The Learner

By Muhsin Ibrahim Hadiza Gabon is in the spotlight today. I find most of the criticisms of  Gabon's Room Talk Show  amusing for three reasons. As you know, Rakiya Moussa, as a guest, emotionally shed tears when talking about her unrequited love experience. Some critics  blamed the presenter, Hadiza, for that. 1. Some of these critics don't know better about journalism ethics than Hadiza because they aren't journalists and have little or nothing to do with the profession. We just love bashing Kannywood people. They don't know how to do anything! 2. Talk shows like that don't have cut-and-dried rules. Gabon is a big fan of Ellen DeGeneres and her popular show. You don't have to be a journalist to host a programme like this. It's almost the same pattern globally. 3. The Internet has radically deregulated journalism and changed the entertainment industries and cultural production. Thus, even if there were rules guiding talk shows like Gabon's, she is free to...

Muhsin Ibrahim muhsin2008@gmail.com My book, Kannywood: Unveiling the Overlooked Hausa Film Industry , released early this week, was purposely titled so. For some socio-cultural and religious related reasons, many people that would ideally care about the embattled film industry snub it. Thus, Kannywood survives mainly in obscurity. Conversely, the recent scandals involving the famous actress, Hadiza Gabon and her colleague, Amina Amal over lesbianism allegation proved me slightly wrong. Moreover, as this rages on, the age-old feud between the ace actors, Ali Nuhu and Adam Zango  was taken to the next level. The former sued the latter for defamation and assassination of character. These topics dominate the northern Nigerian cyberspace all the more. Is Kannywood really “overlooked”? It’s indisputably true that the film industry and its members are ignored but, I believe, whenever they do ‘good’ or shun controversies and scandals. Once their scandals surface, everyone’...