A Nigerian, Samuel Effiong has started an online petition asking for the cancellation of the TV show aiming to showcase the criminal lifestyle of popular Nigerian fraudster, Hushpipi.
Popular American rapper and entrepreneur, 50 Cent had announced on his social media accounts earlier November that he planned to create a television program based on Hushpuppi and his way of life.
Samuel Effiong, the person who started the petition, regretted that the rapper was romanticizing the notion of fraud and further harming Nigeria’s reputation with the intended endeavor.
Effiong wrote in his petition’s introduction: “I am disappointed by 50 Cent’s recent announcement about a planned movie series on Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, also known as Hushpuppi, a convicted felon who is currently serving 11 years in a maximum-security prison in the U.S. for cybercrime or “yahoo yahoo,” as it is known in Nigeria. This proposed series will further damage Nigeria’s already-damaged reputation as it will reinforce stereotypes about all Nigeria
Furthermore, Hushpuppi would get wealthy from this idea since he would have to pay for his rights, and it would also legitimize and encourage cybercrime, he continued. Stopping this is necessary. Join me in requesting that 50 Cent halt the Hushpuppi series.
It wasn’t just 50 Cent that had the notion to film a movie about Hushpuppi’s encounter with foreign law enforcement. The rights to the 2021 release of the Bloomberg article “The Fall of the Billionaire Gucci Master,” about the Instagram influencer Hushpuppi, were purchased by Universal Pictures, Will Packer Productions, and Mo Abudu’s EbonyLife before the announcement of 50 Cent. The majority of Nigerians’ responses to this action were negative.
As at the time of this report, 105 people have signed the petition which started days ago.