Critics are attacked more than celebrities

There is no love for a critic out here. No one likes a critic. There are no standing ovations for critics. It’s a cold and thankless job.

In Nigeria it is even worse. Overseas critics are even regarded as people of knowledge and intelligence. In this dear country of ours critics are easily tagged as ‘

Read more: Sarkodie hits hard at critics

The Nigerian society does not allow for scrutiny. You can’t scrutinize a popular person, a politician or a celebrity. Once you criticize a politician or celebrity then you are seen as a bad person or an enemy of progress.

Who is a critic by the way? According to Cambridge Dictionary a critic is “someone whose job is to give their opinion about something, especially films, books, music, etc”

This is what critics do, give their opinion about a movie they've watched or an album they have heard. So, what is wrong about stating your opinion? Well, opinionated people don’t make the best of friends. People do not like opinionated people. And in a country like ours where everyone goes with the flow, someone with a different opinion isn’t everyone’s favourite. This is a reason why critics are attacked- they challenge the popular thinking of society.

You can call them rebels and intellectual outlaws. Society does not like rebels and outlaws. This is why celebrities are attacked.

Also no one likes a smart ass. We all have that friend that thinks he is smarter than everyone, and maybe he is. The fact is we hate whenever this friend shows off how smart he is. It pisses us off. To be honest critics can be smart asses who want to show off how brilliant they are. When they state their opinion about something we hate the fact they show us how not smart we are.

I remember when I wrote my review about Mavin’s group album '' in 2012. It was a scathing review and Don Jazzy’s followers slaughtered me online. To be fair maybe the album was slightly better than what I rated it but people really came out for me.

This is an album that had hits and Don Jazzy’s fans could not understand why I said the album sucked. Their general consensus was it was a good album and I came up with a divergent view. I went against the prevailing thought pattern of their society.

Controversial OAP Freeze is one critic who gets constantly slayed for his blunt views on societal topics. He gets attacked over and over again because his views differ from that of the mainstream. Freeze is in support of the Religious Censor Bill in Kaduna state. Christians have attacked him for his views on this. Why? Because Freeze is going against the belief of the Christian society.

Honestly celebrities have it better than critics. At least they have awards and plaques. Critics get nothing. Their only reward is posterity because years after society agrees that a critic was right about a movie or song.