Are We Entertainers Socially Irresponsible? - Etcetera writes

Another 'bombshell' article from singer turned
writer Etcetera. Read below...
I got a call on Wednesday morning from

one of our popular female artistes asking
if she could be a guest on my radio show
to promote her new album that is meant
for release this month. I said, “Why not?
It will be my privilege to have you on my
show.” As we talked on, I tried chipping in
a little advice that it might not be a good
idea releasing an album in the middle of
an ebola crisis; suggesting that right now
people might be too worried and
preoccupied with the ebola scare to care
about a new album. I told her she would
stand the risk of being branded insensitive
for dropping her album at a time the
country is having a crisis of some sort. I
went on thinking I could convince her to
postpone the album release to a time
when she can easily get people’s
attention. But she wouldn’t hear of it.
She said “ Bros forget dat tin abeg, Naija no dey
send tins like dat. After all, Dorobucci was
released on the day of the second Nyanya
bomb blast and just after three weeks of the
first blast? Why didn’t they call it insensitive or
irresponsible?” She got me chewing on that for
a minute as I couldn’t think of anything further
to say than, ‘Ok dear, you are on for 7pm this
Thursday.’ Isn’t it wonderful how the
peculiarities of this country knows no limit?
Even in entertainment, we are of a different
cloth. It’s a party with no checks. How possible
is it that Dorobucci’ s release on the same day
of a major disaster could go unnoticed even by
the legion of entertainment journalists in Naija?
Little details as the timing of a song release
has never been an issue here as much as it is
in other climes. In the US for instance, a simple
thing as that can make or kill a song. But how
lucky it is for the musicians and music
stakeholders in Nigeria that nobody bothers
with such. The social irresponsibility of the
artist has never been an issue. As a celeb you
can slap a police officer on your way to an
interview, brag about it live on air and get
endorsed by a multinational brand that same
day. We are indeed a unique people. Maybe
that explains the bulk of unnecessary issues
we face as a nation.
Let’s move further into today’s topic before
they say Etcetera has started again, with his
exaggerations. I am already having akpatoyi
(goose pimples) with the thought that some
have already called for my excommunication
from entertainment’s holy of holies for daring
to defecate on the alter of Naija
entertainment’s ecclesiastical sanctimonium .
Please forgive me Father for I have sinned
against the Cherubims and Seraphins. Inomine
patri et fili et spiritus sancti amen.
When I mentioned artist responsibility, I am
not talking about the responsibility of a
musician when he receives money for his
studio upgrade, or the responsibility he owes
the arts when creating his music note by note
or chord by chord. The responsibility I am
referring to here is the personal responsibility
that he owes to the society, his obligation to
his fellow human beings. Some have attributed
the nonchalant nature of the Nigerian artist to
a deeper societal moral decay that has
developed into our entertainment tradition. But
it can also be traced to the separation of the
artist as an individual from the message of his
art. Very little connection is seen between the
evaluation of the artist as a person and the
evaluation of his works and its messages. You
don’t have to look very far for evidence of this
separationist attitude in the industry. You only
just have to look at the artist whose songs
about humanity, equal rights and justice
touched millions, while he goes to concerts in
his Bentley protected by vicious bouncers
flogging his fans away; or the ones who preach
against corruption but always disobey traffic
regulations. In some other countries, the
aesthetic judgement of an artist is intrinsically
linked to how the artist lives. The concept of an
artist’s craftsmanship that is not connected
strongly t