By Gabriel Atumeyi
365Daily – A Civil Society Organisation, Citizens Awareness Against Corruption and Social Vices Initiative (CAACASVI), has opposed the return to television of popular Nigerian reality TV show, Big Brother Nigeria, saying it is corrupting the society.
According to the NGO, the television programme is promoting obscenity and immorality to the teeming Nigerian youths who have become interested and preoccuppy themselves with viewing the show.
365Daily reported on Wednesday, March 24, that DSTV Nigeria announced that auditions will soon commence for season six of the Big Brother Naija show, which will top previous seasons with a grand prize of N90 million.
In a statement made available to 365Daily on Friday, April 9, 2021, titled: “Big Brother Naija promoting perversion and moral decadence in Nigeria, and signed by its Executive Director, Mr Olumuyiwa Onlede, CAACASVI said stakeholders in the Nigerian communication and broadcasting sector needed to come together to assess the essence of the show in the interest of national development and moral health of the transitional and aspiring society.
Onlede said the ugly turn taken by a programme designed to promote the Nigerian youths is engendered by the crass and mad rush for content and profit, while calling on traditional and religious leaders to raise their voices in order to salvage what moral decorum is left in our rapidly westernizing society.
Onlede further explained that the reality show was “perniciously introducing new set of priorities and trends in our society which is alien to the true aspirations of the Nigerian youths and society which is education, decency, modesty, hardwork, and intelligence.”
The statement reads, “The text contained in this letter is intended as an appeal to a variety of stakeholders in our national communication context concerning the Big Brother Nigeria reality show.
“Beginning with the promoters of the show, Multichoice media which we want to call of the show as it offends our sensibility as a people, and also on our traditional and religious leaders who have maintained a muffled silence and kept cautious eyes to raise their voices of opposition to this effrontery.
“We are also asking the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to take the show off air if necessary for conflicting with the code of the commission in promotion of our national interests.
“Once again, our country is set for another session of the infamous and inglorious reality TV show, the Big Brother Nigeria show.
“The Big Brother Nigeria reality TV show which started in 2006 as a youth entertainment programme has spiraled before us into an oddity.
“It has become an avenue for indiscriminate display of nudity, semi nudity, lewdness and licentiousness for home viewers across the nation of which the youths make a predominant amount. Despite the proclaimed and supposed benefits by its promoters, it concomitantly servers to erode and undermine our African and traditional values of decency, self – dignity, hardwork, diligence and intelligence as a means to reputable social standing in society.
“As Salahuddin Ayubi once puts it: ‘If you want to destroy any nation without war, make adultery and nudity common in the young generation.’
“For the very fact that about five sessions have been held since its debut in 2006 raking in millions of Naira for winners, participants and organisers is a pointer to the level of depravity and moral debasement our society has sank into. The organisers of the show have blatantly made profit seeking the overriding principle in utter disregard of the societal and moral health of our emerging and aspirational society.
“While such energy, organisation and even talents can be channelled into more education inclined entertainment contents and reality shows that reinforces our African values and our indomitable attributes that makes us equally competitive in the global arena by stirring our sense of national pride that supports the economy, instead the multichoice concept is to export near obscenity into every television watching Nigerian home.
“The programme has failed to capture the true aspirations of the Nigerian youths, which is education, knowledge driven, innovation, scientific mindedness and the desire to make meaningful contributions to their immediate communities and the world at large. Big Brother Nigeria seeks to make a mockery of our society in which all morals and decency can be abandoned in the mad rush for fame, theatricality and materialism.
“As an organisation whose mandate encompass corruption and social vices, and pursues an agenda of balance social growth and development, we believe that the Nigerian society is being rushed and dragged along by an idea that is foreign to us.
“At CAACASVI we believe that there can be better programming that can capture the nation’s imagination, aspiration and enthusiasm if the organizers and promoters temper their unbridled rush for profit and cheap popularity with patriotism and national interest. As it stands at the moment by virtue of the show we have become a society where immorality and stupidity are rewarded with big prizes. A society that places a premium on such iniquitous display and expect to groom a generation of cultured, disciplined and morally upright leaders and citizens.”