“Why Should I Help OJB Jezreel?”

Veteran producer and artiste OJB Jezreel has turned up under the health news in the Nigerian entertainment world- a fact which, going by recent events, cannot mean anything good. Following the illnesses and deaths of several celebrities we hold dear, OJB is reported to have been suffering from a kidney ailment which has deteriorated so much that he is now in need of a kidney transplant. This is not the only dire news. Apparently, the transplant costs more than he and his family can afford (16 million naira) and he has taken to soliciting for help from his twitter fans, damning the embarrassment this may cause him. Scrolling through twitter and reading reactions, I saw one that stunned me. A young man tweeted this: It wasn’t merely the fact that someone could say that that shocked me, or the fact that OJB has three wives and what seems to be a drinking problem, no, it wasn’t that. It wasn’t even that someone had used this as a valid excuse to disqualify him of help. It was the fact that I realised his train of thinking was not alien to me, and that I was capable of thinking the same way. In fact, the realisation dawned on me that I even do it on the regular, walking past a beggar begging with his family and thinking ‘Hmph, I wouldn’t give you money because you can’t feed yourself and you brought babies into this world to suffer because you can’t feed them either’. I felt appalled that I had been judging people who needed help and entering them in some contest unwittingly, the ‘Who Deserves My Money’ contest. Who am I? So I decided that it wasn’t just enough to retweet OJB’s tweet and say prayers for him. I may not change your mind that OJB isn’t worthy of your money, but I can chip in good reasons for him why he may be. Do it because, although he may like women a little too much, remember that he produced one of the greatest love songs of our time- TuFace’s African Queen. Do it because for him to ask for financial help from his fans on social media, he had to have asked most of his ‘friends’ in the industry and may have been refused. Do it because it would be a way of giving back to a man who gave so much- music that sometimes took sorrow off your mind, and even if you’re a self-seeking person; do it because it would make you feel good at the end of the day. To help OJB Jezreel, please donate to the 16 million naira cause by using his UBA account: BABATUNDE OKUNGBOWA UBA 1015075120. If you wish to visit him, this is his house address: 4 Gbaja Str Surulere. Wouldn’t it be nice if at the end of the day, he had his fans to thank for his life?