eleojo23:
Auditions may soon begin for the next season of BBNaija, that brilliant shindig of unhinged fandom. But for a name that connotes mentorship, BBNaija fails the office: big brothers do not reward play while serious work awaits. Entertainment is best as celebration of grit and achievement, which is why, in timing and ethic, pleasure businesses contemplate relaxation after work. And why Western societies can overhype show-business: their ancestors have fixed their shit. A poor child idling around with playmates who inherited enormous wealth is clearly not getting it. Nigeria is doing that — running entertainment as its most viable youth enterprise — emulating those who can afford to play, even as we use phone torchlight to find our feet at the dance floor.

Three months after we rested BBNaija 2018, Ghana had its own moment in a nationally televised science and maths quiz where secondary schools competed for glory. Marked by nationwide euphoria, it was captured even by the BBC, which documented the journey of Kissi Kweku, the lad that led his school to this year’s trophy. The show has been on air for 25 years, proving a sense of priority that steers youth energy in the right direction. The gains will come.

“Nigerian youth have been obsessed with the peripherals — social media, fashion, embracing the West. No one is asking the right questions: what will it take to have light for a full day? How can we, together, solve the power problem in our area?” said CNN’s Richard Quest. To question our technological slumber is to invite a punditry that, besides making a roll call of black innovators, blames Western conspiracy. Ironically, listing African technological inventors is proving the point of their minority: no one does same for the Chinese, the Europeans, or recently, the Indians. For decades, we have been “writing back to the West to correct false narratives about Africa”, rather than doing the work, which is more eloquent. Rejoinder literature cannot defeat the fact that we don’t have a bicycle brand wholly produced by ourselves.
The alternative to rejoinder nationalism is for rich black people to flaunt their wealth, showing the white man they too can afford the good life. Ironically also, the jets and Lamborghinis are produced by the people you want to spite, who look at you the same way educated Nigerians look at the money-miss-road that thinks money can compensate for illiteracy.

Often rightly blamed is the government, but little is said of other agencies of cultural development, like corporate Nigeria. Glo Naija Sings, Maltina Dance All, Gulder Ultimate Search, MTN Project Fame, Next Movie Start, etc. — can corporate Nigeria ever engage the young mind in relevant productivity, like incentivizing technological and scientific thought? Is there an imperial conspiracy in foreign multinationals promoting leisure, as opposed to what they did decades ago to help their nations to rise?

At the bottom of global racism is the black man. Asians have since risen in world reckoning by technological exuberance. Arabs have gone far, with Iran unveiling its first indigenous turbo jet engine this August. Anti-racism laws and debates may protect the black man but never elevate him; only indigenous technology and problem-solving can. A risen Black Africa will fulfill the Wakanda longings of the African-American whose racial pride, like ours, is daily wounded in Africans living in televised agony and drowning en mass at the Mediterranean, pleading western succour.

Our obsession with entertainment is consolation as celebration, in a sense understandable. The point is not that we should quit playing, but that we should refocus on things that really matter, on failings that have stripped us of dignity among decent humanity. Without electricity, we snuck to the Chinese for generators and, as we struggled to fuel them from high fuel prices, we ran back to them for power banks. Our major bold footprints are in movies and music, where heavy makeup, Ankara, and colour now perform exotic breeding in British accent.

We must quit fisting bitter truths away in fruitless rationalizations. The world is witnessing a rise in antiglobalization and we are being chased back from all over the world, as statistics of downcast humanity in Libyan slavery and Western asylum. Yet in Big Brother, we are cultivating a lucrative idolatry of leisure. Nothing is physiologically wrong with the black man, only a complex crisis of civilization solvable through a radical shift in education and culture.

And Big Brother Naija, for corporate Nigeria and in spite of government, can truly be a big brother and mentor our youth by creatively leveraging true enterprise and leisure. It can, in a fun way, incorporate technological innovative ethic into the system of auditions, giving back to a society that made its sponsors rich, instead of perennially
mindsturbating the youth for big money. For a true big brother is actually a family statesman, one that, over subsidizing their vanities, guides the youth to find the actualization they need.

