Skelewu:Craze for money: Davido causes stampede on YouTube

The ongoing industrial action by the members of
the Academic Staff Union of Universities may have
given leverage to a dance competition put
together by hip-hop music sensation, Davido.
The popular singer had stated on his various
social media platforms that he would be giving
out a cash sum of $3, 000 (N486,000) to any of his
fans or group who can beat his dance moves on
his new single, Skelewu.
He had uploaded on his YouTube channel an
instructional three minutes, 33 seconds video of
the single where he gave tips as to how to make
the moves before asking his fans to do same to
win the cash award.
But the dance competition is now trending on
various social channels. A check on YouTube
reveals that dozens of youths have shot and
uploaded various versions of the video on the
video-sharing website with creative and intriguing
dance steps.
Children were also not left out in the race to win
the cash prize as some parents filmed their
children dancing to the music and uploaded the
video on their YouTube channels.
In one of the videos, an adult male was heard on
the background encouraging two little girls, who
would be under the age of five, to dance ''well'' to
the rhythm of the song.
A cursory look at the YouTube videos shows that
many participants in the competition simply
turned the corner of their sitting rooms, access
roads leading to their streets, bathrooms, toilets,
garages among others into dance halls.
A particular video published on YouTube on
August 21, by a group known as Laughoryarn is
one of the most popular, as it has attracted over
56, 000 views. In the video, the members of the
group danced in a restaurant, and in a public
toilet.
Moving it a notch higher, one of the members of
the group also danced to the rhythm while
controlling traffic at a T-junction in Lagos.
One Onochie Ojekwe also uploaded his own
version of the dance on YouTube showing him
dancing in an office setting. According to him, he
decided to give the competition a try on August
19, on a Monday morning to ''cool off'' before the
start of work. A male colleague of his who was
heard speaking in the background filmed him.
However, some of the participants of the
competition took their creative ability to a weird
level. For instance, one of them who was in
company with four of his friends went as far as
dancing nude in a YouTube entry for the
competition.
An outrage trailed the young chap's decision to
dance unclad as many saw it as a desperate and
lazy attempt to cut corners and come out tops in
the competition.
A Facebook user, Okoh Andrew-Emmanuel, wrote,
"This is pure madness and, indeed, a lazy way
people always adopt to cheat. I think he should
go and work hard for his own money and success.
Youths should stop waiting for someone to come
and throw money at them.''
Another Facebook user, Mc All-Wise, said, "Money
can make some people lose their manners. But if
the guy eventually wins the cash prize won't the
naked video which all over the Internet haunt
him.''
A YouTube user, George Anderson, after watching
a number of the videos, said in a comment he
posted that the proliferation of Skelewu videos on
YouTube was as a result of joblessness of many
university students. "This is the result of ASUU
strike. Joblessness!'' he noted.
One of the participants, who shared his own
version of the video on nairaland.com, buttressed
Anderson's claims that the ASUU strike led him
into participating in the competition.
"Since ASUU has failed to call off the ongoing
strike, I have decided to dance to the Skelewu
song by Davido. Hope to win with the help of the
great people who watch and share my video,'' one
Chaydee stated on nairaland.com.