Should Nigerian Recorded Music Be Banned In The Cameroons? (Comments From A January 2021 Online Cameroonian Talk Show)

DcodedTV Show, Jan. 18, 2021

The conversation gets heated when C.Y International, Comedian and actor, calls for the ban of Nigerian music in Cameroon, saying they have refused to open their market and media space to embracing other music from other African nations.

Music star Stanley Enow was also spotted early January pleading with local DJs to prioritize local music over Nigerian music at Cameroonian events.

This week, we invite Phillbill Beats, music artist / producer and Prince Mykel Enobi, founder of Empire Company on the Table to help answer these two pertinent questions:

1. Is Nigeria obliged to consume Cameroonian music?

2. Given that Nigeria is Africa's leading entertainment nation, is her market and media open enough to embracing other African music?

What's your thought? **** Edited by Azizi Powell This pancocojams post presents a compilation of some comments from a January 2021 YouTube video of a Cameroonian talk show. In this particular edition of that talk show, the host and guests discuss the call that has recently been made by some Cameroonian entertainers to ban or limit Nigerian recorded music in Cameroon.

The content of this post is presented for historical and socio-cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners. Thanks to all those who are associated with this featured talk show and thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post. -snip- Note that Cameroon is located next to the West African nation of Nigeria. Some sources categorize Cameroon as being in West Africa, while other sources categorize that nation as being in Central Africa.

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S COMMENT
The discussion thread for this YouTube video has lots of very informative comments in which Nigerian commenters share their memories of the recorded music that was heard and performed in Nigeria prior to Afrobeats. These memories include many references to recorded music from the Cameroons, the Congo, Ghana and other African nations as well as recorded music from the United States, and the Caribbean.

Added Feb 19, 2021: Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/02/nigerians-remember-recorded-music-from.html for the pancocojams post entitled "Nigerians Remember Recorded Music From Non-Nigerians That Was Popular In Nigeria Before Afrobeats".

There are also a lot of comments about music in contemporary Nigeria (including music from outside of Nigeria) and music in other African nations. I encourage people who are interested in these subjects to read some or all of that loooong discussion thread. 

According to what I've heard (from YouTube videos) and read on this and on YouTube other discussion threads and from online articles)  this topic is really trending now throughout Africa and among many Africans living outside of that continent.

I'm African American. I used to know some Nigerians (in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), but have lost contact with them. I've never met any Cameroonians.

I'm much more familiar with Nigerian music than Cameroonian music and I'm leaning much more toward Nigerians' position on this topic than Cameroonians' positions (as I understand them). 

That said, I tried to present examples reflect all of the comments that I read on that discussion thread from Nigerians and Cameroonians. It should be noted that, although that YouTube video is from the Cameroon, and the talk show's host and guests are all Cameroonian, most of the comments in that video's discussion thread that I read* were from Nigeria.

*I read A LOT of the comments in that discussion thread and stopped reading only because my computer wouldn't load anymore pages.  

I also read comments in some other discussion threads on this topic. For the most part, the comments that are archived in this pancocojams post are similar to the comments on those other discussion threads.

With the exception of two Cameroonian recording artists and one Nigerian recording artists, I didn't add any information about the recording artists who are named in these comments.  

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SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THIS DISCUSSION THREAD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX1oSxiZnuQ&t=401s&ab_channel=DcodedTVShow

These comments are given in relative chronological order with the oldest dated comments given first, except for replies. 

All of these comments were published between Jan. 18th and Feb. 17, 2021. 

Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.

[A few additional comments from those dates were added on Feb 19, 2021.] 

1. bokossah scott
"Cameroonian music needs support to grow. Its not about getting better music  because  these guys are making great music. Support them . That is what they need.nigeria did the same thing to finally get their music to the level its at."

