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

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cc: Lalasticlala.

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

We value certificate more than experience and technical skills. With all the intellectual competitions organized by many organizations, nothing has changed. Big brother is a business strategy used by the organizers to make money

^^^That's true

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.

Something I am planning to go to.



See my signature

hmm

I see. So what's next?

WHO WILL SPONSOR ME

Nigerians prefer nudity to dignity

Big brother what??. Oh not again!!!!!!!!!!!

Jhg

Where's the venue For Audition, Make me sef go show my bweast

It's clearly a joke quit quoting horrny bastardds

Big brother is what many youth want, quick money and fame.

Sense dey am..

when the trumpet will sound, the angel will position it towards Nigeria so that nobody will say I didn't hear it o especially these our yeye politicians, ndi ara

Dear Nairalnders
Many people think they are watching television, but they‘re actually watching as their lives pass away. Instead of watching other people’s visions on television, why not develop your own vision and implement it. Dont just watch television. Show the world your vision- credit to Reno

All this epistle just for Big Brother . Mtcheww

Please let stop blaming the government for everything.

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.

viccgm:
Big brother what??. Oh not again!!!!!!!!!!!

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

This crazy thing abt to start again?

Misplaced Priorities.

This is just incredible. I yearn for that time when those who are passionate about science in its truest form will not have to run to developed nations in order to reach their fullest potential.
We should be enthusiastic about solving our problems. All hands must be on deck to build a good, sustainable and thriving economy. God bless the writer of this piece.

Abeg d stuff too long..sumone should help me summarize

Before the next what??