SOAP INVASION OF NIGERIAN TV

FOREIGN SOAP OPERA’S INVASION OF NIGERIAN MARKET

The recent influx of foreign and South American soaps into Nigerian television stations today has reached an alarming state as most lovers and producers of Nigerian soap operas have complained of less followership and patronage.

Years ago, the coming screen novellas like ‘The rich also cry’, ‘Cuando seas mia –{when you are mine}’, ‘The Gardeners’ Daughter’, and  ‘Second choice’ won the hearts of many Nigerians as both  the young and old were seen glued to their T.V sets at their times of display.

The successes recorded by these soaps must have been the driving force engineering the recent takeover of television by American soaps such as “AFFAVORITA”-THE FAVORITE,CATS CRADLE,FIRST LADY, “LA TORMENTA”-THE STORM, DANIELA, BEAUTIFUL BUT UNLUCKY amongst others.

This has been to the detriment of our home groomed soap operas such as Just the 2 of us, Crack in the wall, Family Ties e.t.c as most youths of today would miss a job just to catch a view of episodes of this foreign soaps.

A recent vox pop carried out on the streets of Lagos show that 50%  of residence follow either one or two of this foreign soaps while 25% partly follow Nigerian soaps. The other 25% declined to comment saying they had bigger problems in their lives than watching soaps.

Ogonna Dorin a National Diploma student of the Institute of Journalism said “I love Daniela and I don’t miss any episode,I like the storyline behind it, unlike our Nigerian soaps”.

Faleti Bukky, a roadside business centre operator added that “I wouldn’t mind closing my business at 1:30pm to watch every episode of Daniela on ONTV. When asked about her favourite Nigerian soap, she simply replied…………… for where?

Mrs Anyaobi Onyeka, a bookshop operator said she finds time to watch TINSEL and other Nigerian soaps but that the problem of electricity sometimes halts her followership.

Talking on the consequences of this trend, Akinloye Kehinde, a movie practitioner and owner of Aroma Video Sales and Rental Services, lamented that the plight is doing more harm than good as he also claims that corporate bodies now prefer to place their adverts on these foreign soaps than our locally produced ones.

He added that “this is affecting the productivity of our soap operas negatively as producers have to go cap in hand to beg for sponsorship.

Akinloye was also of the opinion that this foreign soaps tend to influence the behaviors of their youth followers . “Young ones now tend to copy their skimpy or half naked dress styles and this is what I call colonial capture of our culture and dress style”

“It annoys me everytime I tune my TV set and more than half of the stations are busy showing this foreign soaps”.

He concluded by calling on the appropriate bodies to do something about regulating the broadcast of this soaps and encourage those made in Nigeria that promote our culture,lifestyle and good ethics.

A time was in Nigeria when we had only one of these soaps showing at a time, South American soap “The Rich also cry” was notably aired in the early 90’s but Nigerian soaps like The Masquerade, Everyday people,Behind the clouds and Family circle still enjoyed massive airing.