Popular stand-up
comedian, Basketmouth (Bright Okpocha) ,was at the receiving end
of flak from fans on Wednesday after he announced plans to host a live concert,
which will feature appearances by Patoranking, Wizkid, Olamide and comedians
from South Africa, Uganda and Nigeria, at the Apollo in London on February 14.
In an open invitation
posted on Instagram on Wednesday, the comedian indicated that he has made an
offer of free entry to only students who register for the show at a specified
online address.
But some Nigerians
reacted to the offer with mixed feelings. While some kicked against the timing
of the concert, which coincides with the date of the scheduled 2015
presidential election in Nigeria, and accused the comedian of planning to
distract his fans from the poll, others rose quickly in his defence.
Wondering if
Basketmouth’s real intention was to avoid casting his vote on that day, a
respondent commented, “It’s so sad to see people who are role models do this.
Why must you have a show on the day the Federal Government has declared
elections? It is Valentine’s Day, but we need to respect the authorities and
our country.”
Reacting to the
information, one Trevonatoe said Basketmouth would not dare host a concert on
Election Day if he were a citizen of the USA. But he advised the comedian to
“get wise” and show some respect to his country.
But, reacting to calls
to Basketmouth to postpone the concert and stay put in Nigeria till the end of
the general elections, Ashagangagali appealed to other respondents to consider
the trouble that the comedian had to go through to organise the event.
He wrote, “Basketmouth
started planning his Valentine’s Day event since last year, I trust, as a
professional. Who would have thought that the Federal Government would choose
that day to host an election and at a very short notice? Now the question is;
should the comedian cancel his own show, after spending a lot of money and
resources, because of the election? Who will pay his children’s school fees, if
he does that?”
No comments:
Post a Comment
Drop your comments