On November 19 2020, Global Nigerian Superstar Ayodeji Balogun famously known to the public as Wizkid had a YouTube Live Session dubbed “A Day in the Live of Wizkid” that focused his life behind the scenes. This was such an important project because he had always been one to keep his private life private.
For many, it was a time to reminisce and drool over how legendary the Ojuelegba crooner has become over a career spanning 11 years. It further did the Lord’s work by silencing critics, reminding them of how talented and gifted with showmanship and craftsmanship he is. In the words of Celebrated Music Journalist and Founder of Afrobeats Intelligence Joey Akan,
“…A Wizkid performance is like fine, vintage art. It gets better on closer inspection, keeps you glued!”
However, something caught the eye of Nigerians other than the performance from his arsenal of timeless songs and scenes of his seamless chemistry with his third son Zion alongside the rest of the team. It was his performance of Ojuelegba, Africa’s National Anthem. The song that changed his life and catapulted him to global stardom. It has become one of those songs that have made Afrobeats Mainstream in the global Music market, forcing many global acts like Beyoncé, Drake, Nicki Minaj and others to work with African stars championing that cause.
Right in the middle of the performance, Wizkid tweaked the lyrics of the song and melodiously sang
“End SARS, ni Ojuelegba, SARS burst my brothers, for Mo’Dogg Studio dem just dey hustle to work.”
He equally used the visual screen behind him to show photos from the iconic #EndSARS protests held across Nigeria only last month, thus further spreading awareness. And in that instant, millions watching and tweeting across the globe were reminded how him and many others like him, celebrities we like to say, were strategically important to the success of the cries to end police brutality.
You see, ‘Celebrity’ is important. Very important. While not only their voices count, what it does is that it forces the common man to pause, and listen. So it’s simple. I might not pay attention to a cause, but as soon as an important figure throws his weight behind such cause, it automatically grants a sort of ‘legitimacy’ for that cause. And even better: Many celebrities have names and organized structures for their teeming fandoms — From Wizkid FC to 30BG to Outsiders to Icons to Tribe of Judah to Marlians, the list is inexhaustible. What happens is that when these celebrities who lead (consciously or unconsciously) these fandoms identify with a social issue, their followers follow, almost blindly, because, in their eyes, these celebrities can do no wrong.
Though the #OccupyNigeria protests that happened nearly a decade ago was partly driven by Celebrities, the #EndSARS protests were a bigger litmus test of how important celebrities are or have become, in Nation building.
Did you know?
Many people forget, that the call for the protest was first called for by Nigerian Singer Runtown, after which his industry colleague, son of famous Lawyer and Human rights activist and Rapper Falz joined him to lead the protests. By Friday the next day, we saw Singer Small Doctor lead a protest from Agege to the House of Assembly at Ikeja, on foot. When many were asked what they were protesting for that day, a number didn’t know. One thing, however, that was the uniform response on their lips was that “we saw our ‘Small Doctor’ on the road and when we asked, they said he was leading a protest so we joined, without even asking.”
Afrobeats star Davido was seen in Abuja, the nation’s capital, kneeling and pleading with protesters to walk behind him. He did this with an unshakable sense of security assured that the police who had been shooting and firing teargas to disperse the protesters would halt immediately they saw and recognized it was him, thus putting his life a risk. And they most certainly did.
In the following days to come, celebrities and cultural influencers were leading protests across Nigeria and even in London. It raised an incredible awareness across the globe because many people who do not identify with Nigeria as a nation identifies with our Stars, especially the Music Stars.
In building a nation, we need the clout. We need numbers. And these folks are some of those who can conveniently pull those numbers without breaking a sweat. This is why fandoms call out celebrities and go further to ‘cancel’ them when they fail to lend a voice to a cause that affects everyone. They are important, very important. Many of us lack access to the corridors of power, but the celebrities have unrestricted and unhindered access to those rooms where decisions about the nation are being made. They need to speak out, use their big voice to drive change. Like the late Legend Bob Marley, they should serve as the bridge between the government and the people, making negotiations that would favour the masses. Who knows, maybe like Mordecai told Esther in the Bible, maybe they’ve been given such power “for such a time as this?”
Every voice counts in Social Activism, but your celebrities’ voices count more. They must remember, that whatever powers they were given were gotten from the people, out of our sheer benevolence. And if you constantly sit on the fence in matters that concern them, they can seize such power from you, by failing to esteem you. Social Activism needs more and more of these voices, championing causes, bridging the gap and driving change.
