Weekend Arena - Nigerian Politicians And Celebs Are Masters of ‘Audio’ Giving

Audio giving and Nigerian celebs are like siamese twins......

Let me tell you a little about Frederick Lenz. He was an outstanding American spiritual teacher, whose abilities touched creative projects like writing, music and software design. Through his many lectures and books, Lenz, taught the power in meditation, self-discovery and enlightenment. He had his controversial side, but I am fascinated by his popular quote about selflessness. According to him, “Selfless giving is the art of living.” For me the keyword in that sentence is ‘the’, which literally sums up how important ‘selfless giving’ is to ‘living’ and life.




There are several ongoing debates about how one should give and what constitutes selfless giving, the type the Holy Bible descriptively captured as ‘the right hand taking an action without letting the left hand to know’. Earlier in the week, I watched a video on the social media, where one man, driving on a dusty village road, suddenly pulls up behind one woman, obviously returning from the farm, with a bunch of firewood on her head. He accosts her, asks her questions, after which he pulls out twenty five thousand naira and gifts the woman in the spirit of the season. Of course, the woman was excited and you could see it written all over her as she poured out her heart, voicing words of blessings on the guy. The obviously impressed giver would eventually announce that he was not stopping at that for the day.



According to him, he would do so to 19 more persons, bringing the total amount of money he intended to spend to five hundred thousand naira (N500,000). Although his video did not show him, distributing the money to other beneficiaries, his act of kindness and showiness triggered a debate online. Some applauded him for his decision to help the poor, saying the 25k would put smiles on those faces this season. Some chastised him for extending his kind gestures with his camera rolling, and wondered who gave him the right to showcase the face of the woman who received the money. Another group felt what he was doing was good in the sense that it would inspire other people to extend such gestures.



But such acts also remind us of what happened during the lockdown as a result of COVID-19. Distributing palliatives had become the fad, and everyone who wanted to ‘belong’ needed to do it; of course with the cameras on. People in the city who were appalled by the insensitivity of capturing beneficiaries on camera, sometimes with just one loaf of bread, had to quickly send messages across to their parents in the villages to shun such invitations…you can imagine seeing your old mother with one packet of spaghetti, posing for an emergency philanthropist’s camera.



This is not different from what some celebrities do online in the name of ‘doing give-away’. It is common on Twitter and Instagram, and Nollywood actress, Tonto Dikeh, is particularly fond of this. Often, she would urge people to take a particular action, follow or re-tweet with a hashtag, for an opportunity to be gifted 5K. That is marketing, an ill-motivated one at that, which exploits the vulnerability of Nigerians. It is not different from helping a susceptible lady in your neighbourhood in the hope that she would give you sex. Such cannot be classified as ‘selfless’ under any guise. 


However, I am tempted to believe that Nigerian politicians are the architects and masters of this ‘audio giving’, if we should stand on P Square’s song. Even when the money being spent belongs to the beneficiaries, one sees them making so much fanfare about it under the guise of empowerment. Take a look at the various constituency projects, across the country and you would notice the photo of the politician emblazoned on the projects.

 In fact, more money get spent on hyping the project than building it. This is why the governors would not undertake critical projects that fail to announce their presence for people to see. That is why you see flyovers being built in locations where they are not needed, and little money going into education, because the latter is easier to notice. In some major cities like Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja, one notices the habit of carrying out emergency road repairs during ‘rush hours’, thereby complicating the traffic situation instead of in the night, like they do in other climes.



This is probably why Pedro Nwankwo, the Local Government Chairman of Awgu in Enugu State, in the name of ‘mourning’ the pupils who died in a road accident at the Nkwo Junction, erected a billboard bearing the photos of Governor Ugwuanyi and himself broadly smiling like jackpot winners.




So off and on season, let us give to whoever we can give, but as much as possible let us leave the cameras behind.




Ngozi wetin concern me concern Frederick ? why do you always keep dancing round a story instead of going straight into it...You wanted to address Audio giving?why did you mention only Tonto's name?You could just mentioned all the culprits nau,abi you dey fear?next time mention names with facts and keep it moving...lol