By: Emmanuel Tochukwu Igwe HFFBY
(Rev Fr) -De Voice-

ABSTRACT

Death has struck our entertainment industry! How it happened, I can’t tell. Just like the biblical Israelites in exile I weep, for her virgin daughter has been defiled, her beauty destroyed, her plenty has become a history with tears. What a great loss to the entertainment industry! Gone are the days when the entertainment industry was known for her great and important role in shaping the lives of the citizenry. Retrospectively, it was known as a veritable instrument for propagating our culture, teaching values and upholding morals in the society. It was respected as a strong avenue that preserved and taught morals to virtually everyone in the society irrespective of gender or ethnicity. That is not all, the media represented and presented our society the way it is without any iota of grotesque indictment of meaning that may degrade the Nigerian culture. The entertainment/media industry imbibed in its audience great morals and values that can be seen in their daily programmes and entertainment shows. In the midst of the above seemingly rosy state of our entertainment/media industry, can we beat our chest and say presently that the table has not changed? Has the reverse become the case especially with the advent of technology and the urgent need for the society to grow in line with the advancement?

PRELUDE

Who does not know it? Or do I need a soothsayer to tell me? That it has been a gloomy moment still in the entertainment/media industry. Yes! Even a new born baby can sense and feel the eerie and ominous air she (Entertainment/media industry) is encircled in; as it whines and turns in its moral decadence, decorated with an enthronement of immorality expressed in dirty romance and all forms of sexual rakishness. Not even in the lifetime of the media and entertainment industry has there been so much grave decay and lamentation. Have you not watched countless number of videos and shows? Some critical minds like me will say “what an arrant nonsense” especially with what they are seeing today in our media sectors. Many, if not all, have expressed this in soliloquy, while others in various write ups and daily publications like this. Hence, the urgent need for this article, a fruit that has ripened at its best time. To this end, therefore, the burden of this work is to “hatch the egg from its shell”, without mincing words or with any trace of angst, the danger zone nature of the Nigerian reality competition, otherwise known as the Big Brother Naija (BBN). This will pave way for us to examine closely the “Christianess” of BBN, that’s if there is any.

BIG BROTHER NAIJA ( BBN )

This is a Nigerian reality competition television series, based on the Big Brother Television franchise, in which contestants live in an isolated house and compete for a large cash prize and other material prizes. It was created in 1999 by John de Mol in the Netherlands. In the show, individuals called housemates are housed in a secluded house and monitored through hidden television cameras situated all across the house. And based on the voting of viewers, the housemates are progressively eliminated from the “House” until the last person remaining wins the cash prize. The Big Brother franchise covers over 54 countries.

Furthermore, the Big Brother Naija (BBN), however, has been overwhelming. The show too, has made its entry into Nigeria in 2006. The second season aired in 2017, the third in 2018 and the fourth just ended. This version followed on the earlier Big Brother Africa which began in 2001, and entered its ninth season in 2014. Statistics reveal that the third season of the show saw over 170 million votes cast with Nigerians spending N7.2 billion to vote for 26 housemates. What a tremendous improvement! Soaring even more the educational system of our country Nigeria.
It might interest you to know that statistics has revealed that the third season of the show saw over 170 million votes cast with Nigerians spending N7.2 billion to vote for 26 housemates.

This is ridiculous! It means it would translate into about 5.1 billion naira in profits. But most significantly, the show, no doubt, provides ample entertainment opportunity for millions of Nigerians who sorely need a distraction from the drudgery of daily living, and the inability of our government to respond to their aspirations for democratic governance that will be empowering and engaging. Many Nigerians, therefore, have no choice than to wait eagerly for the BB Naija reality show to commence, and then they sit for hours watching the antics of housemates as they quarrel, laugh, bath, display affection and even sleep. Of course, they are caught up in the web of relationships that develop among the housemates, their emotional differences, their fights, and the eviction of any of their favorites. The names of these housemates percolate down into the streets and the minds of those who are BB Naija faithful viewers.

