Celebrities behaving badly

In this season of hardship characterized by excessive heat, lack of electricity and chronic shortage of fuel supply, Nigerian entertainers are providing us with entertainment. Not the kind that they are paid for, but a bizarre form of comic relief that borders on the ridiculous.

The year 2016 may just be crowned the year of war of words between Nigerian superstars. These celebrities have thrown decorum to the winds. It seems they are trying to outdo each other negatively in order to carve out a niche for themselves as bad boys or girls.

Lately we have been inundated on social media with juicy stories of celebrities doing and saying unprintable things. They are supposed to be role models to kids but they have been saying stuff that will make most parents rush to cover their children’s ears.

It started in the last week of December 2015 with the face-off between stand-up comedian Basketmouth and Cool FM On-Air-Personality Freeze who had been feuding for quite a while.

At Olamide's OLIC 2 concert, Basketmouth and fellow comedian Buchi threw jabs at Freeze, calling him cheap, stingy and unknown.

Before the show, Freeze had posted a 2007 photo of Basketmouth and captioned it: “When we were all good friends before Niggazz started acting up.”

Basketmouth, who doesn’t back down easily, then shared a picture on Instagram of a man wearing many expensive watches at one time. It was seen to be a mockery of Freeze who is known to have a taste for expensive watches.

Don Jazzy (left) and Olamide

Then, as the year turned, singer Olamide and super producer Don Jazzy had a tiff at the Headies on January 1, 2016. The fallout, seen live on TV, spilled over to Twitter where, in a series of rants, Olamide declared war on Don Jazzy. It took the intervention of billionaire businessman Aliko Dangote to settle the quarrel between the two superstars.

When Africa’s richest man steps into your feud, bro you just have to chill!

A couple of days later, Jazzy took to Twitter to apologize to his fans.

“We are sorry for the wahala. Make una no vex ooo. It is our responsibility to lead but then again we are only human and we all make mistakes,” he wrote.

Before we could heave a collective sigh of relief, then came the mother of all custody battles. It involved singer Davido, his baby mama Sophia Momodu and her uncle Dele Momodu, publisher of Ovation magazine.

The Momodus, accompanied by law enforcement officers, stopped Davido at the airport on December 29, 2015. The Afro pop star was about to board a flight to Dubai with the baby.

Sophia claims the baby had been “forcefully” taken away from her in July 2015. But the singer countered that he only wanted to take the baby abroad for treatment.

Davido and Sophia

The dirty details of the fight were laid out on social media for the world to see. Davido said his daughter “was found to be infested with massive dosage of poisonous cannabis that she contracted from the breast feeding regime of her mother’s breast.”

He accused Sophia of being a drifter and an unfit mother who could never be his wife because “she was never qualified for that status”. He also laid out details of his financial obligations to her.

In a statement released on January 4, Dele Momodu said details circulating in the media of his niece being a cannabis smoker are so bad “nothing could have been cruelest.”

He debunked the stories about her as “unwarranted fabrications of endless lies to justify the act of forcefully taking a baby from her biological mother.”

Then in February, it was the turn of multi award winning singing sensation P-Square to play out their family feud social media. In a series of tweets Peter Okoye ranted against his elder brother and manager Jude while remaining loyal to his twin brother and singing partner Paul.

P-Square

The singer also tweeted a disclaimer stating that whoever does business with Jude’s company North Side Entertainment on behalf of P-Square does so at his or her own risk.

An angry Jude responded via Twitter, urging their fans to pray for Peter because “he’s been going through a lot lately.”

Peter then fired back at Jude: “You said I need Prayers! Bro you need GOD!”

In a bid to explain why he took to social media to publicize what should be a family issue, Peter tweeted: “P-Square fans, I know you all have been asking a lot of ques­tion concerning us. Some ask: ‘why on social media?’ Do I have a choice? Insisting you must remain Psquare’s manager? And that your decision is final?”

Some fans couldn’t help wondering if this was another publicity stunt to keep the duo in the news. In 2014, there were similar rumours of a break-up but their publicist Bayo Adetu later assured fans that it was just a publicity stunt ahead of their 6th album “Double Trouble.”

And now it is the turn of popular gossip blogger Linda Ikeji, and Afrobeat musician Wizkid to wash their dirty linen in public.

Linda Ikeji and Wizkid

On April 2, the blogger broke the news that Wizkid had received quit notice from the landlady of the Lekki home he claimed to have bought. She later added that the singer’s Porsche car is also on hire purchase and that he is older than the 25 he claims.

The miffed musician went for the kill in true gangster style. Using a lot of profanity, he made derogatory statements about Ikeji’s lady parts and claimed his director slept with her then abandoned her in a hotel room. He also attacked the blogger’s mother.

One wonders why both are railing against each other in this infantile banter. If it’s true that Wizkid’s house is rented, that’s not a crime. I’m sure it is an expensive crib many of us would not mind living in – even if for just one day. And if it really is his house, he should have just laughed it off. Or yab her in kind. What is yours is yours. No one can take it away from you.

Michael Jackson, the acclaimed king of pop, lived in a rented house shortly before his death.

By the way, if his director actually slept with a woman (Ikeji denies even knowing the guy) and left her stranded in a hotel room then he's definitely not a gentleman. That is not something to gloat over. It is something to be ashamed of. Only small boys think that disrespecting a woman is cool.

Also, it is not a crime to be single – whether by choice or circumstances. Oprah Winfrey, the world’s most powerful media personality, is not married.

Occasionally, friends fight and families feud. But this shouldn't be done in public where people you don't know – and don't care about you – start to have opinions.

Some believe these bizarre disputes may be publicity stunts to keep them in the news. After all, a well-known American actress whose popularity was waning was once accused of "leaking" her sex tapes online to remain relevant.

But in the long run you are tarnishing your image. And image is what sells celebrities. That is why big corporations pay them big bucks to endorse their products. All these trash talk may end up hurting them.

Or maybe they want to copy American hip-hop artistes who go as far as shooting each other in a bid to maintain their territory. But this is Nigeria where there are strong family and traditional values. It is uncouth to drag someone's mother into a fray. Parents are off limits in this beef.

Fame is fleeting. Riches deceptive. All can evaporate like smoke in a second. But your name remains. Keep your heads up guys. We love you.