Arunaye set to lift creatives from South South

Delta State-born media entrepreneur, Newton Arunaye, has spoken of his desire to continually help deserving youths from the South-South region of Nigeria to attain success in the entertainment industry.

This comes as he called for more support from stakeholders in the industry to provide more opportunities for the pool of talents that abound in the oil-rich region.

Arunaye, popularly known as Chief Legit, is behind the online entertainment news and lifestyle platform Legit9ja. The platform is reputable for mainly projecting emerging and reputable content creators from the region.

The engineering graduate turned media personality to sheds more light on the reason that fuels his commitment.

“There’s a serious disparity in media coverage of the Nigerian entertainment industry, which has made other regions aside from the West appear less competitive and viable for investments,” he said.

Arunaye added that talents from the Western part of the country have enjoyed more media and corporate support than those from other regions.

Speaking highly about the abundance of talents from the South-South, the award-winning media personality described the region as one of the most creative regions in the country, which has produced big names in all spheres of the entertainment industry including music, film, comedy and the arts.

He continued, “a lot of our talents have had to move out to search for greener pastures, however, not many make it, because of the culture shock that comes from change in environment and the system, that is not enabling, be that as it may, we remain one of the biggest contributors to Nigeria’s creative industry.”

Arunaye further encouraged other broadcast and online media platforms within the region to show more support for talents within the vicinity rather than relegating them to the background.

He said: “If our artistes and creatives get more airplay and TV slots, they will be more exposed to the audience which will translate to them getting booked for their services because the industry is all a game of numbers.”

He also added that there’s no difference in the quality of the content being created by the homegrown creators in comparison to the so-called big names who come in to rake millions in the South-South.

Lastly, he called on local businesses in the region and major national brands who seek to connect with their target audiences to engage more local talents and media platforms who speak the language and understand the culture of the people in other to maximise the visibility of their products or services.