Who on earth is proud of talking about a sin he is guilty of? The kind of sin he is not ready to repent from and one he would always claim to be the best way to succeed?
You might be looking at the guy here, that’s if you can see me, but I just have to talk about this because where I live in Imo State, it has turned out to be the major problem among entertainers and just like in the new role I have chosen, if I don’t say it, who will.
There is this popular saying that ‘If Mohammed does not go to the Mountain, the mountain will certainly go to Mohammed’. A popular saying which friends and business associates used to justify the concept of a friend in ‘NEED’. A concept where only those in need are the only ones who can make the move.
Even though ‘CHANGE’ has become the order of the day in Nigeria, we have been changing things before now and just like everyone must have said one time or the other, ‘Change is the only constant thing in nature’. It is inevitable and must always.
The Mohammed and Mountain syndrome has become the major ‘wahala’ in our industry because while people and things were changing, Uncle Mohammed and ‘Oga’ Mountain also changed and today none of them can move.
Who is the Mountain, Who is Mohammed?
Even when the Holy Bible said we can speak to a Mountain, to force it to move from one place to another, it was actually a spiritual statement which means people in Tanzania will not wake up one morning to realize that I have moved Mount Kilimanjaro to my village somewhere in Arondizuogu, Imo State.
Because the mountain can never move, the weaker persons in the entertainment web are usually termed Mohammeds, while the so called BOSSES are now like the rock of Gibraltar which can never be moved.
I am not against this Gibraltar concept but when people fill their heads with mountainous illusions; feeling they have arrived when actually their heads are empty caves where the echoes of a little sounds take a whole day to fade away.
Once they start living the BOSS life, they find it difficult to go to people they are supposed to go to. They even want people who want to do them favours to come to them, forgetting that the only reason, hospitals are never advertised is because every man must go there at the appointed time.
A full circle of guilty people
So many people inspired this article and they are all guilty of playing mountain. No one wants to be the Mohammed because we all believe that the moving guy keeps moving to the end.
A DJ said he cannot imagine an upcoming artiste thinking that the moment his song is dropped online, every DJ around the country will download it and start playing it. He went further to say that every artiste should be ready to do the needful which is taking the song to the DJ personally, because it shows the artiste is humble and will be ready to appreciate any rendered to him.
Even though they always say this about the upcoming artistes, I just wonder what they say about the stars. That will be a topic for another day.
After that speech, he turned to me and said, “Hardy it is so unfair that you no longer talk about me on your blog”
And I replied “You don’t expect me to talk about you when you are lying down in your bedroom”
And the circle continues. The DJ wants people in need of his services to come to him, but is he humble enough to go to the people he needs?
This is not just about artistes and DJs, but about entertainers generally. There is no way we can preach the humility we don’t have. There is no way we can achieve a single bit of synergy with this type of life.
And the pride goes round
It is simply pride all the way because no one wants to be used and dumped and because of that, no one will be ready to help anyone out with anything.
Even friends in the industry want to be invited with a bottle of wine to their friend’s event and even when they make contributions to his discussions, they still crave for that official invitation.
Pride goes before a fall, but gone are the days of pride. We now know it as ‘PACKAGING’ and even though it is killing us, no one really cares about that.
Entertainers both made and upcoming should know that a famous person can still be humble, living a life that is devoid of arrogance.
We should simply stop this stupid rebranding as I also heard someone say “My pride is my swag”. He thought he was rhyming, but to me he was reading his career’s funeral oration.
Can we blow of the mountain?
You can be better than everyone around you and still be the humble one amongst them. Humility is not for fools. When you merge it with good principles, no one will ever take advantage of you because they would always know that you can never fall easily.
Pride is a mountain and no matter how good you are, it will be very difficult to crush one into a level land. Proud people hardly let it go and the only thing possible here is rechanneling their strengths into something more useful.
Humility of every Mohammed is seen in the regular acceptance of his wrongs, but the mountains will always be the mountain playing god. Playing gods that live in sin.
The first place to start is accepting your wrongs when people say it, you won’t be going to jail; you will just be human. Just know that angels are not on earth so anyone could be wrong.
Mohammed is not ‘Aboki’
Now, that is very funny. And even if some people might find it offensive, we should just have a liberal mind and follow me contextually.
Mohammed is not a fool. For me to bring myself down to call everyone I know for a favour does not make me a fool or poor. Some are in the habits of eleventh hour actions. That you live in the same city with someone does not mean that you can invite him to your event the same day it is holding. Giving your colleagues a VIP treatment of early invitation and constant reminders won’t be bad at all.
Being there all the time to support people is not foolishness in any way and mind you, you can never reap from every good seed you sow; some might not make it to germination. In your good heart, you have to keep moving because it pays to be good.
I might be sounding out of Nigeria because all that everyone is doing now is to take advantage of people around them and for that, no one wants to fall victim. I will still maintain that being humble, accepting your wrongs, treating people with respect, living a life devoid of pride is not foolishness.
So if you find yourself, where you are always, the guy that is moving, always remember that Mohammed is not Aboki. One day, the Mountains will grow old and irrelevant and Mohammed will be the new mountain.
What we’ve been missing
We have been missing so much and this is not just in the entertainment industry, but in our everyday lives. When people can’t work together, they will always have little or no achievements collectively.
If as a model, I am organizing an event where I expect to have one thousand guests, if close to 20% of them are not my colleagues in the industry, then there is a very big problem. After the event, I will be counting my grudges on everyone who failed to attend, planning a revenge to the extent of discouraging people from attending their events in future.
The ‘Mountain and Mohamed Syndrome’ is a very wide cycle and I see it expanding every day because people are always ready to be proud of their wrongs, rather than accepting it, apologizing and being ready to make a change or show remorse.
You can be so smart to a bill a colleague, and when it is your turn to pay them for their services you will be looking for a way to get it for free.
Karma will never be happy with you. Because of people like this, lots of minds have been corrupted and no one wants to have anything to do with people around them anymore.
Hard way, the only way
There is no other way to cub this scourge that is tearing the industry down especially at the developing level. People in other states where entertainment is still developing often have a very wrong concept of what everything looks like.
They often misplace fantasy for reality thinking that making enemies is same as making money. No man is an island and the only way to succeed as a group is through tolerance and respect.
There are no fixed mountains nor Mohammeds; these are revolving positions and anyone could just be anything no matter their sizes and ages in the industry.
I step down to my home state again, telling everyone there, that we can never go anywhere until the so called people at the top understand that they could be Mohammed at times and like I said earlier, Mohammed is not ABOKI.
Other states and groups should learn from that. The time is now.
Chinedu Hardy Nwadike, is a novelist, blogger, newspaper columnist, he writes from Owerri, Imo State. chikinow@yahoo.com 08038704454, BBM 53247BA4
