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Jezebel's column
Hello folks, it's a rainy day in Lagos today and mine, everywhere is so flooded. Down to business. I was lazing around on Saturday morning, scanning through the day's paper, when an article about our man Dare caught my attention. Nigeria’s renowned actor, RMD, wrote the article. For those reading that do not know RMD, he is one of the best actors in Nigeria today, he is tall (over 6ft), sexy, handsome, has that toothy smile that makes him really really cute...ok ladies stop drooling. Did I also say he was married with kids? hehehehehehe *evil grins*. Now back to his article, if anyone can remember he was also at the ever-controversial last gala night of the project fame show. He shares his thoughts and his personal views in the newspaper. Yours truly faulted some of what he had to say though. Anyways just read his views and where I countered some of the points he raised.
The theories are legion. All born out of a desire to see Dare Art Alade win project fame, the MTN sponsored musical talent hunt show on DSTV with so much more.
Since my return to the country, I have seen the headlines all on the failure of Dare, the Nigerian representative in the house to take home the coveted number one position that came with a clothes and accessories for a year, $300000 and of course a record deal with BMG Africa. Emphasis on the Africa.
So the question is: what went wrong according to the Nigerian side? Another way to look at it is perhaps why I am doing this piece in the first place. Is it my own conspiracy theory about how Nigeria not Dare was robbed? Well this is not my conspiracy theory. This is going to the sum of all the theories and my final take on the matter. In case you are still wondering on what further qualifies me to write this, let me help. I was there invited as a special guest of Dare. No they did not pay my way from here. I was in the neighborhood for some other business when I was asked if I’d love to show face to support my countryman and being a fan of the man back home I jumped at the opportunity. And that my people has been the cause of the wahala.
On my return the attack started from the airport. Even an immigration officer asked me “what kind of nonsense” I went to do in South Africa by joining our enemies to deny Dare the first position. I smiled my answer. The guy who helped me with my trolley expressed his disgust at the result and I asked him if he voted he said no. Again I smiled and told him that was one vote less for Dare. He got the message. But not before he advanced his trolley: “They do not like us in South Africa” he says. “We are too much for them”. To stop the argument, I agreed with his theory.
“From the Big Brother days I knew no Nigerian would ever win anything in South Africa. They would never allow it. They cannot stand our guts” This is my friend at his most unequivocal. Trying to expatiate on this above theory only ends up in more rhetoric of us Nigerians just being plain. “too much to handle for the rest of the world.
To my brothers who have made to South Africa to school legally or Illegally, their theory is similar to the above ones with some slight modifications. “They say we come to SA for nothing with nothing in and in no time no time have everything including their girls. “Men they hate that”. We are having drinks in a bar and I am being thrilled with the tales of the unexpected in South Africa. From J”bourg to Capetown. It is the same old feeling.
Back home again, the girls do not think differently either. First I am told I had no business going there in the first place. That my presence there was to douse any opposition to the result. That the organizers would say with their man there, and even their ambassador, how could the result have been rigged? My attempt to explain how I got there again fell on deaf ears. The theory was clear – invite a few well known Nigerians to the venue but still go ahead to announce your choice as a winner and all will be well.
Then I run into my friend and fellow actor and the theory changes. MTN the sponsors made sure SMS never got through from Nigeria. In fact, voting was made impossible so that only South Africans would vote. Finally one of the ladies present concedes she got through by calling but that only confirms that something was at least wrong with one of their services. This no doubt robbed Dare and Nigeria of the prize.
The moralists, ever present argued that while they concede that Dare was the most talented and gifted singer of the academy, he had stretched the limits of his talents when he said the wrong words about children. The singer had jokingly made some remarks about getting a child pregnant for her birthday present. This was regarded as an unforgivable joke. Though he regretted immediately, he had offended God and man, they argued. And this caused him the prize.
The religious crowd had a slightly different angle to Jonathan’s success. The reason he came second despite his less brilliant performance was because he was openly for God. They argued that he constantly talked about Jesus as all he knows and that the colour of his skin coming second over Dare who was favored to come in at least second.
There were those who felt that Dare was victimized because of the Nigerian factor of the over confidence which again is similar to those who claim we are hated because “we are too much”. Understanding this phrase is easy. What they are saying is that the rest of Africa is too timid and because Nigerians are the only bold ones once others have to sit on judgment over us, they cannot wait to do us in. “They cannot make us apologize for whom we are” says a female fan who stormed out of the venue the moment Dare was announced as the second runner-up. She and her friend had come all the way from Nigeria just to show support for Dare only to be “messed up” by these “South Africans” “who do they think they are”? She furthered queried after the party when tempers were supposed to have cooled down. Not this lady.
She had a co-conspirator. A respected restaurateur and businessman in Lagos. He got up walked to where the judges could see him and started mouthing his frustration all the time pointing, no, Jabbing at his head. “This is madness,” he kept saying. Over drinks later, he came to me and asked me what he I thought. I agreed with immediately that if it came down to just talent, Dare should have won. That out of the way, we proceeded to look at other factors. We reviewed all the conspiracy theories above, eliminated and added some but at the end of the day we were pretty much on the same agreeing on all points.
We agreed that yes Nigerians did not vote enough. We were told that Nigerians got onto the bad wagon only at the very late stage of the competition, which is typical of our fire Brigade approach to issues. In the beginning nobody cares to strategize but once the early stages have been crossed and we get to the point where the foundation and the character you have built in the past will see you through, we fail then everyone comes out daggers drawn.
