By Theresa Moses
The Giant of Africa, Nigeria, is famous for producing quality content in entertainment, innovative business ideas in the entrepreneurial sphere, creativity inbuilt industry and more enabling talents sprouting in diverse fields.
With the advent of reality TV shows in the country, a whole lot of mediocrity is being celebrated over excellent creativity, which calls for concern.
Recently, I was involved in a unique and the first of its kind CELEBRITY COME BUILD REALITY TV SHOW (watch episodes @CCBNAIJA YouTube Channel on www.youtube.com), in which the ultimate winner gets N120 million inclusive of a 5-Bedroom Duplex in Lekki, an all-expense-paid trip to Dubai, and more.
Also, it comes with one of the lucky viewers having the opportunity to win a 3-bedroom bungalow and the profit from it designed to kick-start social-housing programme for low and middle-income earners in dignity.
The meat of the Reality TV Show is an assemblage of 12 distinguished celebrities across Africa who are on a construction site sweating and toiling, with their hands soiled as they carry head-pans of mixed sand, cement and concrete to build the two units of 3-bedroom bungalows.
Although a new concept, but despite its novelty, the shocking and bitter truth is that it barely gained the deserved attention because the show is not, probably, promoting nudity, immorality or free sex extravaganza.
So one wonders: Why then do we love to celebrate and spend humongous money to sponsor group of individuals for staying in a house engaging in unlimited kissing, eating, gossiping, quarreling, fighting, sleeping, or having free sex?
As Covid-19 Pandemic impacts negatively on Nigerians, many have been forced out of jobs while the source of livelihood have continued to dwindle coming with its harsh economic implication on the average family.
No wonder that in 71-days, a TV show generated traffic of over 900 million votes cast during the Season 5 of Big Brother Naija. With limited resources and biting hunger in the land orchestrated by job losses occasioned by the pandemic in 2020, an estimated over N27 billion was generated from a show that does seems not to promote our value and cultural orientation but mere obscenity.
By arithmetic deduction, (plus and minus), about 900,000,000 votes @ N30 per SMS gives the sum). One would be curious to ask: Why do brand Managers and Corporate brand promotion agencies give priority to such obscenity by sponsoring and advertising in shows of this nature through the years?
The novel CCBNaija is a star-studded production, which uses fun to develop home-ownership, empower the viewing public, and built industry career cum skills acquisition. It encourages the youth as well as finding a solution to one of the fundamental societal problems – shelter deficit.
For instance, if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) calls on Nigerian citizens, especially its youths to vote on their mobile phones @ N10 per SMS to elect leaders that will shape their future and the country; won’t they ask the government to credit their accounts first before they would agree to vote? I guess you know the answer!!!
A post like this: “Incredible! CCBNAIJA Offers 3-Bedroom Bungalow to one Lucky Fan” may get 10 Comments, 12 Likes, six Shares and 20 views because of the reality of who we are as a people and where our priority lies as citizens; whereas the post, “Big Brother Naija: Medline caught on camera having sex with William will get 180.7k Comments, 300.3k Likes, 170.8k Shares and 570k views.
Just as Mr. Gbola Oba, Visioner/Co-Founder, www.ulda-edu.ng and CCBNAIJA says: “I’m confident that Nigeria will sooner be better visionaries and enterprise value-innovators (the class that I stubbornly resolve to belong), must not be tired chasing good ideas with integrity.”
I believe we all especially corporate Nigeria, have a choice to either change the narrative or be part of the immorality episode befalling Nigeria.
https://any.peopleandpowermag.com/nigerian-reality-celebrating-obscenity-over-excellent-creativity/
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