Lockdown: Nigerian celebrities groan under mounting demands for money from fans

It has been three weeks now since the Federal Government declared total lockdown in Lagos, Abuja and Ogun States; this according to President Muhammadu Buhari, was done in a move to manage and reduce the spread of the ravaging Coronavirus pandemic in the country.

Just as every sector of the nation’s economy has been affected in one way or the other by the outbreak of this disease and the lockdown policy, Nigerian sports and entertainment celebrities have also had a taste of its effect, as everyone of them is locked down and forced to stay at home, which literarily means no income for them.

The celebrities have, however, not been finding the lockdown undemanding as their numerous fans and followers on several social media platforms, who have also been forced to stay at home without income, have been on their necks for survival. It has been an era of account details flying here and there on every celebrity social media page one visits online, as the fans clamour for what they term ‘giveaway’.

Some of the celebrities who feel compassionate enough have been reaching out in their own little ways, while some think it is not mandatory for them to give out to their fans as they are all in this together. Nigerian veteran rapper, Rugged Man in a live interview on Instagram recently was quoted to have said: “It is not a must that we must all do giveaway, our fans should not feel too entitled to believe because they are our fans, we must give back to them. They should go and cry to their leaders, we are not the one with the nation’s treasury, the leaders are. So, they should focus their energies on the government and not on us.”

Actor, Yul Educhie was also in the news recently as he made a very profound funny reaction to some of his fans’ requests to “do giveaway on twitter.” The actor and son of veteran actor, Pete Educhie, took to his social media platforms to express his surprise as some of his fans were still sending him account number, begging for money. He, however, announced that he was also affected by the lockdown as no money was coming in for him too.

“Some folks are still sending me account numbers, after 3 weeks of lockdown. Come on now guys, na all of us dey the matter o. 3 weeks nothing don enter, no work. Na film I dey do money ritual, it is not real. I dey wait for alert from Federal Government, e don red everywhere,” the actor posted.

Nigerian writer, lawyer and social media influencer, Reno Omokri, in his own way of giving back to the people and also help in easing the financial pressure mounting among Nigerians and especially, his followers on social media, gave out the sum of two Million Naira to his followers on Twitter. The writer asked his followers to drop their account details and also follow Apostle Johnson Suleman on Twitter, and then picked his beneficiaries randomly, sharing the money among over 100 of them.

However, days after the ‘giveaway’ was over, his Twitter handle was still flooded with account details, which was more or less looking like an harassment, as every of his post on Twitter was bombarded with account details. Disturbed by this, Reno cried out and tweeted: “After Giving out N2 Million, please allow me to recover financially. Stop sending me your account number. Harass General Muhammadu Buhari and Professor Yemi Osinbajo. I do not have Buhari’s email address.

Also reacting to a comment from a fan who condemned him for posting fancy pictures online while his people in Nigeria are crying of hunger, Nigerian International and Manchester United forward, Odion Ighalo who was obviously discouraged but did not want to express it, said: “See how rude and entitled you are, so make I no post pictures? You know how many giveaway I don do and money I still send on daily basis to people? I can’t please and satisfy everyone o, I dey do my best. If e no reach you today e go reach you another time. Stay blessed”.

It was also reported recently in Nigerian Tribune that singer, Davido, for the first time since adopting the ‘30 Billion Naira’ moniker for himself, confessed that, though he enjoyed being called ‘30 Billion Naira man’, he did not have such amount of money in his account. This revelation surfaced when a fan challenged the singer to borrow a leaf from the book of his colleagues who had been raining cash gifts on their fans since the lockdown in Lagos and some other parts of the country.

Davido in his response said he would not give out money now because he had not been going to shows and there was no money to share with them. Another fan then asked him what had become of his much-talked about 30 Billion Naira? “No money for now because there is no show in sight, we are in this together”, the 1 Million Dollar crooner replied.

Revealing that he never had 30 Billion Naira in his account as he claimed, the singer lamented the effect of COVID-19 on his music business saying, “Coro has scattered everybody’s plan. We are at home and waiting for this scourge to be over,” he said.

No musical concerts or shows, no money for the music celebrities; no movie location, no movie production, no money for the actors too, which means they have to live on their savings. This was the claim of Nollywood actor and Ogun State-based movie producer, Lekan Olatunji. The actor in a chat with Saturday Tribune on how he was coping with the lockdown, said: “No location, no money o; we have been at home for 45 days now, it is not easy like that, we can only pray that all this is over soon”.

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