Written by Immanuel James Ibe-Anyanwu

Source: https://medium.com/@immanueljamesibeanyanwu/before-the-next-bbnaija-1fb6e5999509

skentelelady:
Please let stop blaming the government for everything.
So much sense
Has an individual thought of what he can do for his country? Why can the youth write proposals to all these corporate organisations to sponsor reasonable events? Or develop yourself and let big organisations sponsor your projects

Go to Asia, Europe, US etc, youths are developing themselves to make their country great. This will enable their government to step in and help in that field.

We can just lay low in our closets and expect things to happen. Change will always begin with you, an individual.

I just imagine what this generation will turn the country to in the next year's when I read some comments and see some posts even on this nairaland

No good morals, no good values to inject in the society

This will make the old men in power to continue to take the youths for granted.

BetWinners:

I am not surprised.The man is clearly a self loathing black person.People like him create a negative spin to everything black people achieve.He even referred to Iranians as Arabs when they are Persians.Arabs innovate nothing.Their wealth comes from the oil in their soil which has led to corruption on steroids in their region

Nowenuse:


The writer made his point clear, stop criticizing him unjustly. He actually inspires reasonable people with his piece.

Iranians and Arabs have a long history of togetherness.
He would have just used the classification 'Middle-easternerns'. His message has been passed and his point understood.

BetWinners:

The Blackman has made and is still making a lot of positive strides.Unfortunately,any positive stride the blackman makes is given a negative connotation by other self loathing black people.For example,the writer talked about Africans drowning in the Mediterranean sea trying to get to Europe.What about the hundreds of thousands even millions of Syrians that have made a similar journey?What about the millions of south and central Americans that have made and are still making thesame journey to the USA?If Venezuela were to be an African nation,we would never hear the end of how the blackman is a perpetual "failure" from all quarters

babasolution:


venezuela is one country out of the rest of latin america that are doing well,what about chile etc,also syria is also one country out of others arabic countries doing well like uae,quatar,kuwait etc,how many black african or black countries are doing well round the globe almost none,thats were the issue is

nazablossom:
It has come to stay . The sponsors are making money from it, that's what matters to them.

abumoney:
Biko, leave all these English. If those who went to school are been paid #30, 000 by your clueless government under the Npower scheme, and he sees where he could make millions just by relaxing in a house, what is it you're even saying. Don't just let me tel thunder to Coman strike you there. Tell your government to provide jobs for the unemployed graduates, and stop talking nonsense about those who decided to empower us through entertainment.

Digitalwitch:
The government is still at fault. We are not ready for change so we shouldn't expect corporate businesses to do that us.

Friend01:



Another no brainer.
How can government give you job when you are not ready to demand a conducive environment from the same government.
Go to other climes government don't "give jobs" rather they provide the enabling environment and wherewithal for ingenuity to prevail.
The biggest employer of labour in USA, China, Germany and other developed countries is not government but private individuals whom government have provided the enabling laws to function properly to provide employment.
The day some of you will start thinking with your brains not emotions that's when things will start working.
Big Brother Nigeria is a time waster and time burning event which have zero intellectual input to any sensible adult life.
I would rather sleep than watch that garbage.

Jainine:
After going through the write up. I can totally see the sense in the message. I agree that Nigerians watch more social content this is simply as a result of poor quality educatiional tv programs.

The television is a big space and there are no reasons for us to set limits for ourselves. If we decide to focus solely on educational content i'm very sure a foreigner will come in and take advantage of that opportunity.(for all i know, the orgnizers of bbn may even be whites)

I think we should understand that this is business and we should know our real problem is lack of quality content. So far i know, the only educational content that has had a wide spread of audience is the "who wants to be a millionaire " which is an international program

What this goes to say is that the root of this problem is lack of quality content. I'm quite sure with a good marketing and quality program, the audience will watch be it educational, social or political content.

meobizy:
I don't know why I never see all these write ups condemning the premier league or the many senseless cups soccer teams battle for yearly. It is always someone else's form of entertainment Nigerians try to put down to make theirs seem superior.

All I know is BBNaija creates millionaires. Seven of those were created in this past edition. The critics if analyzed have never spent a fraction of their wealth to better another's life unless in projects forced down on them.

If no Nigerian I know can propose a better show than analyzing the successful layout already on ground then they shall receive no listening ear from me.