INTERVIEW: Mimicking Odumeje in my skits made me famous – Neekah

Much like skit maker Lasisi Elenu, who became iconic for using filters that exaggerated facial features, famous Nigerian skit maker Neekah, real name Rita Ginikachukwu Uwayah, has built a unique following with her bold red wig, brown suit, and expressive face filter signature look.

Her content centres around lip-syncing to clips of the voice of Mountain of Holy Ghost Intervention and Deliverance Ministry founder Chukwuemeka Ohanaemere, aka Odùméje. Known for his dramatic sermons and congregational testimonies, the controversial Anambra-based pastor’s audio moments have since gone viral.

Neekah amplifies the humour with her large-eyed, exaggerated expressions, creating a memorable and entertaining character that resonates widely online. Originally trained as a nurse, she studied at the Delta State School of Nursing and initially worked in a hospital in Delta State.

However, after struggling to find stable employment in Abuja, she ventured into making and selling beaded bags, inspiring her to create humorous content to attract customers.

In this interview, Neekah, who boasts over 622,000 Instagram followers, tells PREMIUM TIMES how her distinctive filtered look has shaped her career and set her apart in the Nigerian content creation.

How Neekah looks like off her content

EXCERPTS:

PT: How did you come to adopt Pastor Odumeje’s talk and also mimic his content?

Neekah: I was on TikTok when I came across one of his videos, and where he was talking to, I think, one of his church members, and the questions he was asking, and how he was asking them was very funny, and I decided to, ‘Okay, since I need to lip-sync, let me try and lip-sync into what this man is doing,’ and I did, and it blew up, so I decided to do more lip-syncs, because that’s what people like.

PT: Do you understand most of what he says when you mimic him, or do you just do it for fun?

Neekah: Yes, I do. This is because I am Igbo, so I understand the context of what he says.

PT: Have you ever attended his church?

Neekah: No, I’ve never been to his church before. I don’t even know him personally. I watch his videos well, and I see how he talks, and it’s something I can do or even do more than him.

PT: You have pretty good looks naturally, but you don’t use your face for most of your content; you use a funny character. Why is that?

Neekah: My regular face isn’t as funny as the filter face I use because it looks calm, which is not what my personality is and not what I want people to see. It doesn’t put my other character in place. I need to use my regular face to get the audience I want.

Aside from that, I’m very shy, so I don’t like using my regular face. I won’t be able to express myself in front of the camera; that’s why I figured out, okay, these filters would help me do what I want to do, express myself freely, without seeing my natural face.

PT: In one of your videos, you once mentioned that your funny content brings people to your page, and they patronise you. Do you make more money selling beads or creating funny content?

Neekah: I make money both ways. I make both ways because I make money from content creation when it comes to influencing. I influence brands; brands come to me and say, ‘Neekah, please, I want you to use your funny character to put my business out there,’ and I’ll charge them. Then some people, once they see my funny video, come to my page and say, ‘Oh Neeka, so you sell bags? I thought you only did funny content. I love your bags; I would love to patronise you.’ So from there, people get to patronise me.

It’s more like my content creation helps me put my business out there, too.

Neekah’s content

PT: I figured you were also very private, but you are popular now. Is there a reason you barely collaborate with other content creators nationwide?

Neekah: I would love to, but it’s not like I don’t want to. But, most of these content creators need a business that they are focused on. Most of them probably have, but they are less busy than I am because bead-making, which I do as a side hustle, is handmade. It’s not something that you would say, ‘Okay, let me leave; when I come back, I’ll just do it.’ It takes days to make bags.

And as everybody knows me, I tend to get lots of orders. And I can only have a few orders waiting for me, and now somebody will call me. Let’s create content together, and I’ll leave orders that I have to go and create content. So it’s not like I don’t want to mix up with other content creators; I don’t have the time to do that. Most of them are based in Lagos; I’m currently in Ibadan, so I can’t travel to Lagos, create content, and return, but I still face my business. No, I can’t do that.

PT: How do you handle criticism from negative comments from maybe Odumeje’s supporters, who might see your mimicking him as inappropriate?

Neekah: I hardly get negative comments concerning Odumeje because my videos about him are always harmless. I don’t insult him; I only say exactly what he said, just that I might act differently. I rarely get it, but if there is any negative comment, I’ll just block you and move on; I don’t like stress.

Pastor Odumeje

PT: How has your follower’s perception of your content impacted you? Like your yellow bread signature, has it made you want to do more or less?

Neekah: I want to do more because I usually love bread. I grew up in a family where my dad always comes back if he goes out—he always returns with bread. Anytime he goes to work, I call him, ‘Daddy, if you are coming back, buy bread; bread has finished.’ So I’m a lover of bread.

When I first made the video using bread, bread lovers expressed admiration for it. People saying, ‘I like how you eat the bread, squeezing it,’ tends to make people happy. And since it’s harmless, I said, ‘Okay, I’m encouraged to do more.’

PT: Have you ever experienced creative burnout? If so, how do you manage it? And what steps did you take to re-energise?

Neekah: It’s normal for any content creator and influencer to get burnt out. But for me, who has a double commitment, I easily get burnt out.

What I do is that if I can’t stake it, I just leave everything for the next day and continue from where I stopped. I don’t usually force myself to do it. If it doesn’t work, then that’s it.

