City People Magazine, the leading Celebrity, Fashion and Society Magazine in Nigeria decided to profile me, Zionfelix in one of the editions of the newspaper. It was fun talking to them because they told me many things I never knew about myself. I never knew I was that famous until their reporter informed me about that. Again, something on my relationship surprised me.
Read the full interview below:
Blogging is one of the fastest ventures taking over right now across Ghana and Africa at large. Ghanaian bloggers are also gradually warming themselves into the whole passion. Before now, there were only a handful of acclaimed bloggers in Ghana, but fast-forward to 2015 and the country can be proud of top notch celebrated bloggers from Ghana. In this interview, City People Magazine spoke with Adomako Mensah Felix popularly known as Zionfelix, on issues about being a blogger after the latter recently celebrated two active fun-packed years of making money through what he loves doing best-BLOGGING. Among issues we touched were, his personal life, the threats that almost made him quit, his fearless approach to tackling issues and we couldn’t end the gist without asking him to shed light on his supposed hot romance with a certain lady whose father is in politics.
Enjoy…
Hello and welcome to our couch where we shall be talking on some issues since you are everywhere. First of all, everyone in Ghana knows you as Zionfelix; is that your real name?
Thanks for having me. Well, I’m not Zionfelix in my private life. The name my parents gave me is Adomako Mensah Felix but I decided to brand myself with Zionfelix to save people from the hustle of mentioning all these three names
Let us talk about you as a person, what was growing up like for you and how has some of the childhood experiences beefed you up into a strong young man?
I grew up being a mum’s son because I’m the only guy among my family so the treatment given me by my parents and my siblings was exceptional. They all treated me as the second gentleman of the house so you can imagine how the feeling was like if 5 ladies including my mum are all showing you great love. Being with ladies (I mean my family) at the early stages of my life has made me generate this great love for ladies. please don’t get me wrong with that but I love being with ladies because of how my family made up of only ladies showed me love when I was young but the only thing I don’t take from ladies is insults. My family didn’t exhibit that when I was young so I stay away from ladies who turn to portray that.
You used to live in Kumasi and then you came to Accra, what brought you?
Hahahaha…. I lived in Kumasi with my family for more than 20 years so after high school, I wanted to move away from Kumasi and see how life in other parts of the country looks like. I always had the dream of schooling at the premium university in the country, Legon so I came all the way from Kumasi to Accra for education but I also knew that my blogging career will boom as soon as I get here and God being so good, it has been fulfilled.
Blogging in Ghana is begging to get a free air to breath, would you share same sentiment as a blogger yourself?
It is stated somewhere in the bible that, many are called but few are chosen so there can be millions of blogs in the country but few will be trusted or visited based on your credibility and content. Let’s leave whoever wants to enter the industry because his works will prove his worth. Some came years after some people but they are doing greater things but some are just wasting their time on blogging but they don’t want to stop. The only problem this issue is creating in our country is that, some of these bloggers who don’t know anything about the work are disgracing the hardworking bloggers because when they make mistakes, critics generalize it which affects some of us.
Okay take us through to the very first day you made up your mind to go into blogging till this day you are celebrating your second full years into your passion.
I never thought of being a blogger because by then blogging wasn’t that big as it is now and I knew nothing about it. I bought a laptop and after purchasing it, I didn’t know what to use it for. I’m a social media network freak so I could stay on Facebook for the whole day doing nothing aside that. Let me add that I had just completed my high school so you can imagine the number of hours I used to spend only on Facebook just a day. I visited a Muslim friend called Bash, he who was working at an internet cafe then to help me create a blog but he asked me to forget about because I was just going to waste my time on it but I told him that I dedicate my time for everything that I’m doing so I can do it. The guy did not want to help me, so I just googled and I knew there was something called blogpost so I signed up, created the blog and started copying stories. I didn’t even know what I was doing then. Because of how I loved my newly found work, I dedicated my time for it and even after getting a job as a teacher; I was still working through my phone even when I was teaching my class three students. I was using Nokia X2 then and I could use it to copy and paste stories on the blog – that phone really helped me. After working for some months on my blog which has automatically been deleted by google because of not publishing on it for years, Paa Kwasi, the man behind OMG!Ghana.com wrote on my Facebook wall to call him. Frankly speaking, I was afraid when I saw that because I thought he was coming to insult. I’m mum’s kid so I fear things a lot. I used to copy more stories from his website so I thought he was coming to warn me not to copy them again. I contacted him and he told me that he has been following me and wants me to join his team but and that he was going to pay me. I didn’t even know that people were paid for that job. I was even willing to do the job for free because I had heard a lot of OMG!Ghana. So after working with OMG!Ghana for a year and more, I asked same Paa Kwasi guy to create a blog for me and after 4 or so months, he finally gave me my log in details to Zionfelix.com. Even though I’ve my own blog, I’m still with OMG!Ghana because they made me who I am now and as a sign of appreciation, I want to serve them till they’re tired of my services.
