Acknowledgement
I want to acknowledge the Dutch Freelance journalist,Femke van Zeijl, based in Lagos, Nigeria at the time, whose article directly motivated this post. In April 2013, Femke wrote an article widely published in various publications including The Guardian newspaper titled Mediocrity Overtakes Corruption To Wreck Nigeria (The Guardian, Tuesday, April 2, 2013). She raised alarm over an issue that has been giving many well-meaning patriots a swelling, troubled concer.
It was a dubious distinction that Nigerians were perceived to celebrate mediocrity in all spheres of national life. It seems so ingrained it has become 'tradition'. Nigeria is thus graphically potrayed as a true opposite of a meritocracy: you do not earn by achieving.
Oridinarily, this blog is primarily on CREATIVITY and INNOVATION, but this post is about a subculture and an attitude that this writer believes directly inhibits initiative and kills imagination, and, is ultimately inimical to propagating and promoting CREATIVITY and INNOVATION.
Conniving For Accolades
Most Nigerian awards are predicated on people congregating for back-slapping and hand-pumping after evaluating sub-standard and rather tepid results. Nobody bothers to calibrate the originality, integrity and merit of a lot of the criteria and outcomes upon which many awards making the circuit are premised. Several awards are given for award sake. And a lot more are given to improper reputations built on foundations of sand. There is usually a look of perfunctory speechmaking and pontificating ehich is actually full of form and diminished in substance. These awards are no better than blindfolds, covering the emptiness behnd the gag. Yet year in and year out, the award seasons grow more strident and more colourful from the pressure of growing demand.
In Nigeria, an award is the difference between fame and obscurity. Have you observed that everybody who is anybody must be an "awarding-winning" this or that? And I perfectly understand the sentiment, if you are not an award-winner nobody pays you attention! We love award-winners in Nigeria; we celebrate them, we listen to them and then we quote them. Afterwards, we get together and give them more awards for being award-winners in the first place. This is also ingrained and has become 'tradition'.
Behind the craze for awards, at least in part, are the co-joined twin of social mobility (for this read social climbing) and percunairy alure. And some seem to think it is worth every investment. After all, awards do connote worthy success and therefore commands prestige. So in the business of award giving and taking people are rubbing themselves with the anointment of success in order to exude the aroma of prestige. It is win-win for all involved.
Just imagine an 'enterprising' organsiation which has no notable accomplsihement beyond events planning knack which then arranges an award ceremony for a contrived shortlist of potential receipients with equally nondescript accomlishments. The proponents then approach potential award winners with notification of their selection for honours. The propsective winner(s) may show gratitude for the nomination (in cash or in kind). Some will and other will not, Those who do not kowtow were not real contenders anyway. The award day arrives bristling with electricity and anticipation. At the end of a fun-filled event, the right people clutch their glittering status symbol with panache and every attendee goes home a winner, some with plaques and others with envlopes of patronage. A big party afterhoours preludes the period of grand celebrations for the awards received. Somewhere, somehow somebody knows even if they do not voice it aloud, they had just been through a charade.
Pretenders To The Winners' Throne
Can I ask that we do this exercise? Grab a list of award-winners nearest to you (any sector would suffice) and try and glean what the awardees actually accomplished for which glittering plaques and buffed citations were handed out. You should not be surprised that in two out of three the so-called chievements may be at best specious, bogus or dodgy (of course you may not even have any standards against which to compare).
The desperate ones would go as afar as striving to gatecrash the club of award-winners by sleight of hand, subterfuge, outright bribery or inducement. They may completely dispense with decorum and discretion and organise the awards for themselves.
I tell you I know how it works. As a university undergraduate and student professional association leader I discovered that most members of the association executives realise that no matter their performance during their tenure their track records may be promptly forgotten by the next set of executives so they do not take chances. They building in an award ceremony into the closing dinner marking the climax of the Student Association Week. Of course, the entire 'Exco' members would go home with plaques / certificates of excellence on the night in a well-worn self-congratulatory ritual. Just like every Nigerian president would surely award himself a Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR - the nation's highest honour for a leader) even when absolutely nothing distinguished has been accomplished in office.
Thus in a sector like Nollywood for example, they would gather sooner rather later to blow their own trumpets at the Nigeria Movies Academy Awards and invite some non-Nigerian actor with a familiar body of work as a honourary dignitary to come and celebrate their (non- or under-)achievements.