The MTN conspiracy theory regardless, Nigerians did not vote much as South Africans did period.
This is where i begin to fault your piece. There was truly conspiracy in the whole Project fame show. Lets access every one of the last 5 contestants. What I observed being a staunch Dare fan on line was that the South African votes would go 5 ways. That is to all the 5 contestants. Let it be known that Dare has a very strong fan base in SA, just like Lindiwe. Those were the fans that told us to go to government houses, institutions, cafes everywhere there was a huge gathering to campaign for Dare to win. That he was indeed the most talented of all the contestants. So the issue here is not if Nigeria voted for one of hers or not.
South Africa had 9 representatives against the 7 from the Rest of Africa. Really aint it too much of a coincidence that at the end of the day we had 3 SAs left in the show, representing the 3 main races in SA, Black, Colored and White. That aside, lets forget those 3 and their races. We were told at the beginning of project fame that the voting would go 66.7% for the SAs and 33% for the rest of Africa. As quoted from the project fame’s site. " The Project Fame voting process is weighted to make the most of feedback from the continent...
The vote weighting is worked out with a `calculator’ supplied by world-renowned actuaries Alexander Forbes. South African votes will always only count towards 66.66% of the result, and the rest of Africa 33,33% - regardless of the relative number of votes cast in both regions.
Every week the voting public can vote via telephone call, SMS or on this site. To reiterate: two-thirds of the final weekly vote result will be calculated on the total votes received from within South African; one-third of the final weekly vote result will be calculated on the total votes received from the rest of Africa ". http://www.projectfame.co.za/article/article.asp?Id=83&NId=0&SNId=0
Then we the ROAs representatives in the project fame forums (online) screamed blue murder and inisisted that it wasnt fair in anyway that SA would have the bulk of the votes. Later on, it was changed to 60% for the public (SA and ROA) and 40% for the BOD and the teachers. (Introduction of the BODs and the teachers’ votes was another new one). Please also see http://www.projectfame.co.za/Forum/view.asp?id=9&Topic=9&NId=5&SNId=2 where the editor on the project fame forum replied a post asking how the votes were going to be allocated. So in and all what we were to expect on the D day was at least an average of 12% vote for each of the contestant. But what do we hear, a cock and bull story saying the public voted this way:- 26% for Dare, 48% for Jonathan, 12% for lindiwe. Now the math that MNET, ENDEMOL and of course our darling MTN solved for the whole international community to see was 26+48+12= 60% (public votes). I am sure when you do that calculation it would give you 86%. 3 people's votes gave us 86% whilst it was supposed to be 5 people's votes to give us 60%.
Now to the BODs and the teachers votes. The whooping 40% votes, which was never announced at any point earlier on in the show. For the organizers to have given changed the rules of a competition for that has been running for over 8 weeks gives us cause for concern.
For the question did Nigerians vote? Though i can’t say much for a lot of people but i know i voted. I spent over N10, 000 voting for Dare. If my individual votes were counted it would amount to over 400 votes. Dare's fans online, the same ones that got his popularity rating to 42% the highest till the end of the show voted too. We were being charged 3times the normal sms rate, but we never did mind. I remember the Big Brother days when you would send an sms to vote, you will get a return sms that your vote has been counted, but this one nothing like that came up. Let it be known that even if no single vote was cast for the eventual winner of PJF he/she would have still won. The 40% vote from the BODs and the teachers was more than enough votes to elevate anyone's points in the final gala night. And alas! The eventual winner was even the one that scored the lowest 12% add that to the 40% that was awarded to her by the Board of directors, that would give you 52%. Isn’t that amazing?
A cursed network MTN might be but really looking at the flip side maybe they have always known we were voting for nothing and refused to charge us for the sms we sent. What if they had actually taken off their money and Dare still lost, would it have made any difference? How am i even so sure that my votes got there even though i voted on time? Well that’s a food for thought for those wanting to crucify MTN for not charging them.
They hate our guts, yes. Why not? Why can’t the Nigerians organize their own platforms on this scale and put our talented kids on the world map. If we do, would we allow Ghanaians or Benenois to come here to win over our boys?
Don't forget Nigerians always cheer the winning crowd. If they are clear winners why wont it be awarded to them?
Even if yes, then let us start looking for ways to do shows with that kind of publicity, financial backing and promises of good record deals. Then we can dismantle all the theories and forge new ones of our own.
Personally the way I see it is that Dare needed a platform to showcase his talent and he did. The boy has been here with us and no one cared to pay him any attention, then an opportunity comes from South Africa, he takes it and today he has a record deal. Finish.
What would have been said if Dare did not make the final three or get a recording contract. There are very few opportunities that come the way of artistes in this country because the system has no reward for the talented. Even when the few ones come, it is agencies in charge that sell our artistes short. Sometimes out of their own limitations, wickedness jealousy or what have you.
Should Nigerians participate in another South African initiative? Yes please. Dare dared to dare. He went and saw and conquered. He should come home to a hero’s welcome. He did us all proud, that even the South Africans and some of the organizers went to him to apologize for the result and on. He received enough hugs and in South Africa, black slapping and a handshakes.
There is more to come. What he has to do now is to make sure that when he steps out there into the world with the rest of the winners, he showcases his talent good enough to let the rest of the world decide who the better musician is.
Welcome home Dare you are the man.
Yes indeed Dare is our man and he would always remain our (the) winner of Project fame. No matter how much is conspired against him. Go look at the project fame opinion poll online he leads as usual. People can’t wait for his CD to be released. Whatta whatta man. You go boy!!!
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