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See Who Our Heroes Are
- By Idang
Alibi
Culled from Nigeria Today Online
(A Case of misplaced Priorities and disregard of African
Values)
A
few months ago when Mr. Kevin Pam returned from his “exploits’ at the
reality show called Big Brother Africa, he was received as an honoured
guest of the President’s in the Aso Rock Presidential Villa. Pam has
since become a Nigerian pop idol. A few years back when another young
Nigerian Bayo Okoh won in the same competition, he visited President
Obasanjo who promptly declared him a Nigerian hero. I do not know what
feat a competitor achieves in Big Brother Africa to be declared winner
and for him to then be hailed as a national hero. I am not at all
ashamed to declare that I am a man of the Old School. When something new
comes on the scene, I am always wary of embracing it and when I warm up
to it, I will do so with the tentativeness with which a young woman
responds to the entreaties of a persistent new suitor. In fact I embrace
new things without any much gusto until I am convinced beyond doubt that
it is very good for me. And so when Big Brother Africa reality show
intruded on our national consciousness and there was the huge craze in
town over it, I had to rely on TV addicts to tell me what it was all
about. When I was told all about what the “housemates” do, how there is
a “shower hour” in which the housemates bathe in their birthday suits
for the watching, lustful admiration of millions of viewers, the moral
side of me convinced me that that was not the kind of show that me a
child of the Living God should waste my time to watch. How can I, the
Right Honourable Mr. Idang Alibi, God’s own child, watch a programme
that is likely to corrupt my morals and take away my valuable sleeping
hours? God forbid.
Imagine my surprise then when a Nigerian who is declared winner in such
a competition is received in audience by the President of my country and
declared a national hero. I also heard that a young man from Botswana
who won last year’s game, perhaps, as part of the game, fingered, or to
put it more euphemistically, touched a young Nigerian girl in a part of
the body considered in all civilised cultures as sacred and sensitive.
And this was done in full view of the whole world! So this is the stuff
of which winners of Big Brother Africa are supposed to be made? To be
audacious, unAfrican and adopt the devil- may- care attitude? And then
at the end of it all, they are hailed as heroes? What hero? Big Brother
has been on for some years now and to date, no one has succeeded in
telling some of us what really is done in that ‘House’. The housemates
are never required to do anything imaginative, creative, innovative or
soul-lifting; nothing that will add significant value to their nation of
origin or to the African continent or to humanity as a whole. They just
sit there in that house and speak and act like poor caricatures of White
children. The kind of music they sing is unAfrica. The values they
promote in that ‘House’ is unAfrican. And then they become heroes. Just
like that. Is that the kind of activity that produces heroes? Are they
heroes because they promote Western, American values?
By honouring the likes of Bayo and Kevin as heroes what are our
Presidents telling other Nigerian youth? That the way to glory is
through pop culture? That you do not need to do anything positive or
productive to become a hero? That all what you need to do is to just get
into the public eye through all devices and you become a hero? What
attributes of heroism does the Big Brother Africa competition seek to
bring out of those who take part in it? Is it extreme courage,
selflessness, perseverance, resourcefulness, ingenuity or nobility? If
you win Big Brother Africa competition is that a scholastic or
vocational achievement? Do you offer any scientific or technological
breakthrough that will bring better life to the people of say Nigeria
and Africa? Every society reserves the right to define who should be
its heroes. In the Western world, they have conquered many diseases
which still kill hundreds of thousands in Africa. They have overcome
development challenges which we here are still grappling with. Food is
no longer a challenge to them as it is to us in most of Africa. They
take for granted some socio-economic amenities which are a luxury to us
here. For them they want things that can help give them diversion from
the tedium of over enjoyment. In such societies any meaningless idea
such as assembling young men and women to stay in sexually charged
atmosphere to view them like animals in a zoo such as the Big Brother
Africa competition does give them the much needed diversion they crave.
