It is 17 days to this year’s MTV Africa Music Awards (MAMA) and it is already obvious that voters would have a had time picking winners.
Its a very tight contest in most of the categories. For Nigerians especially. In categories like Listener’s choice, Best Female, Song of the year in partnership with Google, even best breakthrough. Would you choose Simi ahead of Falz or would you choose Falz ahead of Tekno? You can see it is a tough one.
However, a category of utmost concerned is the Personality of the Year Category. There are two Nigerians, two South Africans and one French-born Gabonese. There are two people from sports one musician, and two media personalities/entrepreneurs. Who will the fans vote for?
Wizkid Ayo Balogun is big in Nigeria and all over the world. He has about 2.29m followers on twitter and 2.6m others on Instagram. The 26-year-old has several endorsements in his kitty including those from top brands like Pepsi, Guinness; South African giant Telco, MTN and Nigeria’s Globacom. Apart from his numerous solo works, Wizkid has collaborated with several artistes from Nigeria and beyond, including Afrobeat master, Femi Kuti; Canadian rapper, Drake and American musician, Chris Brown. He has also don a number of tours around the world and that makes him very popular and big outside the shores of Nigeria.
Linda Ikeji is big in her home Nigeria too. She owns one of the most influential blogs in the whole of Africa. According to web statistics, her blog is worth more than a million dollars. She has slightly more than one million twitter followers and about 700k followers on Instagram. From her photos, it is obvious that she has travelled the world and met a lot of people. She is a gifted content developer who is capable of making extraordinary stories out of mere nonsense. She recently got the Nigerian social media tweeting, retweeting, posting, reposting, sharing and liking when she made a video for her 36th birthday with a wish to get a husband and have regular sex. But Linda Ikeji has got herself in the black book of a few people, including Wizkid, for some of her reports.
READ ALSO: At 36, Linda Ikeji prays to get a husband, have sex, kids
Caster Semenya is a South African athlete who became popular after she was subjected to perceived gender discrimination by sport authorities. The 25-year-old who won the Rio 2016 gold medal in 800m was subjected to sex verification test which sparked a lot of criticism on the sports body. Not withstanding, Caster Semenya has won six gold medals and two silver medals. She has about 40k twitter followers and a mere 400 IG followers. She recently got in to the black book of some people by criticizing the #feeMustFall campaign.
Pearl Thusi is a South African actress, model, radio and television personality. She hosts “Lip Sync Battle Africa” broadcast on MTV Africa and E.tv (for the South African audience) as well as Moments South Africa, broadcast on EbonyLife TV. She has a little above 700k twitter followers and 1m followers on Instagram.
Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, the French-born Gabonese international footballer, who plays club football in Germany with Borussia Dortmund is big in Gabon and among French speaking Africans. He is big among Bundesliga fans too. He has 500k tweeter followers and 2.7m IG followers. He is reportedly worth over $12 million.
Now you be the judge. Who wears the MAMA 2016 Personality of the Year Category crown? Wizkid, Linda, Caster, Pearl or Pierre?
