Journalist sues Monalisa Chinda, Lanre Nzeribe over 'failed' magazine project

*The Monalisa magazine team with Monalisa Chinda and Lanre Nzeribe, 2nd and third left (front row),

 the editor, Kelvin Keshi in green shirt (back row) third from right

According to Vanguard, a media practitioner, Mr. Kelvin Keshi is dragging Nollywood actress, Monalisa Chinda and her beau, Lanre Nzeribe to court over breach of contractual agreement and failure to pay his two months salaries while working for their proposed magazine, Monalisa.
In a letter addressed to 'The Managing Director, Lantana International Limited (Monalisa Magazine), 19 Ademola Adetokunbo Street, Victoria Island, Lagos,' a copy of which was made available to Weekend Groove, Mr. Keshi, through his lawyers, Megafield Solicitors, is suing the business partners, who are rumoured to be on-and-off lovers, for reneging on their agreement with him and their refusal and neglect to effect the payment of his salaries. In an interview with Mr. Kelvin Keshi, the aggrieved journalist slammed the proposed magazine between Lanre Nzeribe and Monalisa Chinda as a "failed white elephant magazine misadventure;" and Lanre as someone who "was always conscious to give off a deceptive public image of the hip 'big boy' and perfect gentleman to camouflage his real insensitive, aloof and condescending sides." He further described Monalisa as "almost a simpleton who hardly holds her own opinion. Even when it seems she finally has an opinion of her own, it's always shaded by Lanre's ego-fuelled preferences and biases which often border on his crave for a God-like reverence and being ensconced in his little elitist burble world." Tracing the genesis of their relationship, Mr. Keshi recalled that Lisa and Lanre had hired him sometime in April, on the recommendation of a mutual friend, to help set up a trendy lifestyle magazine that would in no time set the pace in its genre. In his words: "I earnestly set off for work, most of the time multi-tasking as editor, administrative and human resources manager and working late into the night. Incidentally, I had another offer from an Abuja-based company to be an Assistant Editor and Lagos bureau chief of a political magazine but I turned it down on the excuse that I just got engaged with a similar job and wanted to give it 100 percent," I remember the several meetings I had with Lanre, Lisa and the mutual friend - sometimes lasting till 10:30 pm - to discuss and deliberate on issues like editorial thrust, philosophy, mission, vision, target demography, templates, sectionalisation, themes, pagination, story ideas, online presence, USPs, advert generation, circulation and distribution and staffing for the magazine. In all of these sessions I noticed almost everyone else was shallow about what they really wanted; but after much prodding, Lisa said she'd like a lifestyle magazine with a mass appeal. Truth is, they were largely vague about the new magazine concept, but I still tried to decrypt their nebulous ideas, concretised, gave life and substance, documented and presented to them." Mr. Keshi said he was puzzled after he discovered that all Lanre really wanted from him was to use him to set up the magazine and then whip up and amplify inexistent and inconsequential issues along the way as convenient alibis to sever the working relationship. "I first suspected when he issued three-month temporary employment to the first batch of staff and arbitrarily fixed salaries without giving room for negotiations. When I questioned it, he said salaries would be reviewed upwardly at the end of the three months and permanent employment letters issued. "Also in breach of initial discussions before I agreed to resign a job and join him, he affixed the title 'Assistant Editor' to my name instead of 'Editor.' Curiously, after all editorial work had been concluded, he introduced his sister, Ejine, as 'Editor' and requested me to forward all edited materials to her. Ejine never showed up in the office once and her editing via e-mails was just so-so, forcing me to re-edit again. "Lanre also asked that since stories for the first edition were completed, my team and I should write for subsequent editions which I obliged him out of trust. As I discovered later, his wily game plan was to get as much intellectual and editorial contents out of me for subsequent editions before he schemes me out of the set-up," he complained. Mr. Keshi said the straw that broke the camel's back was when Lanre and Monalisa refused to pay him his outstanding fees after they severed the working relationship with him without a valid reason. One week later, he said he sent Lanre an SMS requesting for his salaries but he (Lanre) felt offended. "I advice that all communication from you should be in writing and directed to the company, please do not use this channel to reach me again," his reply read in part. Angry at the response, Keshi decided to call Lisa to complain. "But she told me to stop calling her too. She told me she was with him when my message came into his phone. "I don't even know why I'm dignifying you with a response," she added . Asides the court process, Mr. Keshi has also vowed to publish all the magazine stories he has edited.