First of all, I'm embarrassed that this man, Ruggedman, could bring himself so low by exposing his own shamepublicly in the media. I'm embarrassed because no artiste could have done whatthis guy did to us even when we felt we were doing him a big favour
. Look, Ihave organized several editions of this event, and different artistes havegraced our event, but we have never been swindled before. This is our first experience, andunfortunately, it's an artiste who has lost audience appeal that did this tous. I had wanted to let this pass, but since he has gone to humiliate himselfin the media, I will follow this up. I'm consulting with my lawyer at the moment,and we may be suing ruggedman for defamation of character, and his failure toheed to our earlier agreement with him.
It's amazing the way Ruggedmanmisbehaved. As a supposed respected elder in the business of entertainment, wenever expected that from him. No wonder he had a fight with his boy, 9ice whobecame bigger and better than him in the music game.
Now my story:
Quite frankly, what we do when weare bringing an artiste to our show is to pay the person upfront, you give usyour most convenient time to travel, and we book your return ticket. It'slaughable and extremely ridiculous that Ruggedman is claiming we were to payhim honorarium of N100,000. I couldn't have paid him N100, 000 when he was theone who begged us for the show. He said he wanted an award to get himselfacquainted with his Abuja fans. This is not what we would have loved to say inthe public domain, if not that he has gone public, because we respect all theartistes we deal with, no matter the status. Having called me personally to begfor the award, we told him, look, we will appreciate your appearance after ourevent as we did not put you in our budget earlier. We then booked for hisflight, we sent him the tickets reference number and he came into Abuja onFriday, the 25th of October, 2013 and was picked up from the airport withoutdelays. He was also checked into a classic hotel with a four star value asagreed, with food and drinks on ground for him to enjoy a day before the event.
Ruggedman refused topick up his calls: He had over 30 missed calls from us.
Unfortunately for the MBGA organizers,Ruggedman refused to pick up calls placed to him. In fact, He went ahead toeven show some other artistes that were in the hotel with him , that "see, see, see, the organizersof the event are calling me, but I will not pick, I will make them go throughhell since they have refused to see me since yesterday that I arrived’’ Howcould he have made such claims. Who picked him up from the airport then? Thepack of lies is clearly childish and pointless.
Our Bewilderment
We wondered at the change ofagreement and his refusal to pick up calls. The question was why was our ownRuggedman disgracing himself over N50, 000 that we agreed to pay him after theevent? At list, we expected him to pick up his calls and give us his new terms,but he never did. Information got to us that he was to have a meeting with somepeople that time over his album, the reason he used our show to transporthimself to Abuja. We never believed that in the first place, but it got clearerto me the next day, when this guy showed no remorse towards his actions. Funnyenough, he was waiting for his return ticket, and his honorarium, and we keptwondering ‘’ what are we honouring him for?’’. Appreciating him for eating ourfood, drinking our bear, wasting our ticket money, time and energy? Appreciatinghim for rudely and unapologetically denying that we brought him into Abuja,appreciating him for ignoring over 30 missed calls? These were the series ofquestions begging for answers. Ruggedman, even at that, had the guts to takeour case to the media; the world is very funny.
Why only Ruggedman? Whynot other artistes?
If we can invite all theNollywood acts, artistes and comedians like him, why should we not want to payhim a little amount of N50, 000 only?
His unbearable attitudeand its effect on his career
With an apology, I want to saythat Ruggedman is really not a good role model, and that has resulted to his poorperformance over time. I think the name rugged is influencing his life and hiscareer. He needs to redefine his name, and what he represents as an artiste.You cannot continue to fight people who try to make you relevant as anentertainer. It's sad.
Why did we inviteRuggedman and not an A-list artiste?
We knew this guy was not an A-List artist, yetwe went ahead to invite him to be awarded, Just to have him get on track. Heattested to the fact that we were creating visibility for him, but we wereshocked at what we received from him; insults, by putting up a very sad newsjust to tarnish the good name and record of MBGA event. We won't just let this pass. We will ask somelegal questions on why he should come out to castigate us without reasons. We arevery sorry for him, because he is going to pay the MBGA for all damages he hadcaused the event.
Why we abandoned him inthe hotel after the event
We admit that we abandoned him atthe hotel in Abuja after the event because he refused to perform his own partof the gentlemen agreement we had. would it have been nice to pay him even whenhe refused to pick up our calls to perform at the show? Had he performed at theshow and we refused to pay him, then his media query would have been a littlereasonable. How would he have expected the MBGA to pay for his fare back toLagos? He is a very nonsensical element and should be treated as such. Thissame Ruggedman stayed in that same hotel on our bills from Friday, a day beforethe event till Monday; that is two days after the event. So, we told the hotelto check him out once its 12noon on Monday, the 28th of October 2013. What kindhuman being is he? How could he betalking about God, when God is already angry with him? This God don suffer forpeople mouth jor.
Our legal war!
Rugged man will hear from us verysoon. Our lawyers will serve him for damages and he will pay from hisnose. It’s funny and unfortunate that hecan't even afford to answer a case at a competent court of law. I think heneeds some help, but he is yet to realize that. How can an artiste be fightingall through his career? Is that supposed to be his own calling?
Who threatened who?
I did not threaten him, nobodydid that, instead, he was using different people to threaten us. I think theguy wants to use us to promote his album, but we won't let his gimmicksdistract us, as we will continue to pull great events for Abuja people."
Our appeal
We sincerely appeal to all ourfans to remain calm and focused, believing that we have better things for them.Everybody is a partner in what we do. We do not have any police bosses asclaimed by ruggedman. He just deleted me from his Blackberry contact; else, Iwould have copied all the chats I had with him for you. He did that purposelyto conceal our gentleman agreement.
Whoeverfeels so concern can call me on 08034523698to hear more.
I Thank you.
Mr. Ejiro,
Organizer, MBGA.