Clout Pays Faster, but who’s keeping score?

In Nigeria, you can spend ten years perfecting your craft, or ten seconds spewing nonsense on camera, guess which one gets you booked for a reality show, we keep saying hard work pays, but the new unofficial anthem seems to be clout pays faster, not because excellence is unimportant, rather because noise travels on social networks like wildfire, and attention is the currency of the moment.

The hall of instant fame

One viral clip is all it takes, the internet divides, hashtags form, and a previously private life becomes public theatre, take the recent Ibom Air incident, a single camera phone turned a tense airport exchange into trending headlines, Ms. Comfort Emmanson found her name on repeat, while comment sections either condemned the behaviour or cheered the bravado, either way, followers climbed as if she had released a chart topping single, here is the original airline, for context, Ibom Air, and here is one of the broadcast pieces that helped the story spread, Channels TV.

Portable, the portable persona

Before there was a full discography to debate, Portable had already mastered the economy of spectacle, chaotic interviews, street performances, and unapologetic outbursts became his brand, each viral moment read like a business card, the man moved from unknown to headline act, booking shows, landing deals, proof that volume converts into opportunity, read more on his rise here, Portable profile.

Blessing Okoro, the mansion that wasn’t hers

The exposé should have buried credibility, instead it recycled scandal into attention, Blessing Okoro, popularly known as Blessing CEO, became trending material after a photoshoot and a claim that turned out to be contested, the fallout brought live interviews and follower spikes, a reminder that being caught is sometimes another way of being seen, read the reporting that documented the episode, Legit.ng, and background at The Guardian.

Throwback, pre hashtag chaos

Notoriety is not new, before lives and vlogs, market stories and Nollywood scandals did the same heavy lifting, social media only increased the speed and the return on spectacle, it amplified those who make more noise, and sometimes it drowned out the quiet people doing the heavy lifting.

The money angle, how drama pays the bills

A bad day for your reputation can become a good day for your bank account, scandal leads to clicks, clicks lead to engagement, engagement turns into advertiser interest, brand emails start landing, producers call, and suddenly you have reality TV offers and event appearance requests, engagement monetizes, angry comments still count, every mention is a metric, monetized posts, feature slots, paid appearances, all follow the heat.

So what now?

We can scream louder for the right things, amplify achievers, craft narratives that reward skill, then watch culture adapt, if you want, we will prepare the next piece that flips this conversation, showing readers how to make excellence go viral, a playbook for achievers to get the same heat as clout chasers, so that Desauce becomes the loudspeaker for the right kind of fame, internal link to our homepage for submissions and tips, Desauce Magazine, and a suggestion for further reading on Nigeria’s fame economy, Ibom Air, background.