Mercy Aigbe accuses ThisDay Style team of bias

Mercy Aigbe accuses ThisDay Style team of bias

Sunday, March 20, 2016 11:47 pm


Mercy Aigbe-Gentry

Mercy Aigbe-Gentry

Funsho Arogundade

Mercy Aigbe-Gentry, one of the leading and fashionable actresses in the Yoruba sector of the Nigerian movie industry has accused the team of ThisDay Style as being biased against practitioners in that genre.

Mercy called out the ThisDay team and accused them of discrimination for not finding worthy herself or any other actors/actresses in the Yoruba genre among the long list of Nollywood best dressed at the recently held Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards.

The shortlisted actors including Genevieve Nnaji, Rita Dominic, Dakore Akande and Stephannie Linus, featured on the cover of the newspaper Sunday 20 March edition.

The actress, who took to her Instagram account, stated that except Nollywood stands for something else, there couldn’t be any justification why no Yoruba or Hausa-speaking actor/actress made the list.

Mercy Aigbe-Gentry

Mercy Aigbe-Gentry

“Has @thisdaystyle ever featured a Yoruba actor on their cover? Are Yoruba movies not part of Nollywood? Is Nollywood not supposed to mean home grown Nigerian movies? Hmmmmm…I am very sure they didn’t coz (because} they wouldn’t want to stain their cover with a ‘Razz’ ‘Local’ Yoruba actor!,” she wrote.

Among those Nollywood celebrities listed as ‘Best Dressed’ on the cover are Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde and Dolapo Oni but not part of the Yoruba movie sector. Mercy is from Edo State, however, she acts primarily in Yoruba movies.

Bone of contention

Bone of contention

A day after the AMVCA 2016, Mercy was voted on Twitter as the ‘Best Dressed’ actress at the award ceremony. She has also been regarded as a stunner on red carpets.

Here is her unedited full post: “Hey Fam….so I just came back from church and decided to check IG only for me to see plenty tags on a particular pix posted by @thisdaystyle …..I read pple’s comments asking why Mercy isn’t on the cover and at first I wanted to waka pass, but on a second thought I decided to talk about it, cos it’s been an issue dat has lingered for too long!

“…I thought to myself why didn’t Mercy make the cover of @thisdaystyle best dressed list?…. Has @thisdaystyle ever featured a Yoruba actor on their cover?…Are Yoruba movies not part of Nollywood? …..Is Nollywood not supposed to mean home grown Nigerian movies? …..Hmmmmm I am very sure they didn’t coz, they won’t want to STAIN their cover with a ‘RAZZ’ ‘LOCAL’ Yoruba actor!….Yes I am razz, Yes I am local and Yes I am a Yoruba actor!

“…No I refuse to speak ur almighty English with fake British or American accent!….Because I’ll always remain true to myself!…I am ME ….Proud Benin Woman, Proud Ijesha’s wife and above all proud Nigerian. …And just in case e still dey be una like dream ‘LOCAL TI TAKE OVER’ …”

The writer can be reached via [email protected]


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