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The Nigerian Music Video Award (NMVA) In Bribery Mess |
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Written by Ahaoma Kanu with Steve Uzoechi
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Saturday, 05 April 2008 |
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Cally Ikpe, organizer of the NMVA
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Mr Mlemchukwu, calls the NMVA a scam
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The NMVA plaques called the Annabel
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Tony Okoroji handing Patrick Doyle his award at the occassion
| WHEN Callivision Network Ltd, first announced the birth of Nigeria Music Video Award (NMWA) last year, it was applauded by all and sundry as many stakeholders welcomed the development, describing it as long overdue, considering the level the Nigerian music scene had been taken within the last couple of years.
Many saw it as a grand step into starting up a strong competition between the Channel O Music of Africa Awards which celebrates Music Videos of African Artistes.
But with recent revelations being made by some participants in the NMWA event, which held on the end of December 2007, the sign of relief heaved by Nigerians might be short-lived as again, the re-occurring accusations of bribery being leveled at the organizers of the show leave much to be desired.
One of the participants in the maiden edition of the show, Mr. Prospect Mlemchukwu, a.k.a. Mr. Pee, is accusing the organisers of the show as lacking credibility and called the show a landmark fraud.
He revealed that the organisers collected the sum of N200, 000 as bribe to enable his artiste win in one of the categories but the deal did not work out. The NMWA is produced by Callivision Network Ltd which also is the producer of Da Live Beats, a programme that celebrates musical video on television, which was anchored by Cally Ikpe.
According to Mlemchukwu, who is a film director, editor and cinematographer, based in Hollywood, California in the United States, he came back to Nigeria on the advice of well-meaning Nigerians in the U.S due to the passion he has for the industry, having been a filmmaker there for a long time.
At the inception for the Awards, Cally Ikpe announced that the competition would be outstanding awards for music videos in 21 categories which includes the Best Effect Music Video, Best Illustrated Music Video, Best Costumed Music Video, Best Animated Music Video, Best Picture and the Best Director of a Music Video. Others were the Best Gospel Music Video Best Fuji Music Video, Best Afrobeat Music Video etc. The categories were later reduced.
The category still remains on the official website www.livebeatng.com .
It was in the category of Best Rhythm and Blues (R&B) Music Video that the Mlemchukwu claimed his artiste, Mcdonald, was initially nominated.
“I was told about the NMWA by a colleague who saw the music video of Mcdonald and felt that it could win the R&B Music Video category award. I was a bit skeptical because of the dishonesty and level of armatures that handle projects that they don't even understand,: he said.
Not deferred by his initial instant, they went along and downloaded the form online, filled it and sent it to the 9 Toyin Street, Ikeja office of the award organiser. He mentioned the registration was done free.
Maybe due to their location, information about the show was not really publicised in their part of the country which prompted Mlemchukwu to get the phone number of Cally Ikpe and put a call to him and got what should have seen served as the first warning sign.
“When I called Cally, he gave me a number to call to vote for my artiste and informed me that I can vote as many times as possible. That threw me off because it implied that anyone with a lot of cash could win,” he explained.
If getting the information that could influence his artiste to win the award was jolting, then the incident that played out during the show would better be described as shameful.
According to Mlemchukwu, one of his artists Mcdonald had one of his music video, My love nominated as in the R&B category as it was been aired while viewers were asked to vote by sending sms to 3325 with the development. It became imperative that they would be heading to Eko Hall of the Eko Hotel and Suites in Victoria Island Lagos where the event was to hold on December 2, 2007.
When they got to the venue of the event, they proceeded to collect their free-pass to the event since they had a nomination. When they asked for the person in charge, they were directed to one Omoh Ralabi as the person in charge. On explaining themselves, Mr. Talabi gave them the news.
“When we asked of our pass, he looked at the nominees' list that he was holding and he could not find their names there, including that of the artiste “Mlemchukwu said.
His attempt to ask the man in charge to look through his books yielded a yet bizarre answer.
“When I let him know that they have been playing the video as a nominee asking people to vote, he asked me, if I have paid up. I did not understand and then he said, don't you know you pay for awards?
With that said, Mlechukwu said he objected strongly and asked his artistes to pack up so they could leave the vicinity when they started begging him to talk to the people.
“After hours of arguments and pressure from my artistes and manager who came with me to Lagos, they asked me, how would somebody come all the way to Lagos from Owerri and leave without the award because of a fee and told me that paying for award was fast becoming a tradition in the country.
I then decided to hear them out,” he said.
It was then that Talabi made him understand that all the big boys in the industry who were hauling home awards had been paying for their laurels.
He then put the prize for the award at N500, 000 but when he saw they could not raise that amount, both parties settled for N200, 000 which exchanged hands that night.
Mlemchukwu said that his fears that the transaction might be a scam was calmed when some of his friends identified Talabi as a well known personality in the industry coupled with the fact that he was busy taking the stars to the back stage.
When the show commenced, Mlemchukwu made enquiries concerning the name of the artistes missing from the list.
“When I asked him why Mcdonald's name was removed from the list, he informed me that the name was taken off by his colleagues and there were 11 judges; that the money I gave was only good enough for five people.”
Talabi then went theatrical, promising that he would give them hell.
“He kept going in and out of the stage while we waited for a long time and could not get in until we heard P-Square announced as the winner in that category.
It was then it dawned on me that the money I paid could be a bribe and so I started demanding for a refund,” he said.
He informed that Talabi came to his hotel room begging him to stay until he collects the money from his colleagues.
“He called everybody and sent text messages to placate me but all was a hoax,” Mlemchukwu said.
When Cally Ikpe, CEO of Callivision Network Ltd, producers of the show, was contacted,he confirmed that Omoh Talabi worked very hard for the event but denied knowledge of what transpired between both parties.
“You know, we had so many people who came to work with us and Omoh Talabi was one. I must not deny the fact that he worked very hard to ensure that the event was a success,” he said over the phone.
But when Talabi was contacted on phone, “He confirmed that he did know Mr. P but said that the transaction they had was for a different business that had nothing to do with NMVA.”
“I know Mr. P and we did have a business but the amount was N60, 000 and has nothing to do with NMVA,” he said.
Meanwhile, when informed that Mlemchukwu provided sms messages which he sent to him concerning the transaction as well as presented evidence showing that Talabi paid N20,000 to him as part of the money, he asked to be given time to react.
It would be recalled that the NMVA had personalities like Edi Lawani, Tony Okoroji, Augusts Maduegbuna, ID Ogungbe, Ayo Animashaun, Gift Uwame (Muma Gee) etc as members of the organising committee of the NMVA which saw the gospel group, Infinity, carting away seven out of the 19 awards otherwise called Annabel after the daughter of the organiser.
Lately, the entertainment scene has been enmeshed in intricate scandals that touch on the credibility of events being handled by Nigerians. The West African Idol show till date has not released any album of the winner while the Nigerian Music Awards (NMA) is still a tug of war between PMAN and Tony Okoroji and partners.
The question then is, when will corruption be a thing of the past in the country?
Steve Uzoechi contributed to this story.
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Last Updated (
Thursday, 24 April 2008 ) |
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Posted by Robot| 06.04.2008 11:01