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2. Sumit Productions .Cameroon
"Phill said it all . The base of every song is the sound . Look at Fally ipuppa he still does Rumba in a modernised way and we listen to it . Let's go back to the sound . Be Proud made us proud because of the sound . Let's go back to the sound . Another thing is lack of internal competition in the music industry . The only competition we know is between Stanley and Jovi which is still not a competition it's hate.80% 20% is only practice at Crtv"
-snip-
Stanley (Stanley Enow) "is a Cameroonian rapper, radio and TV presenter, and voice actor. He is the co-owner of the record label, Motherland Empire.[5][6] Enow is best known for his 2013 single "Hein Père".[1] He was the first Cameroonian to win in the Best New Act category at the 2014 MTV Africa Music Awards.[7][8]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Enow

"Ndukong Godlove Nfor (born 24 October 1983), known by his stage name Jovi, is a Cameroonian rapper, songwriter, sound engineer, entrepreneur, and record" producer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jovi_(musician)

Crtv = Cameroon government sponsored radio and television station

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3.solomon obihan
"Nigeria upgraded.

They did not shut out the competition to win.

They matched the competition.

You are going nowhere with this your mentality.

At best, your music would remain in small Cameroon."

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4. John Spooke
"Even at the height of Nigerian music industry now... we still brought cardi B, rickross,j.cole and others to Nigeria some years ago. Nigerians didn't complain, we all accepted it. On another note, Nigeria's music going international is a win-win for everybody.. introducing nigerian music to the foreign world and they will be like what's happening in 🇬🇭,  🇨🇲 and other African countries.. how's their music like? Gradually it moves through Africa..  learning about their diff music."

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5. moecheeks0305
"Very interesting convo...As a Nigerian based abroad, I’ll say that I’m actually surprised that Naira Marley is big in Cameroon as most of his songs are in Yoruba language. I don’t even understand Yoruba but can attest to the fact that his music is “catchy”...As a world music lover myself, one that still loves Coupe Decale, Ndombolo, etc I’ll say that most times (and this is probably universal), people are moved by a catchy beat. Most of the Naija songs of this generation, don’t even make ANY sense at all and full of rubbish lyrics when you think about it...However, it sells because the beat is catchy and “danceable”...Jerusalema from S Africa, Parte after Parte and even Eddy Kenzo’s “Sitya Loss” are not by Nigerian artists but did well amongst Naija audiences because they were “catchy”, danceable, had a nice beat or just have a groovy vibe to them.

I think current and upcoming Cameroonian/Francophone/Other African artists should first determine their own “Sound” and target audience, then create a danceable and catchy beat either in French/Pidgin/English or a MIX and you’ll get our attention because we Naija folks just like to groove. We also have the numbers (in terms of population) and use our diversity to our advantage (that’s why we can drop a Davido, Wiz, Olamide, Burna, Flavour, Phyno, Zoro, Duncan Mighty, MC Galaxy, Ice Prince, etc) but the sky is open to ALL and I’ll enjoin all other African countries to join in, get your creative juices flowing and bring us a banger this 2021...When your product is Hot, you won’t need to beg any Dj to play your music, whether they like it or not, your audience will request it tire...I really think it’s the mix of languages that also helps our music tho, that way you kinda carry everyone along, somewhat. Abeg you guys should shock us this year with a hit, me sef wan follow groove lol. All the best 🙏🏾"
-snip-
I reformatted this comment to increase it's readability.

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6. Deep Probe
"Las Las people will always wail. No doubt Cameroonians have always had talented musicians going back to the 70s and 80s, but it appears that there is a structural problem with the entertainment industry there or lack of demand. Highest selling record in the 70s (Sweet Mother by Nico Mbarga) was by a Cameroonian but he had to come to Nigeria to realise his dreams. A lot of people have forgotten, but Nigeria had a booming music industry in the 70s/early 80s and major international record labels (EMI, Decca, Polygram, HMV, CBS etc) where present here, not to mention the countless indigenous labels in places like Lagos, Onitsha, Enugu, Benin, Aba etc. A very large number of the session musicians were from Cameroon, very talented and versatile playing genres from Highlife to Psych Rock to Funk to Reggae to Disco. In many cases they were even preferred to Nigerian session musicians because of their professionalism and work ethic. In fact, one of the biggest and most in demand record producers in Nigeria for most of the 80s was a Cameroonian (Nkono Teles). My point is that whatever that was making them run to Nigeria in the 70s and 80s is probably part of the reason why there is an apparent problem today."