Did you ever had doubt or fear whatsoever with the ‘big names’ you were hearing considering that these ‘names’ seemed to have taken the terrain already?
When I started blogging, the only blogs I knew aside the three big websites in Ghana (GhanaWeb, Peacefmonline and Myjoyonline) were Ameyaw Debrah, Ghanacelebrities and OMG!Ghana but I wasn’t afraid because I did not know it was going to be this big for me in the industry.
You have carved a niche for yourself in the last two years, what has been some of your highest points which you know that you did nail a particular story and it was exclusive to you?
This is a very big question. I’ve countless exclusives but few I can remember at this spot is Sarkodie’s free press publication, Big Akwesi accusing movie producers of sleeping with actors for roles, the just ended F14 concert which Amamkye Dede and R2bees made no show, in fact a lot of them and I cannot remember now.
And also which story have you broken that has led you into trouble for reasons of not being careful to double check your sources?
Eiiiii!!! This issue, I wrote a story about what Mark Okreku Mantey said at Edem’s album listening that Shatta Wale’s song will not stand the test of time. Edem called me on this story questioning me on why I wrote it, his manager called expressing his displeasure on same day, other radio stations called and I even heard that Mark stated on one radio station that he was not going to discuss any story that I write on that particular entertainment show.
I remember Ruff-N-Smooth threatening me with court issues because I wrote a story about them collecting cash from Nhyiraba Kojo and making no show at the concert. I’ve been through a lot but these are what I remember for now. These things put me through hell because I’m not a hard guy like other bloggers.
Some bloggers in Ghana until now seemed to be on the mercies of some celebrities and this didn’t seem to go down well in the kind of reportage we were getting, what do you make of that era and now?
Kindly allow me to mention names here. One thing I like about my boss Paaa Kwasi and Chris Vincent is how they put relationships aside and write publications as it is. We are in the industry to provide news for the public so if you decide to write just good publications about an individual because you are close to him, then you are not helping us to build a good industry that we want. We all know some people in the industry and the best thing we do to help them not to get into trouble is give them the right coaching to save them. That partiality is still in the system but with many blogs in the system, all hidden agenda dragging the industry back are reported.
You are a student of the University of Ghana; we gathered that you are seen more as a ‘star’ because of what you do, how true is that?
A star? Like seriously? I cannot really tell if I’m a star or not but at times people just call me and I get shocked. I think it’s time I also stop repeating my clothes since you are telling me I’m a star..hahaha
Aside blogging, we are well informed that you host a radio show on your University campus; we would like to know about that.
Oh I’m also an on air personality on campus radio station, Radio Univers. I play songs on radio but I don’t call myself a DJ. At times I talk about relationship matters as well but my main focus is the entertainment. I drink and bath entertainment so everywhere I go, is entertainment.
Have you ever thought of delving into any other business if the blogging thing didn’t pay dividend and what was that?
I’ve never thought of stopping blogging because I want to open an online multimedia under which I will have entertainment website, general news website, videos website, music website and an online shopping market. I’ve always wanted to be an actor, TV or radio presenter so I hope that dream is also fulfilled but with blogging I’m not stopping any moment from now.
Recently on your campus, a student was almost beaten to death; you called it ‘barbaric’, what led you to say that, obviously you don’t support mob-attack. We would like to know more on that issue from your own view
I do not remember any beating on campus but I think you are talking about the Kinto gay issue right? I do not support gay issues and I will never support it but with what happened, it was never right and it will never be right. It is not stated anywhere in the laws of the land that his act wasn’t right and even if it is stated clearly in the laws, the laws will not give people the right to beat culprits. We all sin and what I know is there is no sin bigger or smaller in the presence of God. So why don’t you beat somebody who does not give to the needy even when he has in abundance. Come on, some people should think for once.
