Dear Pera Award organizers, congratulations on another event yesterday, the 5th edition again brought glamour with the array of Nollywood superstars you brought to Ibadan for the event.
Your effort to celebrate OAPs in Oyo state for 5 straight years is also highly commendable but I would like to write on a few things and would be glad if you can take your time to read this with an open mind without attaching any emotions to it. I don’t know whatever anyone might have told you about me in the past or whatever issues we might have had in the past, just take this as a message from the sincere heart of a major shareholder in this industry moat, especially in our dear Oyo state apart from being an OAP on Fresh FM, Nigeria which is one of the biggest brands In Nigeria, i am a former executive member of OYO SWAN and I have also personally organized the Oyo state sports media award for 3 years before I rested it for personal reasons. so permit me to say, I am qualified to write to you on this issue.
You have a great vision to celebrate ‘us” in Oyo state and no doubt your style of organizing the event has made it one of the top-notch events in this city but generally speaking, this event can be better and I hope you can make the 6th edition better than the previous ones you’ve had.
My first observation is that it’s wrong to subject your nominees to begging their fans to vote for them. it’s absurd to have the most celebrated OAPs in this land go on air or social media and beg for votes which is not even free. you likened the Pera Award to the grammy award and Oscar award, have you seen the grammy award organizers telling the nominated musical artists to tell their fans to vote for them? was it Nigerians that voted for Burna Boy when he won the grammy? have you ever seen the Oscar award organizers tell our movie superstars to beg the audience to vote for them? what about the AMVCA award where 21 “key categories” are decided by a panel of judges and not by public voting? what about even the headies award here in Nigeria? have you ever seen Messi or Ronaldo begging national team captains and coaches to vote for them for the Ballon D’or award? it’s wrong not only because it ridicules the nominees, any award that is given based on the number of public votes is highly controversial and the best may not always win. so, in other to stay away from all controversy, the organizers should select winners instead of asking the public to decide as long as you have highly tested and trusted men and people of integrity as your jury to decide winners. an established nominated OAP that has won several awards in and outside the country, that you intend to celebrate can never be begging for votes for the Pera award, a young and up and coming OAP can do that though
I know you want to make money through the voting process, please get corporate sponsors who can trust your event and key into it. as a matter of fact, any award organizers that decide winners through “payment for a vote” should never be taken seriously.
- If you insist you want to use a voting process to decide your winners, please be transparent enough to release how people voted after your event to give credibility. let’s know who voted for who, Ballon D’or organizers have always done this, the newly introduced Primus media award in Oyo state did the same thing but I have never seen this from you guys in the last 5 years. you can prove me wrong if I am
- Don’t commercialize the award plaques – don’t sell for the highest bidder, let the best man win even if he can not afford to buy a bottle of coke. I have heard a lot about this and it’s really disturbing. did you notice that the top radio stations couldn’t offer you a media tour before the event? it may be as a result of total lack of trust in your selection process or other personal reasons and the fact that only 5 out of more than 30 radio stations in Ibadan appeared on your banner speaks volumes on this and it is not surprising that none of the top-rated stations identified with your brand now.
- Please introduce the best English sports category award – I have been told you left out this category because of me for the past 5 years thereby depriving well-deserving guys to win this category. I was told you would rather not do the category than to nominate Kenny or me winning the category because of some issues I had with the man that brought you to Oyo state(well this might be wrong but you have to convince me though)
it might interest you to know that I won my first ever award as the best English sports presenter in Oyo state 9 years ago and it was given to me by a respected and professional organization(Oyo SWAN). since that time I have won more than 7 different awards in the state, in fact, I have rejected some nominations as well after telling the organizers to consider the younger ones. my target is a national award now that my radio station has covered the whole of South West including the city of Lagos – the centre of excellence. so I am unfazed with your Pera award, so pls leave me out of your nomination and let other guys win
Finally, once again I congratulate you on another success, and congrats to all your winners. 2022 is almost here again and we expect to see a grammy-like event in Ibadan, not only by the venue and personalities but with the selection process of worthy winners.