UNDERSCORING THE MORAL DEFICIT OF BIG BROTHER NAIJA (BBN)

Who could have thought that our entertainment/media industry, whose responsibility is to promote values and the culture of the people, could become insipid? What a ridiculous! Well, take heart the founding fathers of the media entertainment; be consoled Nigerians, for this was not the reason why its industry was originated. Is it not clear to even the blind that while the media entertainment, often staged, artificial, unrealistic and fictional shows, she constantly perpetuates various configurations which people have accepted as an ideal. While in real sense, they have become a big representation of that moral decline.

Nevertheless, with my little enquiries on other available write-ups in the dailies regarding this pertubing issue of BBN, I gathered that it is not different from ours. Scholars and other concerned writers were able to lay bare the glaring fact that BBN is nothing but enthronement of immorality. Some have equally questioned the christian-ness of the BBN reality show. Truly, It has become an entertainment show with no moral framework guiding its projection of human relations in virtual reality. In our different homes, this show is beamed live with no thought for caution. That is not all, it might interest you to know that the participants, commonly known as the housemates, project different behavioral dynamics that run counter to what parents teach their children on daily bases. Worst still, our parents are now encouraging their children; leaving them to listen to music and watch shows that objectivizes women, encourage sex and violence. Others too, have given in a huge sum of money in the name of voting for their best housemate so as not to be evicted from the show. Our well to do rich men in the society have spent over billions in sponsoring and voting for a particular contestant too, while our best graduating students from our Universities are honoured with an envelope, containing the sum of five thousand naira and with a handshake.

From all indication, nothing is happening and the media entertainment is doing pretty good. The sin of the Big Brother Naija (BBN) remains that it has contributed to the moral decadence of the Nigerian society through its seasonal shows, by projecting attitudes and behavior that do not enhance social and moral values, as well as national self-understanding. What is BBN good at? Reacting to this, Olaopa, a Professor of Public Administration answered that “it only keeps throwing up “celebrities” who occupy the deep end of negative mentoring for the Nigerian youths. And disturbingly, this is what explains its fascination for those who need a more positive motivational orientation.”

Proffering SOLUTIONS
Indeed, we must be willing to do away with that greatest clog on the wheel of advancement. The incontrovertible truth remains that things are not the way they should be. All hands therefore must be on deck, so as to wage the storm already ahead. To this end, every Nigerian must rise up to this fight of eradicating immorality from the Nigerian Entertainment Industry since no nation can develop, irrespective of their academic and economic giants, under the auspices of moral depravity.
Firstly, the Nigeria censor group(s) MUST look into the scripts and scrutinize whatever the entertainment industry has for public display and consumption. In the same way, the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) should serve as a check to ensure that strict rules are placed on media productions so as to allow for programmes that are decent and promote morals in the society. This will go a long way in helping build and shape a better future for the younger generation. We must know that it is not all about now, but about the future generation. Our parents and the government are not left out in this fight for moral sanity in our media entertainment and beyond.
May be we have forgotten so easily that the youth, whom we say are the leaders of tomorrow, cannot achieve this future especially in this state of moral lukewarmness which does not portray any moral responsibility. The media entertainment without doubt is a major influence of the society and what people see is what they follow i.e. when such programmes that portray indecency are presented to the public and to the young; people tend to follow what they see. Similarly, the media entertainment influences a greater percentage of what we do today in the society. This is therefore a significant pointer to the unquestionable fact that the media entertainment is seen as the light, either to guide us or to ruin us.
It will not be out of place to remind our media entertainment their first and primary role: to serve as a mirror to the society in promoting moral values and culture. Hence, programmes Nigeria the giant of Africa.

CONCLUSION
“Can the devil speak the truth?” questioned Banquo rhetorically in Shakespeare’s Macbeth as the witches’ prophecies seemed to be coming to fruition. The truth which many, who are lovers of BBN have failed to accept is that it paints a different picture of what the ideal should be. The reality TV show of BBN must be revisited as soon as possible, so as to restore sanity in the media entertainment and the organizers of BBN. If the above is not taken into consideration, I am afraid, our country Nigeria may be watching in the battle field, a total moral death of her present Nigerian youths and the death of the future leaders, whereby becoming a “Scene of Double tragedy”.

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(EMMANUEL is the Secretary General and Music Director of HFFBY)

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