Surely no one can challenge the fact that Nigeria's movie industry had emerged from self-help, sacrifice and grit (read as from practically nowhere) to grab headlines and gain world attention? Nollywood is a stunning success. But must we stand and nod like the fabled lizard in Achebe's Things Fall Apart and build monuments to a clear work-in-progress? Should we not attempt to catch with the forerunners and gain true respect founded on measurable achievement and track record rather than on wonder? Should Nollywood not now put a concrete strategy in place to compete for market share (this is the ultimate prize after all) with the rest of the field while reversing invasive cultural erosion thrust upon us by Hollywood and Bollywood, or is "half bread better than none" here? Nollywood can transcend its present level, to become infinitely better, producing greater quality products with excellent scripting and topnotch directing. Nollywood has no doubt done remarkably well, but we must save for savour our gratification for when the work is done!
Come Let Us Eat Our Children's Future
There is a class of the Nigerian elite who foster the celebration of mediocrity in preparation for the corruption and the corrupt practices they would perpetrate in office: a medocre society after all does not proffer, expect, demand or propagate excellence, achievement and accountability!
Just imagine an 'enterprising' organsiation which has no notable accomplsihement beyond events planning knack which then arranges an award ceremony for a contrived shortlist of potential receipients with equally nondescript accomlishments. The proponents then approach potential award winners with notification of their selection for honours. The propsective winner(s) may show gratitude for the nomination (in cash or in kind). Some will and other will not, Those who do not kowtow were not real contenders anyway. The award day arrives bristling with electricity and anticipation. At the end of a fun-filled event, the right people clutch their glittering status symbol with panache and every attendee goes home a winner, some with plaques and others with envlopes of patronage. A big party afterhoours preludes the period of grand celebrations for the awards received. Somewhere, somehow somebody knows even if they do not voice it aloud, they had just been through a charade.
Pretenders To The Winners' Throne
Can I ask that we do this exercise? Grab a list of award-winners nearest to you (any sector would suffice) and try and glean what the awardees actually accomplished for which glittering plaques and buffed citations were handed out. You should not be surprised that in two out of three the so-called chievements may be at best specious, bogus or dodgy (of course you may not even have any standards against which to compare).
The desperate ones would go as afar as striving to gatecrash the club of award-winners by sleight of hand, subterfuge, outright bribery or inducement. They may completely dispense with decorum and discretion and organise the awards for themselves.
I tell you I know how it works. As a university undergraduate and student professional association leader I discovered that most members of the association executives realise that no matter their performance during their tenure their track records may be promptly forgotten by the next set of executives so they do not take chances. They building in an award ceremony into the closing dinner marking the climax of the Student Association Week. Of course, the entire 'Exco' members would go home with plaques / certificates of excellence on the night in a well-worn self-congratulatory ritual. Just like every Nigerian president would surely award himself a Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR - the nation's highest honour for a leader) even when absolutely nothing distinguished has been accomplished in office.
Thus in a sector like Nollywood for example, they would gather sooner rather later to blow their own trumpets at the Nigeria Movies Academy Awards and invite some non-Nigerian actor with a familiar body of work as a honourary dignitary to come and celebrate their (non- or under-)achievements.
Surely no one can challenge the fact that Nigeria's movie industry had emerged from self-help, sacrifice and grit (read as from practically nowhere) to grab headlines and gain world attention? Nollywood is a stunning success. But must we stand and nod like the fabled lizard in Achebe's Things Fall Apart and build monuments to a clear work-in-progress? Should we not attempt to catch with the forerunners and gain true respect founded on measurable achievement and track record rather than on wonder? Should Nollywood not now put a concrete strategy in place to compete for market share (this is the ultimate prize after all) with the rest of the field while reversing invasive cultural erosion thrust upon us by Hollywood and Bollywood, or is "half bread better than none" here? Nollywood can transcend its present level, to become infinitely better, producing greater quality products with excellent scripting and topnotch directing. Nollywood has no doubt done remarkably well, but we must save for savour our gratification for when the work is done!
Come Let Us Eat Our Children's Future
There is a class of the Nigerian elite who foster the celebration of mediocrity in preparation for the corruption and the corrupt practices they would perpetrate in office: a medocre society after all does not proffer, expect, demand or propagate excellence, achievement and accountability!
No comments :
Post a Comment