‘We want to showcase Africa as re-emerged continent’

Alex Okosi might not be as popular as the faces that appear on MTV Base, but he is an influential figure in youth empowerment in Africa, and a key figure in the creation and production of world-class African TV content. In this interview, he says Nigeria is becoming a viable place to shoot films with nice locations, creative people and equipment, and host award for global celebration of Africa’s talent. Excerpts:

You were at the World Economic Forum and the world is seeing growth in Africa, how is the entertainment industry preparing for this growth trajectory?

The private players in the entertainment industry need to continue to work with government to ensure that the growth of entertainment industry is fostered. For instance, there is a huge piracy market that the country needs to tackle. Government also needs to put infrastructure in place for the industry.

What is the concept behind the MAMA Award?

The award is a global celebration of Africa’s talent. It is the celebration of leading musicians in Africa and African achievers. This year, we have expanded the category to include three life awards. One is the personality of the year, which is meant to identify people beyond music. We know that young people are not just into music but into arts, movies and sports. That category will also be used to recognise some one who young people feel is incredibly worthy of being celebrated. All the nominees should be celebrated.

We have another category called the leadership award, which is to celebrate young people doing imaginative things across Africa. They may not be celebrities, but young people figured out in the society engaged in innovative activities. The third category is the transformed award. This award identifies young African creatives outside or within music that are doing stuffs behind the scenes that showcase Africa in the best line. The objective of the award is to promote, recognise and identify talents across Africa.

What is the process of selecting individuals in all the awards embedded in MAMA Awards?

In music for instance, there is academy of music professionals across Africa that will help to put individuals into categories where they belong. After that, there will be public vote to identify the winner. The winners will be decided by viewers who will go the MTV Base.com and click their choice of winners.

MAMA Awards was introduced in 2008, but there was a break of three years, what informed this?

The break was to make sure we have the right resources to continue to make MAMA happen. Since 2008, we held it for three years – two times in Nigeria, once in East Africa, and we wanted to take it to Southern Africa where we will bring Africa together again. Though there were challenges, but we are focused and over the last couple of years we have worked hard to identify partners in Durban, South Africa, who will enable us stage another global show. The interesting thing about MAMA, like the World Economic Forum, MAMA goes to millions of people outside Africa. It is not just a local award show for us, but a global award carried on MTV show around the world. The 2014 edition is coming up on June 7.

Viacom, promoter of the award and champion of other entertainment programmes, is not too familiar with people; how do you want to position it?

We are very brand centric. Viacom is the holding company, but the different brands that are part of Viacom need to speak to their different constituencies.

Paramount Pictures is also part of Viacom. The firm, which is an entertainment company, has other brands. It is a holding company, but we are focused on building each of the brands.

When you say the award is targeted at young people, do you have age bracket?

We are targeting young people that are doing their things, such as music relevant to the youth. By definition, a lot of artistes nominated are youthful. It is also for the youth at heart programme.

What would you say stands MAMA Awards out from other African awards?

It is the biggest award show in the continent, it is an award show that brings all of Africa together and goes out internationally in other MTV channels. The reach the show has cannot be matched by any other. It is an award show that celebrates modern music and lifestyle. Other award shows have their niches, but MAMA brings Africa together.

Assessing awards in Africa, what do you see?

I see an opportunity recognising talents in all the awards. The awards makes sense to recognise different people in different disciplines. I applaud the fact that people are seeing opportunity to recognise others and they are doing it. For MAMA, we want to showcase Africa as re-emerged continent that has a vibrant youth culture, great music, and Africa that is successful. I am for a show that encourages people to do better.

What are the challenges organising the awards?

One of them is lack of expertise to deliver an amazing world property. Happily, over time this is eroding as we do have the expertise to deliver those properties. We are also faced with the challenge of delivering a great show and keep pushing the ball higher, but the way to navigate is to make sure we have the great minds and expertise to deliver.