What do Chude Jideonwo and Reuben Abati have in common?
Writing in the arts and culture section of NEXT Newspapers of Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009, Chude Jideonwo, one of the emerging voices in the Nigerian media attempts a review of award-winning producer ID Cabasa’s new album. The album titled ID.Entity is the producer’s debut effort as a music artist.
In what may be termed a brazen attempt to denigrate ID Cabasa’s creative effort, Chude titles his review “Identity Crisis” successfully bringing to memory Reuben Abati’s “A Nation’s Identity Crisis” – the badly researched and poorly rendered piece which almost marked the end of his career as “a respected columnist.”
Subjected to critical reasoning, it was undeniably lucid that Chude’s review was an ill-tempered attempt to rubbish the person of ID Cabasa and his new album. Chude begins his review with a caustic “To cut to the chase, this is a bad album.”
He then goes ahead to shower the album with some of the most unbecoming invectives like “this is a muted disaster”, “poorly thought-out tracks”, “this is a lazy effort” and “the choruses are nothing but jokes”, among other sardonic remarks.
I have listened to the thirteen-track album and I conclude that it wasn’t a bad debut outing after all. One thing you can’t take away from this album is the fact that it wasn’t all about wine and women. It had a message to deliver.
Songs like “Alujo Repete” inspire hope in the Nigeria of our dreams. “Keep it Clean” advocates for environmental hygiene. There are several other tracks that pass the no-obscenity test.
Why then would a young man like Chude Jideonwo who prides himself as one of the custodians of the future of the Nigerian youth descend so low into the depths of destructive criticism all in the name of reviewing the music album of a fellow young Nigerian?
Indeed, Chude has to convince his readers that he is not serving the agenda of a rival record label, producer or music artist. It will be recalled that it was this same Chude who, while reviewing D’Banj’s The Entertainer album, made certain undesirable remarks about 9ice.
In that review titled “The Entertainer, The Coronation” and published in the Business Eye of Aug. 13, 2008, Chude praised D’Banj to the high heavens crowning him king of kings and lord of lords over artists like 9ice whom he described as a “kid” who had come to interrupt the reign of D’Banj and who “arguably doesn’t have as much talent or energy as D’banj.”
As if that was not enough, he went ahead in the same article to declare that “D’banj is Nigeria’s hottest music star presently (9ice still has to last even half as long as D’banj to take that throne).” And interestingly, Chude concludes in that article that when it comes to giving D’Banj praise, “I have no qualms giving this devil his due!”
Now, with this new onslaught on ID Cabasa, who is producer to 9ice and Lord of Ajasa, another close ID Cabasa artist whose talent Chude claims he has always questioned, one finds it hard to believe that this is not the hand of Esau with the voice of Jacob.
To cut to the chase, this is a very serious matter. For whatever it is worth, this wasn’t journalism at its best. Reviewing a creative work as a music album is not a matter in which one loses self-control, allows jaundice or other self-motivating factors to take over. It is not the same thing as reviewing a book.
Will Chude ponder for one second how much his scathing remarks have detracted from ID Cabasa’s brand equity? What about the effect on the album sales? Couldn’t he have just allowed the album some breathing space in the market place and allow the public to be the judge?
This is one big problem with us in the Nigerian society. Sometimes by sheer providence and by virtue of the privileged positions we occupy, we tend to over exaggerate our self-importance, with a tendency to playing ‘god’ over other people’s lives.
I know a number of people who have already rejected this album because Chude, a journalist at NEXT, has advocated that the songs be “banished from the airwaves.” Haba! In a country where music artists know their rights, NEXT could be in court the next morning for libel!
As journalists, we must consciously adhere to the standards and ethics of the profession. In Nigeria today, NEXT has come to represent a new brand of excellent journalism and some of the rising stars who constitute its rank and file should not be allowed to take advantage of the platform in pursuit of their selfish agenda.
My candid advice to Chude is to tender an unreserved apology to ID Cabasa. His fans are still in love with him and gladly welcome this debut album.
*Ohimai Godwin Amaize is Creative Director at the Youth Media & Communication Initiative (YMCI), Abuja
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