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7. Ngum Abi
"Nigerians are good. Let's accept that . Cameroon is yet to get to their level. Let us work hard to get there. Even if people market you exclusively when you are not yet good enough you won't maintain the fans. Cameroonian artists go back to work and grow. Stop complaining. It's getting annoying. In the meantime I no want hear say dey don ban Nigerian music here oh. You guys should go and work on your craft."
-snip-
In response to a question, Ngum Abi wrote "I am Cameroonian.". 

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8. Wale Muse
"Rather than hate Nigerian music, do collabos and move up together. You can't get anywhere with hatred. When makosa reigned, the whole of Africa joined the party."

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9. Abbey Adeyemi
"It will happen organically. There was a time Nigerian clubs, parties, events etc played 99% American music but now it's the other way around. Eventually, you guys will have a sound and industry that you're proud of and you enjoy. Banning anyone won't solve the problem"

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10. Rito Mosume
"FT never disappoints. Great job guys.

I love the fact that you talked to Nigerians to find out what worked for them. That is what ought to do. We need to see where we are going wrong and fix it by ourselves.

One of the ways of fixing it is rather working with those who have succeeded and find out how they are succeeding rather than blaming them for our own failure.

Learn from Nigerians, use the lessons and adapt it to what works for us.

I hope this debate brings solutions than hate."
-snip-
"FT" refers to the online talk show.

** 
10. Okafor Chancellor
"Cameroon artists can invent a unique dance step with a flow. This will go a long way.

Azonto - Ghana

Skelewu - Nigeria

Coupé decoulé - CIV"

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11. Customized Afrikan
"funny, before all those sh-ts*, cameroon had Makossa and many others"
-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out in this comment.

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12. Okafor Chancellor
"@Customized Afrikan yes it was though Makossa didn't hit the continent like Coupé Decalé, Ndombolo, Soukous, Azonto, etc."

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13. tbg
"@Okafor Chancellor lol. Didn't hit the continent like Coupe Decale, Ndombolo Soukous, Azonto? What a good joke. Coupe Decale (and mainstream Nigerian Afrobeat) were literally build mainly on Makossa. I'd say that Makossa hit the continent quite a bit."

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14. Marvs Scott 
"Cameroonian artist needs to copy what makes Nigerian music booms and link up with it.

We all see how Nigerian artist promote themselves hyping their fans, create awards winning challenges for fans,

They relate with the fans even in comedy skits.

Are Cameroon artist doing this, once they become a little famous and got some money , they start looking down on everybody.

Just accept Nigerians are good in entertaining, link up with them, copy what they do and modify to your taste.

In life we all need somebody to lean on"

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15. Gehern Gehern
"You are talking  about Stanley Enow and Burnab b , Nigerians have supported theirs , that's why he's he's where he's today , but you guys spend your time belittling your artists and expect them to grow like others."
-snip-
I;m not sure whether Gehern Gehern is from Cameroon or Nigeria. It appears that people responding to his comments did so as though he was representing Cameroon. However, when Gehern Gehern wrote that "Nigerians have supported their [recording artists]. "He" in that sentence refers to Burna Boy and I think that "You guys ....belittling your artists..." refers to Cameroonians.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burna_Boy : "Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu (born 2 July 1991), known professionally as Burna Boy, is a Nigerian singer, songwriter,[1][2] rapper and dancer. He is one of the biggest and most successful African artists"...

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16. Monkeybizz99
"@Gehern Gehern Bro, you are too small minded and discriminiting. We vs them thinking is holding up Africa in it's development. Besides,  open competition is what bring you to next level not that village mentality and pitiful rivalry. Nigerian artists compete and collaborate with eachother.  That's what brought them where they are today. If African societies will emulate this attitude Africa as a whole will eventually become the centre of the world and will be respected. So stop this pitiful rivalry bro.

