I also don’t think men and women are equal. I don’t think that’s how God created us…especially in the house anyway.”

Those words triggered a social media meltdown, and Toolz and Gbemi discussed the varying reactions with humour and intellectual grace. Even though there were things I didn’t agree with, it kept the society-wide discourse on gender inequality going. And I also find it weird and interesting that the greatest response to Savage I had read had come from Dr. Ola Brown.

1. Gbemi’s Semi-Prank Call

Early in December, Gbemi had come across a house listing in a real estate magazine. Situated in Lekki Phase 1, two bedroom flat and for a 2.5 million naira per annum price tag, all was seemingly good until it was specified that the prospective tenant should be strictly Indian. As a Nigerian, Gbemi had been shocked and felt deprived of the right to accommodation. So she found a contact number in the listing and called the agent, in what seemed partly like a prank and investigation. “Do the owners of the place hate Nigerians?” Gbemi demanded, “Nigerians are being discriminated against in their own country. Isn’t this illegal?” It was funny, engaging, and brought into light the politics of huge foreign corporations who have invested heavily in the economy and therefore think they are above the law.

The Handover Show handled other topics: the #EndSARS campaign on social media, the slave trade in Libya, Seyi Shay falling on stage at this year’s AFRIMA, Bobrisky’s arrest, harassment of lone female Nigerian drivers. The show hasn’t just morphed, and with a refreshing, lightweight perspective, it has become a cultural arbiter of our stories and beyond.

 

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