Nigerian elite class must be the most privileged in the world. They take no responsibility for their failure. They never admit to their flops. Instead, they pick on the masses. They leave the substance of their moral bankruptcy and chase shadow. I call it the elite mob. A mental schizophrenia that afflicts the elite mind, that makes them feign ignorance of their own mess but mount the soapbox to advertise the mess of others. The elite mob syndrome makes the elite play the victim while everyone else is the guilty party.
The latest guilty party – victim – of the Nigerian elite mob is the reality TV show called Big Brother Naija. Now in its fifth season (BigBrotherNaija Lockdown), the Nigerian elite have seen in BigBrother the source and chief cause of our woes. The reality TV show must be stopped forthwith. It must be replaced with something that edifies our collective ethos. The show does not reflect our legendary pristine values. It slaps us dirty. It makes us stupid. Portrays us as morally destitute. So, the elite cry “away with BigBrotherNaija!”
Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture is on this matter. He wants the programme stopped. The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, has also grabbed the microphone. He, too, wants the BigBrother show replaced. For them, it’s anything but BigBrother. The reality TV show does damage to the psyche of our youths. The show is immoral, dirty, filthy and decadent. But how did they know? I will almost swear that these two privileged Nigerians and those cringing at the programme do not watch it. Their eyes are too righteous to behold evil.
But what do I know? Who are my to question the Ombudsmanship authority of these men and the elite clan they represent? No normal child should question the paternal authority of his or her father. Never! Except that these elite have not explained to the rest of us how BigBrotherNaija has collapsed the value of the naira at the forex market. They have not explained to us how 60 years after Independence, BigBrother has made it impossible for Nigeria to have steady electricity in spite of billions of dollars funneled into the power sector. Was it BigBrother that has made the provision of potable water for Nigerians a mirage?
Perhaps, it’s BigBrother that is breeding the dynasties of poverty in the country. Nigeria has just snatched the ignoble trophy as ‘the poverty capital of the world’ from India. Data from the World Poverty Clock, a web-based tool produced by World Data Lab, says the number of persons living in extreme poverty in Nigeria has increased to 93.7 million by June 2019. The number is increasing. An average of 4.5 Nigerians slip into extreme poverty every minute, all thanks to BigBrotherNaija.
Unemployment and underemployment rates are competing for a prize. In the last five years alone, unemployment rate has tripled. As at second quarter of this year, it’s perilously at 27.1 percent, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. This must be the handiwork of BigBrother especially if you factor that this lockdown edition is the fifth in the Nigerian series.
I vote for a ban of BigBrother because it’s the reason our hospitals are ill-equipped despite huge sums budgeted for drugs and medical equipment. Our dutiful and outspoken First Lady, Aisha Buhari (Gob bless you Madam) has told us that Aso Rock clinic is nothing but a glorified dispensary. Not even a functional X-ray machine is anywhere in sight at the clinic. Yet, every budget cycle, millions of naira are voted for the clinic. I wager it must be BigBrother that reduced what ought to be a clinic for the nation’s first family and Presidency staff to a dispensing facility.
In the global corruption chart, Nigeria ranks among the most corrupt nations. And she has trophies to justify her high rating. Let’s just mention a few cases. Halliburton in February 2009 admitted it paid millions of dollars in bribes to Nigerian officials to win the contract to build a $4 billion natural gas plant in the country. The company was convicted in the US and ordered to pay a fine of $402 million to the US government.
Recall also the separate cases of Willbros and Siemens. Both companies bribed some Nigerian officials. They admitted before the court of law that they did bribe some Nigerians to get some juicy contracts. Both companies had been convicted by their parent countries. In the case of Willbros, a US engineering company, two senior executive were nailed in the bung. Jim Bob Brown was sentenced to one year and a day, while Jason Edward Steph was jailed for 15 months for conspiring to violate the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Note that in all of these cases, the companies and their representatives admitted to offering bribe to Nigerians. But in Nigeria, the home of the bribe recipients, there has been a loud silence. No trial, no conviction. BigBrother cast a spell on the anti-graft agencies to look the other way.
And if you say that was in the past, what about the forex subsidy scandal lavishly reported in the media. What about the October 2017 love letter penned by then Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, in which he blew the whistle on $25 billion not-so-transparent deals entered into by NNPC? What about the missing billions of naira from NDDC; the revelations by the National Assembly about the not-so-clean manner huge cash money was expended under the social investment scheme. Even our First Lady corroborated this allegation. I guess it’s BigBrother that has frustrated every move to probe these allegations and prosecute all associated suspects.
No nation is as religious as Nigeria. We sponsor pilgrims to Rome, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Yet, we rank top on the global corruption index. We steal in church, in mosque, in office and out of office. Ethnicity guides our decisions. We do all sorts. Our international passport evokes suspicion all around the world. Our leaders leave office richer than the office. All this because of BigBrother. Yes, BigBrother is the cause of leadership failure in Nigeria.
But before we ban this programme, let’s remember that it’s not all about some youths smooching and cuddling. Former housemates, both winners and losers, have gone ahead to become creators of wealth and employers of labour. These were young men and women rendered hopeless by the misrule of the same elite calling for a ban on BigBrother.
BigBrother teaches tolerance and encourages diversity. The weekly tasks don’t come cheap. They task the mental and cognitive aptitude of the housemates. Above all, if it offends your pious sensibilities, please block it in your TV; switch to other channels. The promoters sensibly rated it 18 (R18). That’s fair enough. Those who think they can enforce righteousness by banning BigBrother should look elsewhere. BigBrother is not why the roads are not fixed, why we suffer infrastructure deficit; why corruption festers in the public and private sector. Rather, it has become the balm against the pain inflicted on Nigerian youths by the elite mob. Get it!