What is the face of a coward? the back of his head as he
runs from a battle. –Frank Underwood (House of cards, 2016).
It's so alarming that as Nigerians today, we have so little
verve for pursuing the right causes, so little energy for tackling or following
through our scale of importance for societal issues. We have begun to imbibe a
culture of having a knack for attacking the tips of issues so violently and
painstakingly that we forget that the roots are the real propagators. We easily
forget what the real issues are.
The recent outcry, outbursts and online protest against the
Big Brother reality show is a big show on how hypocritical we have become as a
nation. Let's put aside the hypocrisy and dwell on our lawmakers who have made
petitioning the NBC to ban it, as their most important constituents need right
now . In a president-less country, a country reeking from the constant economic/financial
bleeding the same legislature inflicts on the country, a country where
inflation has reached Zimbabwean proportions, a country where the said
constituents don't even have electric power to watch the show, these set of
"NGO's" and "legislators" have taken it as their tasks to
end the show. Talk about priorities.
Now let's talk about hypocrisy, the hypocrisy of the
Nigerians who have been on the front burner of banning the show; the most pious
and religious people among us. The ones who enjoy dictating what others should
find entertaining and what they shouldn’t. The people who constantly shout to
the rooftops that #BBN should be banned as its not part of our
"tenets", "culture" or whatever adjective they might
conjure. Now let's subtly ignore the fact that culture is dynamic, relative and
ever changing (killing of twins and albinos was tagged ‘culture’ at a point in
time). In a global world where culture is now being transferred and shared, it
is imperative that we observe, relate rationally and tolerate the differences
that may arise.
The BigBrother show is rated 18 and PG induced. Adults who
want to watch it could, and children watching it, is at the sole discretion of
the guardians/parents. There are so many other channels. There are so many
other shows on TV that are more lewd than the BigBrother show with a lot less
age rating. Why do we have so much intolerance for anything Nigerian?
If we all followed our religious tenets as lucidly as the
holy books tell us to, the society we live in won't be as decadent as this.
BigBrother Nigeria is not the problem of Nigeria. Its not what we elected
officials to debate on, frankly. We won't be as stagnant and even as redundant
as we are today if the government and legistlators in particular channel their energy
and voice into matters that will bring real and good change to the standard of
living of Nigerians. In Lagos, the average Nigerian is not a happy person( bite
me), they hardly lookout for their neigbours and are in a perpetual state of
looking for the newest method of cutting corners or gaining undue favors. Where
does this new found ‘community’ care for what other watch emanating from? Why
do we deceive ourselves and prefer to face the non-issues.
We should learn to demand more from government officials,
and not join them to take the discourse from how helpless they've made us
become due to visionless leadership to issues that are really, non-issues. Let’s
talk more about the difficult issues.
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