On a night when Nigerian music stars shone and sparkled at the Channel O Music Video Awards held last Friday, at the Sandton Convention Centre, South Africa, the Koko Master, D’banj, was avoidably absent. His absence was even more noticeable because apart from being a nominee, he was due to be honoured with a Special Recognition Award.
Channel O Africa Manager, Leslie ‘Lee’ Kasumba, had said prior to the event, "It’s really an honour for us to be celebrating an artiste such as D’banj for this year’s Special Recognition Award. Besides the obvious success that D’banj has had, one of the stand out factors is that his career, his success and his path run parallel with the growth that we have seen in the African music industry since the inception of the Channel O Video Music Awards. To us, he represents a breed of African urban artistes who are the African dream."
Other artistes that have been so honoured include George Lee, Brenda Fassie and K’Naan.
Sadly, D’banj could not make the trip, necessitating the organisers to promptly arrange for a recorded acceptance speech which was relayed at the event. Speculations had been rife on the day of the event that the multimillionaire entertainer would not make the event because he was given an economy class ticket. Early in the week, his media minders issued a statement on the true state of events.
They say "D’banj did not attend Channel O awards because he could not fly the night he was billed to travel. He was placed on waiting list for a Business Class seat. But on getting there, he and his crew discovered (that) there was no seat available for D’banj. All efforts to get him to fly that night proved abortive. This happened on a Friday, a day before the show and the next flight to South Africa was Saturday night, the night of the show."
The statement reads further, "Consequently, D’banj could not attend. We want to state categorically that D’banj had no issues and still does not have any issue with the awards organisers. He was even willing to fly Economy if there was an available seat because he had cancelled other engagements just to attend the show. He was as disappointed as all his fans looking forward to see him at the show that was why he stayed indoors to watch it on TV. Both the star and the awards organisers have moved on, having all realised the issues that made it impossible for D’banj to be at the show."
Apart from the special recognition award, D’banj still picked the award for Most Gifted Male Video for the Mr Endowed remix featuring Snoop Dogg. D’banj’s absence, however, did not take the shine off the event as Nigeria was still well represented.
Not only was R n B singer, Banky W, commended for being a good co-host, Nigeria went home with a bagful of awards. Darey won the Most Gifted Dance Video for Ba Ni Ki Di as Naeto C also picked the statuette for Most Gifted African West Video for 10 Over 10. Ice Prince got the award for Most Gifted New Comer video for Oleku, while Banky W’s collaboration with M.I, Feeling It, won him the award for Most Gifted R n B Video.
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