Pulse Opinion: Dear celeb it is time to smarten up

The recent trend of artistes breaking up from their labels before their contracts are up underlines the poor practice among celebs in the entertainment industry.

This week has really put the spotlight on the sad fact that our celebrities do not read contracts which is basically a silly mistake to make in 2016.

Pop acts Skales and Runtown are presently stuck in contracts they have termed as unfavourable. Much has said about their respective predicaments but at the end of the day it boils down to just one thing- they were ignorant when signing these deals.

ALSO READ: Skales, manager in police custody

Singers are not only the culprits. It is widespread in the entertainment industry. A lot of Nigerian entertainers sign deals that are not checked by entertainment lawyers. In a haste to collect a cheque they quickly sign contracts without going through them. Many of them are greedy and refuse to hire entertainment lawyers. When things go sour they now scream foul play or slave contract. The remaining others are naive and think they don't need a lawyer.

The entertainment industry in Nigeria has reached the point that you either take your business seriously or move aside. Come on guys it's 2016. Any major celebrity that does not have at least a manager and a publicist shouldn't be taken seriously. They should be seen as amateurs.

 

With the way false stories and rumours have been going around about Skales and Runtown you can clearly see that publicists have not been employed to properly control the narrative. Why a singer or an actor shouldn't have a publicist is baffling.

Don’t believe the sad tale that there isn’t money in the entertainment industry in Nigeria. A lot of them are cashing out comfortably. The problem is that they don’t invest back in their careers. They take all the money and squander everything.

ALSO READ: Runtown addresses label breakup in exclusive interview

Most of the contractual issues are from the music industry though. I don’t think the movie industry has grown enough to be aware of contracts and agreements. This however does not exempt actors and actresses in getting their houses in order. A time will come when professionalism will be the order of the day in Nollywood.

 

A lot of these legal issues arise from sloppiness and celebrities not taking care of their business properly. There are too many amateurs in this business for it to be taken properly as an industry.

Within the next few months we are more than likely to see more celebrities coming out complaining about unfair contracts. This is just a symptom of naive celebrities who do not put their houses in order.