Social media influencers are increasingly relevant and stimulating the nascent paparazzi culture in Nigeria. Folks like Dimmah Ummeh, IAMDODOS, and OnyiiBekeh are some of the top enablers of Nigeria’s digital creator economy. Their captivating content fuels this niche and makes sure their audience cannot get enough of them.
Over the years, the internet has evolved from being a cyber-world geek sphere to an essential platform. Individuals, businesses, entrepreneurs, and organisations can get identification and recognition at the price of a gigabyte. As social media becomes a more integrated part of our lives, advertisers devise more dubious ways to get our attention.
This perpetuates a lack of trust, and consumers look towards friends, family, and influencers for honest product recommendations. Instagram models, Twitter personalities, and YouTube stars are sought for advice and recommendations on purchasing decisions. Content creation and influencer marketing have grown to become industries in their own rights, mainly because they are more genuine.
I spoke to Onyinyechi Azode popularly known as OnyiiBekeh, a digital content creator, stylist, and art director based in Lagos. I came across her page on Instagram a few years ago and was immediately attracted to her beautiful and cohesive aesthetics. Her over 40,000 followers on Twitter and Instagram is a testament to the diligent work she does.
On Her Journey
“Anything you want to do, just do it.“
We began by looking back and recounting her adult journey and the experiences that influenced her career choice. After initially committing to a Medical school in Ukraine, Onyinyechi realised she had a passion for fashion, but it didn’t stop her from completing what she had started.
Her foray into the business of fashion influencer began in 2018 after returning to Nigeria. OnyiiBekeh became aware of the impact of her carefree and naive Instagram feed. She quit her job and learned the ropes through a colleague who eventually became what she called her “soft-manager”. Prior to this, she admits to being subject to a lot of free gigs in exchange for ‘exposure’, noting that she doesn’t regret the sacrifice because it helped her grow her media kit and rate card.
In Onyinyechi’s opinion, she considers her craft as strenuous and much more than just wearing clothes or taking pictures. She says her job takes a huge amount of commitment and attention to detail to achieve. “It is a lot of curation, intentionality, ideas, and executing it properly like how it is in my head”.
Onyiibekeh dislikes the use of the word ‘influencer’ as a job description because it limits her ability and craftsmanship. OnyiiBekeh says she is particular about people understanding the intentionality and calculation that goes behind every project.
On Creating in Nigeria
It’ s a fact that achieving anything in Nigeria, Lagos specifically, is an extreme sport and a huge test of your patience. Onyinyechi emphasises the difficulty for content creators, comparing her travel experiences and the ease of requesting permission for shoots as opposed to doing the same in Lagos.
“it’s not just about money, you know how Lagosians are with power, people are very power drunk. Creating in Lagos is hard, seriously, kudos to everybody still creating original content because this place is different”
Over the years, she has built a thick skin against the distress and chaos that comes with being a young dreamer in the city. In the chaos, we talked about negativity and what it is like receiving unflattering and vile comments as someone with a large following. OnyiiBekeh says she hasn’t been a victim of Instagram trolling and hardly pays any attention to the small talks.
We also talked about measures she adopts as an influencer in an emerging, unstructured market like Lagos. She noted that regardless of her growth as a creator, she is still often undervalued by potential clients. Some would request for free work, citing the country’s bad economy as an excuse for not having a budget.
According to her, these same clients offer creators abroad an arm and a leg. She believes her experience outside the country gives her leverage to striking better deals as opposed to some of her colleagues who are often underpaid.
On her biggest struggle, she goes back to saying the availability of space and unnecessary rules stands as her biggest setback. Everything is seemingly harder than it should ever be, and communicating with international brands in terms of shipping and delivery is often a struggle.
Style and Skills Required
My current obsession is Onyinyechi’s viral styling tip videos on Instagram where she educates amateurs. So far, we have seen the one for women with small boobs and another for short women.
Onyinyechi’s style is remarkably captivating and unconventional in a way that is appealing, combining sexiness with just the right amount of sophistication. She says Nigerians often box her in the “Alté” category but she doesn’t let this bother her.
Many people assume being a content creator easy work, but OnyiiBekeh begs to differ. She revealed to me that it sometimes takes 2 days to edit one video, hinting the patience required to succeed in this line of work.
Marketing and business skills are necessary tools for digital media influencers to reach their goals. Onyinyechi believes that going to med school taught her about branding and research which is a key proponent of the job. Other tasks such as editing and video curation were completely self-taught.
Inspirations and Advice
Do it scared, do it afraid but make sure you do it.
Onyinyechi’s word of advice to aspiring content creators and lifestyle/fashion influencers is to practice resilience. She adds that for inspiration, it’s important to follow and stick to people that make your creative bones tingle.
“If you want to be a really good content creator, you need to follow people that you think are really creative, people that bring new things to the table, fresh perspectives, because it automatically makes your brain think and say how can I do this better for the demographic I’m in”.
OnyiiBekeh considers Rihanna a solid inspiration both as a fashion icon and as the woman she’s becoming. She’s also inspired by Kim Kardashian and Jacquemus for their sensuality. She also names Nigerian brands Atafo Official, T.I Nathan, and Style Temple.
In terms of fashion, being androgynous is important as well as layering with a jacket or equivalent. To simplify she says “I do fashion over comfort.” Talk about commitment.
