Should Our Celebrities Speak Up or Remain Silent?

Jovi took to twitter two days ago to air his opinion on the current state of the country. Many people did not like his stance on what we have for over two years been calling ‘The Struggle.’ Well, at least he spoke his mind where others are afraid to and freedom of expression is definitely the new cool. Unfortunately, he went ahead to take back some of the things he said by deleting the tweets. I don’t know if the tweet deleting was an indication that he had a change of mind and heart but it got me thinking.

Many feel that, in general, our celebrities have been too silent about the crises we now face in our country. Even those who have spoken up seem to do so hoping people don’t notice; playing it safe. I mean it looks like they just want to have something that they can screenshot and show us when we accuse them of remaining silent when we needed their voices the most. So they drop one generic line here and there without saying anything that can spark a serious debate or open up people’s minds.

It is no doubt that our celebrities have huge voices with a wider reach. Celebrities in other countries have been able to force the hand of the government to bend to the will of the people and even more importantly open up the minds of the people. One would have hoped that our own celebrities can play a huge role in educating the public about certain things which mainstream government controlled media does not let them know. However, I am beginning to think it is better that our celebrities remain silent because most of them do not even have something of substance to say.

Jovi said some things which to me can be equated to a All Lives Matter VS Black Lives Matter debate. I for one, I wear the All Lives Matter uniform but I also know that it is never appropriate to bring up All Lives Matter when the theses is on Black Lives Matter. Basically, those two should not appear on the same document.

I am driving to the point that, most of our so called celebrities do not reason like people who have a high school diploma. Their knowledge of sociology, economics, political science, history, psychology is so limited that they cannot form proper opinions on anything that concerns the socialization of a people. When Jovi says things like “Choose ya leaders well na all dat.” I ask myself if the guy thinks Cameroon is his quarter njangi where people get to vote for the secretary. So the guy does not know about ENAM and everything that surrounds who gets admission and who doesn’t.

My partner and I did a job for a francophone lady in Yaounde and when she learned we were from Buea we chatted for over thirty minutes about the Anglophone crises. This lady is connected to the who knows who at the highest levels in the government and she did not know that there is no tarred road to Bamenda after Bafoussam. To think that we have been fighting for over two years and one of the fundamental complaints of the people of the North West region that sparked the struggle is not known to someone of that status would be more shocking if ENEO was not the nightmare it is. You know what she knows though or should I say who she knows? - Shurah. Yes, Shura the Steven’s music signee-Because Shurah’s ‘Allez Dire’ was her daughters wedding song.

I know we all get twitter finger hypertension from time to time but there are certain topics and times that call for more than a half thought out 143 character opinion that usually turns out to be just a clout chasing parade.

The simple truth is our celebrities are selfish. They only do things that benefit them. Even when they claim to speak up for the people, they are just on a PR stunt mission. I have never seen a celebrity around here do anything close to risky to raise awareness on any societal problem. We all know that there is really freedom of speech in Cameroon and we also know that talk will never walk.As far as our celebrities are concerned, hobnobbing is the hallmark of their interactions with high ranking government officials and their entitled kids.

I have seen Mr Leo, Blanche Bailey, Daphne, Jovi etc all wearing free frechkind gear. Do they even care to research and know anything about the people behind that brand? No, they are just happy they got free stuff and they get to associate with the top guns in the country.

The more I think about it, I am of the opinion that all these celebrities should just sit down and not be heard. They don’t need to change now because they will not come upon with anything genuine. When you think about the content of the work that made most of them famous in the first place, there is not much you can expect from them. This is a country where Nathalie Koah and Coco Emilia are guests of honor at the parties of state officials - go figure!

Very soon we will hear that Biscuit de Merde is a UN Ambassador for peace and we will celebrate and call my type who refuse to see the correlation haters. Maybe we do deserve another term of Biya.

Now, not everybody is supposed to be versed with all things and that is why even presidents work with advisors. If you are a celebrity and you really want to use your platform to do something unselfish, you should at least be able to identify people who you can talk to and team up with to do something positive. Maybe you can meet with presidential hopefuls and propose to help with their campaigns if they can tell you their plans and convince you that they are the right people to lead Cameroon moving forward.

There is so much that can be done. For once, let selfishness have a bad day at the market. Take some time out to read and learn a few things that can help you form better opinions.

Thanks.

- Tino Foy