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17. We Africa
"@Gehern Gehern bro when stanley came with hein pere the hole nation of cameroun supported the song but since then just name a big hit he made ........ he hasn't progress since then he makes primary school kids music ..... Nigerians like burna who started almost same period as enow have progress he has been supported by Nigerian and keep progressing and today he has won the support of all African who dance and enjoy his music ..... he does educative songs "monsters u made" love song "on the low " songs to dance to "killing them etc..... how will u not support what is good ...... u don't gain a larger public to like ur music by canceling competition instead is by beating competition. There was a time in Africa Nigerians where dancing to Makossa ...... ndombolo today they are at the top ...

.. tomorrow it might be Zimbabwe Zambi etc......"

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18. Serero Serera
"@Gehern Gehern content restriction isn’t realistic in this day and age because of social media and youtube. Cultivate excellence and collaboration among yourselves, the rest will come."

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19. Opeyemi opeyemibababishop
"@Serero Serera foreign music not african music.....was ban in nigeria check ur fact"

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20. Daniel R
"@Gehern Gehern I’m Nigerian and u said Nigeria placed a restriction on foreign contents in the early 2000. Well I’ve never heard of that but even if it’s true, it doesn’t work. In Nigeria, we listen to foreign music. A lot not just few. From makossa, awilo, one corner, jerusalema, Partey after partey, sakodie, Diamond. These people and songs were and is still popular in Nigeria. This is just a few I mentioned though. Now, if that so called restrictions were in place, why was all these songs and artist big in Nigeria? Bro, Nigerians would listen and vibe to any good music. The problem with black people always pull other blacks down the ladder but a white man would push his fellow white up that ladder."

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21. Daniel Witse
"@Gehern Gehern That’s a lie, Nigerians never restricted any foreign contents they only went to their drawing board to learn how to competitive with the foreign contents, they still play all foreign music in their clubs and parties they never look down on any good music from other countries. I was opportune to live in the eastern part of Africa but I never hear any Cameroonian song been played at their clubs or party, they play Nigerian music, Congolese music, Jamaican music and East African music so if you ban the Dj’s from playing Nigerian music in Cameroon it still won’t change any difference but the thing your artist needs to do is go back to their drawing board and create good content. Even in francophone countries Cameroonian music isn’t making wave there,Ivory Coast,Senegal and the likes are making good musics and it’s going places but you are here focusing on Nigeria music that is not even part of your problem."

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22. Richiejay Tube
"@Gehern Gehern you are a fool if you think banning foreign music will make you global"

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23. Philip Aloha
"Stanley Enow is just looking for people to blame for his failures, he chose Nigerian artists who were not responsible for his failure. Burna Boy increased his speed and hustle, thats why he left Stanley behind."

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24. Imeh-mfon Ikon
"Sorry C.Y International or whatever he calls himself, should re-educate himself on the global progress of African songs. Last year alone, Most Nigerian clubs were playing Amapiano tunes and also most Nigerian chart topping songs imbibed amapiano sounds. If music is good there will be no question of where it is coming from. I am from Nigeria  an anglophone speaking country and i listen to one of Cameroon's biggest output in France, Tayc. If you feel intimidated by a country with over 250 different tribes please pray to God for your own country and stop being sketchy. 

Simple, kindly push for indigenous support which has and will never be a bad thing but pushing people to not listen or foreign artistes is poverty mentality."

