I Have A Commitment To Uplift the Best Creatives From The South South – Newton Arunaye

In an Interview with Guardian Newspaper – 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 Nigerian entertainment industry. This comes as he called for more support from stakeholders in the industry to provide more opportunities for the pool of talents 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 South-South . Speaking exclusively with Guardian Entertainment, The Engineering graduate turned media personality shed more light on the reason that fuels his commitment.

“There’s serious disparity in media coverage of the Nigerian entertainment industry which has made other regions seem less competitive and viable for investments”, he says. Arunaye also added that talents from the Western part of the country are given more media and corporate support than those from other regions even in cases where they are clearly less talented.

Speaking highly about the abundance of talents from the South-South, the award-winning media personality hailed the region as most creative region in Nigeria which has produced the biggest stars in all spheres of the entertainment industry including music, film, comedy and the arts. He continues; “A lot of our talents have had to move out to search for greener pastures, however not many make it out there because the change of environment of the cruelty of the system, but be that as it may, we remain the biggest contributor 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 home grown 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 audience 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.