But our society in Africa is much different. We face grim challenges
here bordering on sheer survival. We need a solution to the Malaria
pandemic that kills millions of Africans. For me any man or woman that
brings forth an idea that can combat this number one killer of Africans
will be a true hero indeed. We must try to be careful about the things
we copy from oyiboland. The reality show idea we have copied and
embraced with so much enthusiasm is one of the things we must jettison.
It is clearly not good for us. The gist of what we are saying is that it
is wrong for our Presidents to receive in audience in Aso Rock or
anywhere else and hail as national heroes the likes of Bayo Okoh and
Kevin Pam because they won in a meaningless competition called Big
Brother Africa which adds no real value to our society. In case our
Presidents do not know it, the Aso Rock Presidential Villa is more
hallowed than the two chambers of the National Assembly combined. If
this nation were a temple, the presidential villa is supposed to be the
“holy of holies”. If the country were a congregation, he is its chief
priest, the Cohen Gadol. The chief priest can never be seen blessing the
unholy because he is expected to be holy because he represents a holy
God. The occupant of the Villa is supposed to be the highest symbol of
our nobility. He is the custodian of our cherished values. He, it is,
who is supposed to define what we consider as an achievement and
validates those who are seen as having achieved what we consider
worthwhile. Any one the President is seen publicly with in the Villa be
he a businessman, a singer, a farmer, a footballer or any other citizen
or foreigner, must be an exceptional man or woman who has contributed,
or is likely, to contribute to the greatness of the fatherland. Declares
the Bible: “Seeth thou a man diligent in his work? He shall not stand
before mere men. He shall stand before kings and princes “. The
President is not a mere man. He should therefore not allow himself to
mingle with mere men.
As I see it, the Aso Rock is our own White House. In fact, I advocate
that we should rename our presidential residence the Black House and
promote it to signify that it is the powerhouse of the Black race. We
should seek to remove the negative connotation attached to black. See
how Ghana has projected blackness with pride and see how their senior
national team soared higher than any other black team in the on-going
FIFA World Cup! A visit to the White House has inspired many young
Americans to work hard and become president. Some time during the
presidency of late JF Kennedy, Bill Clinton visited Kennedy as a Rhode’s
Scholar, shook hands and took pictures with Kennedy. He was so taken in
by the grandeur of the White House and the charisma of the president
that he resolved to become president one day. That inspiration fired his
life and one day he became not just the president of the USA but one of
the four most successful presidents of that country. Our own Aso Rock,
sorry Black House, should be to Nigerians and the Black race what the
White House is to the Americans and the Western world. Our Black House
should receive and validate only those who have something worthwhile to
contribute to the greatness of Nigeria and the Black world. If it must
receive icons of popular culture, it must be only those who have
projected our Black culture and not the likes of Bayo and Kevin who are
caricatures of Western culture.
I have often wondered why if we like the reality show idea so much why
has no one thought of doing the ones that are relevant to our situation
and which will produce authentic Nigerian heroes? Why, for instance, do
we not have National Geographical quiz competition in which young
Nigerians are encouraged to know the geography of their country? Why do
we not have a literature quiz competition in which our children are
encouraged to read the books written by authors from Nigeria and Africa?
With this we will wean our children away from harmful television
programmes which give little but corrupt so much. Why do we not have a
competition for young inventors and designers who Nigeria will rely upon
for our technological breakthrough? Winners in such competitions should
be promoted as genuine national heroes. There should be celebrated as
budding intellectual prodigies. A young northern Nigerian Jelani Aliyu
is making waves in the car-making world and is being celebrated as one
of the best car designers in the world. When will a Nigerian president
receive him and shake hands with him in the Villa and project him as an
inspiration to young Nigerians? Why is his name not among those who were
selected for conferment of the National Honours Awards for bringing
honour to his fatherland by his exploits abroad? Does President Goodluck
Jonathan know the Nigerian child who had the best result in the recent
NECO Examinations? Why are young Nigerians who make first class
degrees in our extremely difficult circumstances not invited to dine and
wine with our presidents? Why should it be champions of permissive
Western pop culture the ones that get star treatment from our
presidents?
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR:
Article written by Idang Alibi and culled from Nigeria Today Online,
July 2010
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