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25. Coal Press Nation
"Funny thing, Amapiano has been exiting under Deep House music for years in South Africa and it took my country Nigeria to start vibing to it in 2020 fully, remember Niniola has always been doing it but today, every Nigeria artist started releasing Ama type music, for the time being, and we still fused Afro-Beat to make it Afro-Amapiano and if care is not taking we make that sound globally recognized. South Africans will come for us, instead of saying Thank You

.Just like how Davido song Fall took Afro-Beat into the global market and made Kiddominant the first Afro-Beat 2x Platinum-selling producer in Nigeria or Africa, which made him relocated to USA. Yet Burna Boy will never acknowledge Davido for that, they keep fighting him. This is pure fact, google search. The longest charted Afro-Beat song on a billboard world chart.”…

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26. Nelo Edeh
"You can't ban it on youtube and on the internet 😋😋😋😋"

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27. olayiwola segun 
"Let me tell you, how Nigerian music are so popular. In the late 90s/2000, there is an agency called Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), they made a new law that all Nigerian TV/radio stations should play 70% local content and it paid off. Nigerian musicians also worked on themselves.

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28, Johnson Emmanuel
"@olayiwola segun Is that the same reason Nigeria music is popular worlwide?  is that reason Tekno music is played in the Spanish Antena 3 Tv  programme(Hormiguero) ?  or other shopping malls outside Nigeria."

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29. olayiwola segun
"@Johnson Emmanuel if you read the last part of my (sub)comment it has answered your question. The govt gave them the platform to be accepted by Nigerian audience, I could remembered how all Nigerian stations in Lagos played Nigerian music 24/7 and we heard less of American music. The artistes and music moguls used this platform that was already created by the govt and worked on it. As at mid-2000 Nigerian artistes like 2face, Tony Tetuila and some artistes started collaborating with  Bennie Man from Jamaica, Reggie Rockstone , Tic Tac and  VIP from Ghana, Awilo Longomba and other artistes from Africa/other part of the world. The social media also made Nigerian music more popular."

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30. Johnson Emmanuel
"@olayiwola segun  Nigerian music have  always been played  in nigerian stations  and radios , it did not start in 2000. The reason Nigeria music gain global acceptance is because ,  they improved  on the quality and productions. not because of NBS crap. that is my point bro."

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31. olayiwola segun
"@Johnson Emmanuel Aside Fuji music, Juju, Reggae music and other traditional musicsthat were popular then. The new crop of afro-pop artistes now afrobeat artistes, were they popular in the 90s? The youth (our elder brothers and sisters) listen to mostly American artistes like Micheal Jackson, Whitney Housten ,Tony Braxton, Boys2men, Tina Turner, 2pac, B.I.G and many more. Even Kenny Ogungbe said the same thing in one of his interview back then, the local content helped out. Even Joey Akan said the same thing in this interview."

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32. Johnson Emmanuel
"@olayiwola segun ok i get your point. u bam"

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33. HILLCREST PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
"Joey Akan is talking rubish.. Nigeria doesnt even have a government let alone one that regulates content.. Everything in Nigeria is imported including the petrol we produce.. All that talk about government regulation is nonsense"

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34. Ola Delano
"Perhaps it will help if the Cameroon artists understands how the Nigerian music industry developed, it didn't happen overnight. One key thing that aided the rebirth of the Nigerian music industry was the issuance of radio licenses and subsequently tv licenses to the private sector. It changed the game."

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35. Menjali Alino
"one of the first solution comes from the national broadcasting board."

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36. enow de muller
"Cameroonian music doesn't circulate out of Cameroon.  What is to be done to make Cameroon music go viral."

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37. ib
"The best thing would have been to collaborate with Nigerian artists like South Africans and Ghanians"
-snip-
..."collaborate with Nigerian artists like South Africans and Ghanaians" [have done/are doing].

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38. N A
"Why don’t u modernize makossa??"

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39. itxOrange Gamer
"@manda zeynabi don't take it personally. Cameroonian music is trash that's why no one outside Cameroonians listen to it.

20 years ago, Nigerians didn't like Nigerian songs. They were vibing to American music, Jamaican music and other quality songs from other countries. It took some serious investments from Nigerians to grow the industry into what it is today. Nigerians living abroad learned new and modern ways of making music as opposed to the old and outdated way. They moved to the software era. This changed everything! Today Nigerian songs can compete against the best produced in the world. Nigerian government didn't have to ban anything. Mind you, people still listen to American and Jamaican songs that are of good quality.

