Examining MC Edo Pikin’s Art and Social Media Theatre Persona as Prototype for Sustainable Living through Creativepreneurship

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The growing indices of poverty in Africa are alarming, thus necessitating an increased quest for creative means to change the tide. Adopting the Creative Imitation Theory (CIT), the study uses historicocritical, content analysis, key person interview (KPI) and direct observation methods to investigate the potential of harnessing creativepreneurship among youths in job or wealth creation and self-empowerment. The researchers use a Nigerian comedian and social media celebrity, MC Edo Pikin as a case study. The article analyses how social media could be leveraged by a creative artist for self-realization, social impact and economic emancipation. It unpacks how MC Edo Pikin through the instrumentality of his art as a skit-maker cum comedian, satirizes emerging socio-political, socio-economic, and socio-cultural issues in Nigeria, yet maximizes motifs, creative branding, and innovation for entertainment and economic empowerment. The study argues that by embracing creativepreneurship by Nigerian and African youths, a route to exiting excruciating poverty would have been found and sustained outside waiting for a 'government job' remit. However, the study identifies possible limitations to the actualization of creativepreneurship, including a wrong application of creativity, non-commitment to personal skills development, inconsistency of vision, and lack of or/non-implementation of clear policy directions for the cultural and creative industries (CCIs) in Nigeria. Given this, the study suggests that a well-articulated interface between social media and creativepreneurship offers a realistic alternative to human capital development, revenue generation, sustainable living, and poverty eradication.