This morning, I got a mail from Enitan Adeshola Okesanya,
the 300-level student of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, NIJ, Ogba, whose
story of her willingness to pose nude to break into Nollywood filled various online
news media.
As I read her mail, I felt sorry for her and I begin to
wonder what Journalism is turning into in our country.
Read her full story below:
My name is Enitan Adesola Okesanya, I am a year three
student of Nigerian Institute of Journalism. I live like normal people do, I
wake up, pray, eat and carry out my daily activities, which would be to attend
lectures but everything changed one certain morning, on the first week of April
2012.
THIS IS HOW THE NUDE, BIG BANG STORY CAME ABOUT
I was approached in school by a former school mate who now
works with PM News, he said he wanted to do a story on me since I had done some
TV works, he said he wanted an interview which I granted.
In the interview he
asked me questions like why I wanted to act and what is my drive, to which I
said acting is my passion, he asked me if making money was one of the reasons
and I honestly told him that I wanted to be rich (who doesn’t want to be rich).
I trusted this certain person, I mean he never did anything to warrant
otherwise, so why won’t I give an interview to help his career (since I thought
that was what I was doing). Boy was I wrong.
When I read the interview, I realized I was a pun in his
scheme, a plaything to both him and his Editor or whoever put the title and let
the story run. There were many miss-quotes for example, I never said “I hate
poverty”, I said “I want to be rich”. They say I have gone nude to break into Nollywood,
but they are yet to show me the nude pictures they have of me. Mind you, I did
give them pictures to run with the supposed story, but they did not use any,
guess it would have deeply flawed their writing.
Addressing the issue of somebody else uplifting my name with
the story and putting naked pictures alongside it, that is an entire thing all
together. This other issue does not affect only me but affect my entire family.
I am the first child in a family of six, and I lost my father in 2010. Those of
you that are first daughters or first sons know the continuous mounting
pressure to be an example to your younger siblings. My father is DEAD and I
miss him so much, all I have of him is his name, so you see, this thing
tarnishes the name my father has worked hard to maintain (why would I want to
tarnish my late father’s name?). I do not know the real story of the nude
pictures and I do not care, I just want this sordid affair straightened out and
it not be the cause of my mom’s heart attack. One death in the family is
enough.
When this story first blew, I called the person who interviewed me and asked him why
he said I had nude pictures and twisted my words to make me sound like a bimbo,
he told me he wanted to cause a controversy. Can you imagine? A controversy at
the expense of my late father’s name, at the expense of shaming my mother.
You can check out my picture on facebook and twitter(my name
is my ID) to compare with the nude pictures, see for yourself the REAL TRUTH.
Anyway, the good I decide to take from this is that now I
know how horrible people can be to climb the success ladder. So I decided to
write this to let all of you hear me out, not only that but to share this with
millions of young girls like me who are possible victims of this kind of scam,
so that they can learn from what has been done to me IN THE NAME OF JOURNALISM.
I have be in productions like Heavens Gate, were I
played a secretary, a niece in Dormitory 8, a maiden in the new movie I’ll
take my Chances. It is left for you to decide if I would have gotten the
jobs from these respectable directors on the projects if I had done what is
said of me. My verdict is in your hands.
But remember, before you continue to judge and throw stones
at me, put yourself in my shoes. This could have happened to YOU, YOU or even
YOU, yes, any of YOU.
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