Your music producers need to learn the modern ways of doing music. You'll be shocked at how good their songs would sound not just to Cameroonians, but also to other people around the globe.

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40. Cliff Chime
"@manda zeynabi. But we play music from SA, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya and Other Africa countries. Cameroon should work hard on their Music."

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41. eseul unique
"Why don't say cameroon should ban everything nigerian? This is so shameful. You cannot blame others for your shortcomings and lack of innovations. The panel did a great job identifying the issues they need to work on. Thnk you guys for your input"

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42. Walter Taminang
"I am a Cameroonian who lived and studied in Nigeria for close to a decade. I am so vexed, disappointed and ashamed of this xenophonic, misguided talk from my Cameroonian brothers. This is all jealousy. From my experience living and working in Lagos, I believe Nigerians are among the most hard-working, talented and  innovative people on this planet. I owe most of my values today thanks to my stay in Nigeria. I am what I am today thanks to the values I imbibed in.Nigeria including hardwork, industriousness, can-do spirit and believe in ones' self. Like them or hate them, you simply cannot ignore Nigeria. Nigerians and their artists understand life is hard and that one has to toil hard to make a living. Cameroonians have to get rid of this foolish sense of entitlement as if anyone owes them favors. They should do their homework instead of complaining like spoiled kids. Take it or live it, Nigeria is the giant of Africa that is awakening. And Nigerian music has come to stay 'ban' or no ban. This nonsense has to stop. Over."

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43. Muna Victoria
"Nigerians listen to good music,just up your game,the other day one of our local radio stations was playing dynamite a song by BTS from south korea,you should also know that we listen saulti sol from kenya,eddy kenzo from Ugada,kidi and Eugene from Ghana and host of others...Nigerian never discriminates when it comes to any music..."

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44. Khalifa Ashiru Danliman
"Mr white shirt and tie, no government intervenes with our music industry in Nigeria. In fact policies don't work in Nigeria, we never banned or limited American music in Nigeria, we had our artist upgraded their level.

When Nigerians were listening to alot of American raps, we had people like M.I abaga that decided to give us the American vibes in a local way, they fused the american and nigerian culture into 1. And we evolved from there we upgraded our music quality. We gave structure to the industry and so on.

We vibed to makossa as though it was our own, when I was young I actually thought Awilo logomba was Nigerian.

You people should learn from diamond 7 years ago fiamong featured davido in one of the biggest East/West african collabo, that collabo literally brought diamond from being a local champion in his swahili district to being listened across the continent, years later he did it with p square, flavour, tiwa, burna, kizz Daniel, patoranking and so on. He tends to feature the trending nigerian artist. Recently he jumped on a nigerian naira marley sound on baba lao, one of the biggest track of 2019 jeje was produced by a nigerian dj kel p. Through him alot of people now listen to harmonize, rayvanny even eddy kenzo.

What's happening now is that he is competing on the same level with the likes of wizkid, davido and burna boy.

So if your people prefer to listen to naira marley music, feature him and from there it will be a building block to take your music to other parts of africa."

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45. We Africa
"I am a cameroun pure but I don support this BS how can we even think of saying such if cameroun music today is not able to compete at the top level with other countries music then let them get back to the lab and do some good work. Stanley enow to me is the biggest disappointment in cameroun music industry this dude won an MTV award with hein pere  as the best revelation in front of burna boy who was the runner up and take a look today at both of them burna boy is a world class star making hits that even Chinese dance to it he when back and work hard but that stanley enow who won when to sleep and has not made a hit like hein pere since then ............... music is a language that you can force people to like when you are good people will love you music but when u suck don blame others. If we should ban Nigerian music we should ban American music too, french rap , ndombolo , couper decaler etc............ that is [profanity deleted]"

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46. Judwin Ndzo
"True talk"

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47.Official Mr MAGAJI
"U should learn from Tanzanian and ghanian they are collaboration with Nigerians looks how they are now diamond, shata wale, rayvanny, harmonize, stone bwoi, e.t.c"

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48. emmanuel sheshi
"How about awilo logomba? Do you know how big he was ? He's music still has a great impact on our music... Why is this an issue? 

