By Hashim Yussuf Amao
Nigerian Barbers are doing amazingly well, regardless of the unending aspersions against them. One among many funny tweets I’ve read about their selfness just cross my mind, it reads:
“Nigerian Barbers will mark your head with white powder when giving you a carve, you will get home only to wash it and find your head shaped like amoeba”. Lol. That’s funny, really. I have tasted from that sour soup too. The sound of their generators, clippers, and the dirtiness of their garb sometimes is sickening on its own. But away from this, I’ve know them to make their shops appealing by the papers/charts they beautifully fix to their walls.
Wallpapers of Superstars, Musical Icons – at the National and International level. You hardly sit in Nigerian Barbers’ shops without fixing these wallpapers with a gaze. In most cases, the wallpapers are aimed at giving the customers a sight to select nice hairstyles and shapes they would love to barb or carve. Left to me, I’ve always find the hairstyle of Rick Ross more interesting to set my sight on.
Away from the American Singer’s raggedy lifestyle, there’s one thing I admire mostly in him – his neat balded head. Head like well-fixed grill – glaring, shinning, compelling. Watching closely at his pictures, one could easily tell that Rick Ross is not totally bald; there’s only absence of hair on the upper part of his head, there’s much hair in the lower part – his jaw. Bushy but nicely-trimmed hair that could comfortably fill the vacuum in his upper head. Such is Rick Ross’ hair condition. Bald in the head, but hairy in the jaw. Half bald, half hairy.
Nigeria’s situation is what I can liken to this. Despite the corruption and ordeals we live with, we are not totally ‘bald’ as a nation. We are majorly bald, but little hairy. Where in part of our nation’s body is the hair? Our Entertainment Industry where thrives outstanding young men and women with amazing talent. Here, I’ll like to assert a quote Mr Fredrick Nwabufor who had written, “The talent pool of Nigeria is inexhaustible”.
From talented Musicians breaking and setting records on daily; painting a good image of the Nigerian Music Industry at the international level, to the Acting Entertainment Industry – where lives talented movie actors, and the Comedy Industry where breathes talented young men and women who have got dab-hands at what they do – Comedy. The latter is the centre attention of this piece. I’ve known of many to commend; Taaoma, Mr Macaroni, Oluwadolarz, Cute Abiola, Trinity Guy, the list is endless. But, there’s one who has arrested my attention for a long time with his unrivaled ‘edutaining’ skits. Permit my coinage, I only mean his educative and entertaining stories.
I’ve seen Mcedopikin as a cat of a different breed in the Comedy Industry. The question that clings to my mind sometimes is if the Ambrose Alli University alumnus won’t create foes for himself among his ilks; some of whose illicit actions and preachings he has condemned. As memory could serve me well, when a comedy skit he made as far back as 2019,
“The Difference Between Regina (Daniels) and Tonto (Dikeh)” where he had comically addressed bitterness, bleaching and illicit sexual intercourse. Only him would end it by castigating Bobrisky and his ill-practices of cross-dressing, bleaching and invigoration of young girls to look for Sugar Daddies rather than work hard and earn legitimately. I’m still finding it hard to guess any celebrity that could bear such courage to castigate fellow celebrities for preaching wrong messages to the world.
Many Nigerian Musicians have tasted from his soft rod, too. When interviewed by MC_DA Saint, his popular comic interviewer, about “The Difference Between Artistes and Musicians”, The Edo bred had lambasted Musicians that promote indecency like Nudity, Usage of Hard Substances, Yahoo(Fraud) and other vices in the society and ended the comedy by giving kudos to reasonable Musicians and Legends like Lucky Dube, Bob Marley, Fela Kuti who sang against the ills of their society and corruption of the Leaders. I would have loved that particular comedy more, if he had listed BurnaBoy, an acclaimed ODOGWU, who, in many of his songs like Soke, Collateral Damage, Africa Giant had voiced against the oppression and corruption of Nigerian leaders, and in many other songs, passed golden messages. I see why he’s the only Nigerian to yet hold a Grammy Award.
Who would make a comedy about Permanent Voters’ Card just to enlighten Nigerians on the need to exercise their voting rights and shun Apathy, Electoral Malpractices like votes selling for paltry sum and all? Only MC EDO PIKIN would.
Have Nigerians been watching this man and deducing values from him? Did Nigerian Entertainers watch his latest Comedy about Sugar Daddy – a comedy which inspiration he drew from the recent News that broke the internet about one Chidinma Adaora, a 300-level Mass Communication student of Unilag who was arrested after stabbing her Sugar Daddy, Super TV CEO, Mr Usifo Ataga to death. The paradigm comedian made the skit calling on other Sugar Daddies to learn from the death of Mr Usifo and hence stopped sleeping around with young girls but rather embrace their wives at home, some of whom even endured with them before they accumulate their wealth and all. I watched the 6:30 minutes long skit, and subconsciously, my two palms beat each other in applause and awe of the amazing Entertainer. If I were to have written a motto for his brand, it would have been “MC_EDOPIKIN: Comically Enjoining Virtues, Sarcastically Forbidding Vices”.
Nigerian Entertainers, some of whom are also promoting virtues should keep up with the commendable work. History, the say, never forgets. The ones promoting vices should endeavor to portray high level of decency. Promoting vices like fraud, intake of hard substances, nudity among all would only fetch them a momentarily attention. History will never forget the bad they have contributed to the society, too. There’s so much mess already in the land, only virtues will clear some of these mess, not vices. Both the leaders and led should deduce insightful messages and morals from skits and songs as it is in the advanced countries, not what will mar our situation more. We have found ourselves in this cave already, we shouldn’t dig deeper.
