It is annoying. Yet, I understand our frustration in trying so hard to be part of globalisation.
I just attended my last Industry Night at Oriental Hotel. I was told WizKid was to perform. Yes, he is one of my favourite Nigerian artistes and has shown that he is leading the team of extraordinary amazing young talents in the nation. I went with some friends. First, I was not really enthusiastic about going, because last time I went, I almost choked from the rings of smoke serenading the entire jampacked hall, which had almost all the Nigerian artistes in it.
From my understanding of what an Industry Night should be, the one done at Oriental Hotel is an absolute bull-crap, a complete failure and a caricature of some sort. It is funny how Nigerians can always copy stuff from the West and quickly bastardise it.
It is annoying. Yet, I understand our frustration in trying so hard to be part of globalisation. However, our imbecility is such that maligns our self-gratification and the love for the black race, that particular race that is always trying to do what other races have done.
I know what an Industry Night is. It is not for college students. It is not for jobless people. It is for people who matter in the industry; it is a networking platform. How do we make things better in the industry we belong to? It is a place where the best minds meet to find innovative ways of making things work better in the society. What you see at Oriental Hotel every Wednesday is sham, useless gathering of show-offs! Yes, beautiful women in high-heeled shoes and college boys in very colourful clothes, coming to make sure they take photographs with celebrities.
There is just not one single person that comes to the Industry Night at Oriental Hotel that understands what the joke is all about. They sometimes assume they are coming for a birthday party or maybe, a special concert from one of the artistes hoping to promote his newly released single.
The question is: do they even understand what it is all about? Where are the record label owners? I know there are no record labels in Nigeria? Where are the representatives of management companies and where are the DJs and VJs? Where are the media representatives? They refused to answer these questions and you know what these guys did on Wednesday, the 22nd of February, 2012? They brought in some well-built men, called bouncers, to harass people at the entrance, collecting a fee of N2000 each. And I asked myself: ‘For what?’
I remembered what a friend said in an sms to me: “The Industry Night is depressing.” Yes, I agree with her now. It is and I don’t advice anyone who wants to do something with his life to go there. You will leave, completely depressed with no idea what you might have achieved. Okay, I get the fact that WizKid is a big shot, but to pay that money to watch him monkey around on stage, when this was supposed to be a socialising platform, where people exchange cards to create more business opportunities and share affinities? Oh Jesus Christ, Nigerians are mad!
For those who have marked Wednesdays to always be at Oriental Hotel, I understand how jobless they must be. For the college students who make sure they come there in colourful clothes, I understand why you have to fail your exams and never attend classes on the following day. And for those artistes who come to show off and tend to intimidate people who are better than them financially, it is high time you understand that snubbing a fan doesn’t make you special.
Onyeka Nwelue is the CEO/Founder of Blues & Hills Consultancy.
My exact thoughts….though i doubt I'd be able to construct the words as well as you did. Onyeka obviously had a horrid time at the Industry Nite and as much as I agree with some points he made, taking unnecessary swipes at the organizers, the guests and eveything related, to me indicates that Onyeka himself suffers the same ailment he's attempting to cure for others- An over bloated sense of self importance.
great way to reply to your critics…delete all the comments. Great Job
Onyeka, You just made my day, I have promised myself that i was going to write about the bullshit they call industry Night of shame in my column (ON POINT!)with Yes International Magazine, but at first a friend asked me not to always use my pen to fight people. I was bounced at the gate even after showing the morons my ID as a media personnel. Onyi just gingered my moral and you know what? they will hear from me also by monday.
gbam kudos to you, well said. may your days be long
Well written & good observation. You know, some cannot see some of these things just mentioned bcos of their ways. Thank you.
Well written & good observation. You know, some cannot see some these things just mentioned bcos of their ways. Thank you.
LOL!!! It's just d beginning……. in a country where 'GROSS' STUPIDITY is highly celebrated and worshipped by it's possessors! what more can you expect….
So what if we copy the West, so what if college students attend the Industry night. I try to ignore that you contradicted yourself over and over in your rants when you censured the attendance of hoi polloi and yet argue for an exact copy of the West's Industry night which you also rebuke. I will assume you consider yourself one of the "best minds" who deserves to be seated high in such events. While I hope Nigerians learn what an ideal industry night is, I hope you learn some humility.
This Onyeka guy really vex o!
Well written with your usual fresh and candid hand.
For the record, I know of someone who paid a substantial amount of money into Whizkid's account to come and perform at their engagement party…. He never showed, and is not taking their calls. Naija Na Wa!
Yes,that is the truth,we nigerians can quickly bastardize things,its suppose to be a night of networking and not nights of show offs.i advice the neccesary management incharge to cancel the so called industry night for proper reconstructuring
Very well written. I particularly love the fact that you had a first hand account of the utter waste of peoples' time. Nigerians need to be more enlightened.
Is it that bad? How come Onyeka did not see one single aspect that is good about the Industry Night? Though I wasn't there but I doubt if the picture he painted above is the true position of things at the event, considering the fact many people in Lagos look forward to it.
If indeed he's right, then truly many "Nigerians are mad"!
It's funny that Onyeka also thinks so. Some of us whisper similar thoughts; albeit in a subtler way to these celebs on social networking sites and get labeled a 'hater'. I have very low expectations of these things and these people. That way I don't get disappointed…