This is their time, trust me it will pass... Encourage your artists to put in work. sound is a global language, there is nothing like our sound... Good sound is good sound...  Take the challenge! take responsibility... Africa don pass this stage na!!!

Nigerians are also taking up the tech space as welldoing exploits in the finance sector all driven by pure hustle men!!!.

This is  because the suffering is so real right here. We Nigerians provide everything for ourselves. The government is  doing nothing. Electricity, health care, water ,security, education etc. We don't even know if we have a president.. it's really bad here. The hardness of life in nigeria makes us give it everything we've got just to survive men...

This should is not a competition... It should be a contribution.

Please collaborate and stop hating..."

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49. Teslar Stewart
"Do u guys realize that Djs can’t play u guys music all night because it kill ppl vibes not everyone wants to dance to love music all night  long come with pepper and ginger music that’s my advice as a Jamaican I love makosa"

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50. Muna Victoria
"Nigerians listen to good music,just up your game,the other day one of our local radio stations was playing dynamite a song by BTS from south korea,you should also know that we listen saulti sol from kenya,eddy kenzo from Ugada,kidi and Eugene from Ghana and host of others...Nigerian never discriminates when it comes to any music..."

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51. Femi Adebimpe
"Many years ago, the best Nigerian artistes and leading Ad agencies started going to South Africa to shoot their videos. There was a huge uproar in the creative industry in Nigeria because they were not patronizing their own.

Two classes of people emerged from that uproar. Those who were trying to ban what was obviously better output in the name of patriotism and those who raised their game up to match and better the South Africans at the game. The latter are still in business and commanding higher fees for video projects. Those who waited for a banning and government intervention are now dinosaurs.

That is a lesson to people like this. You are a dinosaur and will soon be extinct if you don't adapt to the realities of the time.

The mobile phone and the internet has opened the world up to choices. If your content can't compete, you are about to become extinct."

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52. Nnamdi George
"Respect! One love. Good music cannot strive for the audience. Raise the bar, we are here to follow. Fire the Bars - get the fans."

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53. Nsong Antoine

"My 2 cents:

Nigerian music keeps dominating because of the free flow of talents that is happening there. Several years ago the likes of flavour and iyanya dominated the music, today they are many new faces coming and going everyday. The likes of fireboy, starboy etc..

But in Cameroon we don't have that same dynamism. Many Nigerian celebrity artists of standing try and recruit younger talents everyday as a commercial and artistic strategy.

Yet Stanley snow  of the days of dbanj is still seeking to be in front of cameras today, when the likes of olamide have opened up studios to younger artistes already."
-snip-
[Corrected name] Stanley Enow is a singer from the Cameroon

Olamide= a singer from Nigeria

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54. Ifeoma Ogoegbunam
"Nigerians listen to Ghana South African Tanzanian Ugandan music and that’s because they all make good music simple...no one will block their ears to good music or force themselves to listen to bad music because they’re from a certain region"

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55. Uwem Udoh
"Hi Joan, while I appreciate and understand CY International’s patriotic stand, it’s unfortunate he doesn’t appreciate the geo-political composition of Nigeria. The South West/North West Cameroon has a population of about 1.8 million while Nigeria is about 205 million, but he talks about Nigeria as one big city.

Nigeria is divided into states and we are bounded by 4 countries so we have Benin Republic in the west, Niger to our North, Chad to our North East and Cameroon to the East, and so our knowledge and affiliation to this neighbouring countries depends on which state you’re from. You don’t expect someone in Ogun or Oyo states to know much about Cameroon compare to someone from Cross River or Akwa Ibom States.

Therefore, Nigerians in the west have closer ties/affiliation with people in Benin and even Ghanaian than people in Cross River, same situation in the North.

