Largely due to a crippled economy and dismal security situations
,Nigeria’s collective sense of self -awareness appears to have
vanished.
#BBNaija, a
show about nothing, that describes itself as “reality tv”, for example,
has more people engaged than they care about their own lives and those
lost hourly to domestic terrorists, bandits, bad cops etc.
They
even worry less about the fact that school isn’t re-opening or that
most of the nation’s doctors and lecturers are on strike.
Yet
the show has caught a big fish. Controversial priest, Fr. Ejike Mbaka,
has joined in the army of Nigerians who find real life too excruciating
and must seek reprieve in entertainment, how ever sordid.
Just when “spiritually” inclined people call for the cancellation of the annual show, Mr Mbaka lends a helping hand.
Sunday, in a sermon, the priest “condemned” one of the participants and “praised” another.
“Look
at what she was calling the other young man, ‘idiot’, ‘you are an
idiot’ and the whole world was watching. And the person she was calling
idiot gets more votes than all of them, the boy did not even respond to
her”.
And for good measure :
“Look
at Erica with all her beauty and all her beautiful dances, then look at
her in the next ten minutes, she becomes cantankerous and pugnacious
and in her cantakerousity and pugnacity, she will lose that 85 million”.
Yeah,
85 million votes even though no Nigerian president has got more than 22
million votes. And how did Mr Mbaka know ? We shall get to that part.
Nigeria’s media, regular and the not-so-regular, are alight. Most hoping for clicks more than anything else.
Mr
Mbaka first shot to notoriety when he “prophesied” that Mohammadu
Buhari will be president. Since then, Mr Mbaka has been used to endorse
very bad news. Sometimes, against his own people, Ibos.
The
show and Mr Mbaka are truly emblematic of all that has gone wrong with
Nigeria. Absolutely vapid, the annual event puts young men and women
together in one house for weeks. Surviving depends on a housemate’s
ability to be brazenly vulgar, lack morals and have the IQ of a duck.
And in the end, one of those gets a grand prize. Again, remember that
the completion is about nothing.
Finally, why did a very well-known reverend Father follow a show as though he is one of the producers ?
Well,
post -Covid, church attendance has been low and one must keep one’s
faithfuls even if it means telling them what they want to hear. Empathy ?
No. Money ? Perhaps.
Speaking
of money, it is very possible that the show’s organizers arranged for
Mr Mbaka to be an avid fan. Again, for money. But I could be wrong.