Nigeria bloggers seem to flaunt some of their wealth on Instagram and other social media day in, day out as compared to the Ghanaian counterparts, would you say that blogging isn’t meant for some countries nor would you say that the mechanism has to be right in essence of getting it right?
I usually don’t want to be comparing our industry with that of Nigeria 100%. We can take some aspect of it and compare but comparing generally, we are far behind. The population in Nigeria is was more than us so the traffic an individual gets on his blog in a day will not be like ours. This same traffic will generate the cash for so if they are getting all the traffic, that means more advertisements for them and that will make their pockets heavy.
Even in Ghana, some businesses and event organisers are not used to this online advertisement hence the cash is not coming in our pocket. We the bloggers need to strategies ways of getting cash through the right means because there is money on the internet, I won’t lie to you my brother. Do you know how much I bag a month? Let’s do things right and the cash will come.
Ghanaian bloggers sometimes are being disrespected by some Ghanaian celebrities, what’s your take on this and secondly have you been disrespected by any celebrity? Talk to us
Branding is very important in every aspect of our industry, if you build a solid brand, they will come after you but if you stoop too low, they will always say anything to you. It is time some Ghanaian stars get to know that blogging has come to stay and even the bloggers are doing almost all the jobs now in the entertainment industry when it comes to the news side.
We are all here to help grow the industry so if you think you are too big and the blogger depends on your fame for cash, then you’re wrong. Some of the bloggers have their degrees as these stars and can equally earn gargantuan amount of money but for the love of the industry they are not. I don’t remember being disrespected because I’m not that type of guy who you will always see around a star or calling for help. The only time I will call is when I need an information or interview and if you decline, I go on with my story making readers aware that I contacted you but you decided not to talk
Now everyone wake up and gets into blogging in Ghana, after two years of your active working, what would you tell a young person coming into this same field?
Blogging is passion. I started with passion and I’m still doing it with the passion and other things are following. Please ladies are not part of the other things. If you have passion for the job then please you are warmly welcome but if you want to follow cash, you will not even earn 50 cents in a month. With passion you will work like you are crazy.
You were among the first persons who extensively followed up on the Mona-Amanda issue, what you make of the whole drama and your advice to the both of them.
Oh, you’ve even reminded me about one of the stories I started. I just love the way Kenpong and Mona handled it. They did not say a word on the matter and that was perfect. Kenpong nearly spoilt everything when she attacked Delay’s producer after they aired Amanda’s interview. By then the case was dying and his action came to awaken things again. But all the same let’s all be vigilant in our choice of words. Amanda did not do well with her choice of words
On the blogging field and you been a student, how do you manage your time as well as satisfy everyone that needs your attention?
I will not lie to you, I hardly go to class. For the whole of last semester, I can count the number of times I stepped feet in class. I do not want to say I’m a brilliant student but I make sure I excel in my mid-semester exams and final exams So i don’t joke when its exams time at all. I throw my phones and laptops away and pick my books just to get good grades to prove to my parents that I don’t joke with my lectures.
On your relationship life, we gathered from our source, we gather that you are in hot romance with an IPS lady lives in East Legon and also her father is in politics; how true is that and also walk us into your relationship life.
OMG!! IPS lady, East Legon and a politician? Am I even dating? I’m always busy with my work so for now, I’m busily making money and I know a successful man will get a good lady but not someone who is in for the cash and fame as you are saying I’m a star already but I wish the IPS lady story was true because I want a rich man’s daughter to date.
Where do you see the blogging trend in Ghana in the next five years from now?
If many blogs do not collapse then, there will a chunk of them in our industry. Already there are many blogs but few are writing all the news and going for all the events with the rest check using their cursors to copy and paste everything including adverts places inside the stories. How can you copy and even copy the advert the person has positioned in his story? That shows how bad some bloggers are. They don’t even read through to see what is in there. God save our industry.
Thank you for your time, congratulations on the second year of faithfully seeing your passion come into reality.
You’re always welcome and it was nice talking to you.
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