Writer – “Nigerian Media Should Stop Glorifying Fake Accents”

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See what somebody has to say about OAPs and entertainers with fake accents

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Nigerian celebrities live fake lives. Even their accents are fake. I stopped listening to radio because everyone is either trying to sound British, or American. Originality is zero….. Annonymous.

It’s sad that many Nigerians have carried the mentality of our forefathers that the best of products, come from the overseas and netherlands. This has translated into so many facets of our society to the point where instead of a symbiotic fusion of our cultures with the foreign, we now have a confused sense of cultural identity.

Some of the products of this confused sense of identity is the fact that we would rather hire foreigners to handle high budget contracts than graduates of our own training, prefer to answer to a foreign boss, and more commonly, the fake accents we hear from our media and celebrities. As much as we do not want to admit it many of our on air personalities and celebrities tend to speak with an intonation reeking of foreign affiliations (the very moment you hit stardom/wealth/popularity, one of the first things to change is the accent). Let’s admit it, even when we speak to persons of renown and high social standing, we tend to add the extra slur, and roll our tongues to sound more refined.

The media is largely responsible for this scourge. A lot them favouring those who by virtue of birth, or acting prowess, have a foreign accents. For some weird reason you are considered more hip and socially pleasant if you have a foreign accent. It’s really ironic how one should discard his/her Nigerian accent to be given an opportunity to speak to Nigerians.

The human mind is devoid of language and only seeks to identify with honesty irrespective of tribe or tongue. The very moment you sound fake you lose a bond with your audience, and have to rely on hype, not actual talent to maintain relevance.

It’s high time the media and Nigerians as a whole stop glorifying the fake/foreign accents that plague the entertainment industry. Among the many colonial burdens we need to drop and discard, this is one of them. It is so bad that many media houses don’t consider you because they feel you don’t sound british or American enough to stand in front of a camera/mic (check out most radio and TV presenters)

Gone are the days when the man with the British accent has the smartest thing to say. The likes of Chinua Achebe, 2face, Psquare, Olamide, and Don Jazzy have shown that you can have a Nigerian accent, and even be more relevant and successful than those with an English accent mixed with ‘ijebu’  intonations.

Until every aspect of our culture and lives can imbibe this rule, we will remain in the obscurity of our lack of original identity. Its all about keeping it real, so let’s start with how we speak.