So when CY complains about going to a club in Lagos and expecting to hear Cameroonian music, I think his misses the point. I would rather advice Cameroonians to try to break into the Nigerian market through Cross River, Akwa Ibom and then Rivers and other Eastern states.

One of your star artist Tzy Panchak is half Nigerian and he schooled in Calabar with a population of about 500,000, he could have used Cali where he schooled as a “lunch pad” into the Nigerian market and I believe he knows how things are done here in Naija.

We have thousands of young artists dreaming to “Blow”, no one is going to give anyone a free pass, this industry is not a “walk in the park”…
-snip-
“lunch pad”= typo for launch pad

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56. oludare ishola
"Nigerians will vibe to any good music but the bar is  very high at home. You must be a genius to break through Nigerian music industry.  Our artists are world class. And they roll with the best around the world. Beyonce,  jazzy, Akon, kadiB, Chris Brown just to mention few.  Burna Boy nominated for Grammy twice in the last two years.Good luck to Cameronian artists."

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Reply
57. Nala Bala
"Thank you for this. I worked in the industry, all the big Music directors went to Film School in SA, bought better equipment and trained their crews. That brought the music video industry back home. Nobody waited for any ban because it was pointless."

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58. Adeyemi Akinkunmi
"Am an African, Nigeria to bespecific. You see here we don't discriminate wherever the music may comes from once it's good we listen, we enjoy. Nasty C is from South Africa and I love the guy music. Sarkodie shatta and wale are from Ghana, we listen to their music. Let your artiste make good music secure a collarbo with any Nigerian artist and wait if he/she won't be heard."

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59. Luqman Adebayo
"The rant was unnecessary. If they are smart enough, their top star in Cameroon should collaborate with top Nigerians and other top African stars to build a brand and enhance followership.

It is daft to say ban Nigeria music in the presence of social media and digital tv.

There was a time when we listen to makossa and magic system for year's and in recent time kona, Jerusalema etc.

Our music is been exported worldwide including the Americans who love it so much.

We Nigerian love good music"

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60. Chima Macdonald Nwachukwu
"I don't know what Joey Akan is taking about. There where never laws banning foreign  music in Nigeria. Nigerian music industry is successful simply because Nigerians  appreciate good music from anywhere in the world. Nigerians simply biorriw from other cultures  and make something good from it."

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kingsley monikang
"You can not ban Nigerian music in Cameroon, I believe Cameroon artists need to make their own unique sound different from Nigeria/Ghana sound or make better music. A DJ has to play what the crowd demands especially at a party/club. So if Nigerian music moves the crowd more then that's the sound he/she the DJ should play. As for an event planner, the goal is to make money so if the Nigerian artist brings you more money then that's the artist they should invite as the main act and maybe some Cameroonian artist as well. That being said there are some Cameroon artists who make great music (Fhish, Salatiel, Blaise B, Blanche Bailey, Magasco etc). Cameroon has a unique sound that ruled Africa back in the 70's, 80's, 90's called Makossa. Nigeria and Ghana had no sound then. Cameroon can regain that by creating their own unique sound. Thats my take!"

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Emmy James
"What Phill is saying is the truth, the younger generation should start by bringing back the Makosa sound that was what got the Nigerian artists where they are today, back in the days we opposed the American hip hop then Ghanaians started the Afro pop revolution and the Nigerians picked it and ran with they didn't fight against Ghanaian music like the Cameroonians are doing now. Don't fight us, Learn from us we Nigerians are loud and proud and the whole world knows it.✊🏾❤🇬🇭❤🇳🇬❤🇨🇲"

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61. petit americain
"The world is a global village. If your product is nice,  The world will consume it. Nigerian Music is played all over the world.  It's their time and the best u can do is to tap from it and better yourself. Awilo from congo was celebrated in Nigeria at his peak and Nigerian Musicians like P. Square and many others colabor with him. Same goes to Fally Ipupa, Dj Arafat of blessed memories and many others from other African countries. U have to learn how to collaborate and not compete. Pls Stop the Hate, its well over due . We're in 2021"

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