* Performers work health tips into online videos
* Comics try to reach people who dismiss official advice
* Trust in govt messages can be low, conspiracies spreading
By Angela Ukomadu
LAGOS, May 8 (Reuters) - Nigerian comedian Maryam Apaokagi
has a sure-fire way of getting people to listen to her
coronavirus health advice - she delivers it with a hard slap in
the face.
The 21-year-old has joined a line-up of the nation's top
performers working health tips into their routines to spread the
word about COVID-19.
In one of her online videos, she plays the role on an
all-knowing, all-controlling Nigerian mother who watches in
horror as a young man sneezes into his hands.
Within seconds she grabs a bottle of sanitiser from the
bosom of her dress, slathers it over her palms, then hits him
hard in the face. "Ah, a sanitised slap," her companion gasps in
mock horror, as the young man learns his lesson the hard way.
Apaokagi, who goes by the stage name Taaooma, said she
decided to put out the video to try and reach people who would
usually ignore or dismiss advice from the usual official sources
- people like her own mother.
"The main reason why I did the coronavirus skit was because
of my mom, because you cannot tell her not to go and worship,"
she told Reuters.
Authorities have put out regular advice on avoiding large
gatherings and the importance of washing hands - but trust in
the government is low and conspiracies and bogus health tips
spread fast on social media.
Parents "are the ones that are ... the most difficult people
to tell not to do things," said Apaokagi. "So when they watch it
and laugh, they will also remember the message that they said we
should not go to the mosque, they said we should not go to the
church for now".
DO THE DAB
In the skit she advises anyone who is about to cough to do
the dab - a dance move where your face ends up in the crook of
your arm.
Fellow comic Osarenkhoe Lawrence conjures up a world where
diseases have their own governing committee.
In his video, performers representing Ebola and cancer make
official complaints to the board saying the new kid on the block
is stealing all the limelight.
The solution, the disease chairman rules, is to put COVID-19
in its place by keeping clean and maintaining social distance.
"We are no longer joking, we are actually affecting lives
and I think this period we need more videos, we need more funny
content," said the performer from Benin City, who goes by the
name MC Casino.
Nigeria's health ministry has spotted the trend and enlisted
popular comedian Bright Okpocha, aka Basketmouth, to appear in a
public service video about the dangers of spreading
misinformation.
The messages are getting through, said Cyril Oto-Obong, a
comedy fan who works as an accountant in Lagos.
"It is not everyone who understands the safety measures when
it is spoken in English, but once a comedian makes it a laughing
matter, one thing is it will make people pay attention."
(Writing by Paul Carsten; Editing by Andrew Heavens)