Why Some Nigerian Artistes Do Not Deserve Their Awards

I’m still quite undecided which title perfectly fits my bant on this music awards issue that has caused quite some uproar in very recent times. But considering that I shall be talking about our artistes, how I think some of them are undeserving of their awards and how some of them still, will never win awards, let whatever caption you find up there suffice for the time being. This subject matter leaves me with a bit too much to say but I’d try hard in keeping my thought expression as concise as possible so I don’t end up misyarning.
You see, our industry is still heavily ridden with garbage music, music that are unfit for auditory consumption adding to the challenges of insanity posed on the homo sapien folk. Yes, we may have experienced a minor evolution in our music, many thanks to new age technology but a larger faction of those perpetrating the art are a bunch of goofballs yet to catch on the moving train. Now, the plain and bitter truth is that not every Nigerian artiste would win an award. Some will (or may) never win an award, some don’t even deserve any award or recognition at all, while some even deserving ones (like Burna Boy and Seyi Shay) will be passed up for the noisy others. This is the life! Moreso, when we’re tasked with deciding the category winners, it eliminates our reasons for fault finding thereby presenting itself as free, fair and transparent whereas the real culprits are the show organizers in their haphazard nominations process that ultimately stakes the credibility of the awards.
Borrowing western influences has become a culture that we are too conscious. And so we tailor the progress of our mainstream media after everything we see on satellite TV, forgetting that our standards are not the same. The knowledge of that alone should teach us not to expect the same results because we must take into consideration our people and then our location. We are Africans! Whatever defines the commercial success of any music material outside our African shores is definitely not the same as here. If at all, we must, what criteria governs how we adjudge a song as best or hottest? This is the genesis of the problem as the two categories aren’t even the same. The general notion is that when someone’s material is on rotational play at a media house that mean it can pass for recognition. Well, WRONG! Did you first think about the nature of such song or video. What message it is passing across? If it communicates simply, designs of the creative art? Did you? And what explains our use for the term ‘Best’ when in essence, it’s reference made to the widely accepted (commercial) material. These are some game-changing yet minute points that our foreign counterparts take cognizance of. And then again, their selection process are in very grueling stages. But definitely not here!
So is it here where we know decisions are manipulated and swayed heavily in whoever’s favour they please? Can our show organizers beat their chest in defense of their nominees list? We need to get the picture clearly in order to understand these things. Very few of our artistes are actually deserving of their awards. The others are just ‘lucky number sevens’ based on hype. Are we then promoting creativity or hype? It’s high time we stopped fussing and started asking ourselves the tough questions. Unless we’re really not interested in growing the industry, then we can continue acting out faking our way to the top like bloody darn fools. Like it’s already not bad enough that we’re a flock of die hard wannabes reaching for the stars, we must now expose our ugly defects in the process. I honestly do not oppose ‘that guy’ who said most of these Nigerian awards are just jokes! But then again, he too should read this and know why he should stop looking to be awarded for his ‘good’ music just because the highest bidders and famzers have gotten away with it. I mean, who’s shooting who in the foot?