PT: You make people laugh for a living. What is the most unfunny thing you’ve done to keep things going?

Neekah: I can’t tell, though. Because I don’t have many friends surrounding me, I don’t know whether I do something unfunny.

PT: What’s that one odd experience churning out content you’ve had, and was there any side effect?

Neekah: The one experience I had was when I made a funny video concerning Wizkid. And because my followers are both 30BG and Wizkid FC. So, I had a clash. My video was one-sided, and his fans (Wizkid FC) came after me.

People came to my DM and insulted me. They came to my page and were all bashing and commenting. People who liked me came to my DM privately and said, ‘Neekah, this thing you did – you know your fans; most of them are a mix of Davido and Wizkid fans, so you shouldn’t be one-sided.’ And I saw the negativity it was bringing to my page, and I didn’t want that. I had to take the post down, and I apologised. That was the worst day of my online presence because I have never received that much of an insult on my page like that in my DM, and the rate at which people were calling me all sorts of names. After apologising, I still made a video to neutralise everything, and it was okay.

Ginikachukwu Uwayah

PT: How did you feel after that clapback?

Neekah: I felt terrible, though. It wasn’t pleasant. I don’t like to experience that kind of stuff. I just had to take it down.

PT: Would you say you became popular out of luck or hard work?

Neekah: I became popular out of both. Because there are more hard-working people out there than me, people are working as hard as they can, more than I do. But they still need to get to where I am regarding social media. So, I would say that luck was still there, and God, too.

I was lucky, so I wouldn’t say it was only hard work. In early 2023, I made one video, and it blew up. Everyone started following my page and noticing my business.

Some business owners have been creating content for years before I even started. Most of them pay me to influence them. So, it’s luck and hard work, anyway.

PT: What year did you start content creation?

Neekah: I started content creation a long time ago, but I wasn’t into business then. I wasn’t running my bag business then. I wasn’t aware of this because I was just into TikTok content creation for fun.

At the time, I was using my actual face on TikTok. When I started my business, I wanted it to be out there, but I didn’t want my face to be out there, so I decided to start using filters, and luckily, I got what I wanted.

PT: Most people sometimes say shy people don’t stand a chance to make it; would you say your case was unique and different?

Neekah: Everybody’s grace might not be the same. I’m shy and decided not to use my face because I may not have gotten to this level if I had used my natural face to create content. People might find it less exciting and consider its regular content. I’m shy, but I wanted people to see the other side of me, and my face couldn’t give me what I wanted.

And I decided to change everything – the way I dress. I didn’t want to dress like a lady; I didn’t want to come out with my natural face because, at that point, people were thinking I was a male, not knowing I was a female. People were calling me ‘this man.’ People won’t even know it’s me. So, I used it to cover my shyness, and it worked. For shy content creators, the energy you put into another character might not match your natural energy because it’s your face. If you watch your video, you might find it cringy. That’s why some of them won’t get far if they are shy about creating content.

PT: If you had not gotten this fame after so many years of creating content, I mean, maybe up until now, do you think you would have continued creating content?

Neekah: We’ll never know now.

PT: Is there something you hate about being a content creator?

Neekah: I’ve not done anything I’ve disliked as a content creator. However, the only thing I don’t like about content creation is using my authentic voice to create content. I don’t do that. And if you come to my page, I am straightforward. I won’t do otherwise because you’re paying me for it. Everything I do on my page is legit. Everything I eat on my page is legit. I don’t do things to pretend. If you see me doing something, it’s because, okay, ‘she wants to do it.’ I don’t pretend to do what I don’t want to do.

If you notice, I’ve not used my voice. Where I use my voice to make videos is just a few content. But if you tell me to use my voice to create an advert, I won’t do that. I’ll let you know, ‘I don’t use my real voice.’ If you’re not okay with it, other influencers use their authentic voice to do it. They can do it the way you want, but if you’re coming to my page, you will do it the way I want. My originality is what keeps my page going.

PT: But is there a reason why you don’t like to use your voice?

Neekah: As you hear my voice now, it doesn’t sound funny. It won’t give people what they want. I have a very tiny voice. One day, I had a clash with one vendor that broke my mirror. So even when I was shouting, people weren’t taking me seriously. People said, ‘She is shouting; see how her voice is so soft.’ So, I don’t like using my authentic voice to create videos. It doesn’t give me what I want. It doesn’t provide the content that I want it to have. I believe using other people’s voices makes it better to mimic.

Neekah signature look cartoon

PT: You have a brand?

Neekah: My bead-making brand is still growing. It still needs to be a big brand. Because people know me and I’m popular on Instagram, it doesn’t make my brand the most prominent brand. It’s still tiny, but it’s going there. And one day, it will get there.

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PT: What advice would you give to budding content creators?

Neekah: I only advise young people that you know we are in Nigeria now, and things are getting complicated. I’m not advising anybody not to go to school. Because I’m educated. I went to school. So, go to school. Get something done for yourself. As you get to that next level in education, you still need to have something you are doing. My bead-making business helped me financially – especially girls and ladies. Instead of depending on one man or the other, you can do something for yourself and start small; nothing is small. You might be lucky one day, just like I was. Your content might go viral, thereby making you famous. But you only know if you try.

Neekah says her characters are real and she has a flair for breadbefore signature tool