As the entertainment industry suffers severely from the economic downturn of the raging COVID-19, Juju music icon, Ebenezer Obey has advised musicians to look into other avenues of making money.
In an interview with The Nation, Obey said the COVID-19 pandemic should be an eyeopener for musicians in Nigeria, adding that delving into other streams of income is a must for them to have financial stability.
While noting that musicians can commit their finances into many businesses with the kind of money they make, Obey pitched musicians to take advantage of agriculture, saying it’s the new oil.
His words; “We have been hearing that in foreign countries, arrangements are made for palliatives for the entertainment industry. In Germany for instance, they don’t miss the good times because their finances have been cushioned at this period by the government. If musicians are working, of course, they would be able to take care of themselves. It is unfortunate that we don’t have that kind of orientation in Nigeria, and COVID-19 has now become an eye-opener for all musicians.
“I had been saying it in time past that musicians should have alternative means of livelihood. With the kind of money they make, they could go into agriculture; it is the in-thing. Agriculture provides me food. It is a sector that can admit everybody. There are several ways of being part of the sector. You can be in the farming aspect or in the processing part of agriculture. Oil is going out gradually and agriculture is the present and the future.”
