Big Brother, Wrong Values (Yawn…)

From Nigerian paper, This Day, online at: allafrica.com

Big Brother, Wrong Values

The on-going TV Reality show, Big Brother Africa (BBA), is indeed a corruption of TV Reality shows. When Endemol, the company founded by the Dutch duo Joop van den Ende and John de Mol first conceived the idea of BBA in 1997, the taking of showers by the inmates, naked before the astonished gaze of TV viewers, was never contemplated by him.

Even the TV Reality shows in other countries do not contain explicit nudity and pornography. Recently Bank PHB, Nigeria, organized a successful TV Reality show that not only taught the values of business management but also inspired our young ones on how to be a successful entrepreneur.

One the contrary, however, the on-going BBA is nothing but a celebration of obscenity, pornography, eroticism and idleness. All day, all night, the twelve inmates (now reduced to six) exhibit a lifestyle suggestive of sexual orgy. Stripping themselves naked and taking their shower in the full glare of TV cameras offends the sensibilities of many viewers. This constitute a corruptive influence on the younger generation known for their impulsiveness.

Undoubtedly, reality programmes like BBA are short cut to fame and fortune and many young men and women have gone ahead to achieve greater things, capitalising on the popularity garnered from such programmes. However, we cannot sacrifice African values, decorum and morality on the altar of the quest for fame. Surely, there are several dignified ways of winning prizes and fame.

More importantly, BBA is a big mockery of African culture and tradition. Since the inmates are Africans, they should have been projecting the African cultural heritage. But instead of doing that, they are bastardizing it. Even some of the housemates themselves are complaining that the TV show is below standards. For example, Maureen, one of the female housemates, complains about the moral perversity in the house. Bertha, another housemate, regrets that lesbianism is being practised in the house.

There is a great danger in importing the destructive foreign culture to Nigeria. Explicit pornography, which appeals to the prurient interest in sex, damages a country’s morality fabric. The central harm of TV pornography is its destruction of human character. The biggest tragedy of the on-going BBA is that our children are also glued to pay TV watching it. Children are our future. Therefore we should protect them from lewd exposure, which might prevent their growth into free, independent, cultured and well-developed citizens.

The Nigerian Broadcasting Commission ( NBC ) must live up to its billing as a body charged with controlling, monitoring, regulating the electronic media including satellite transmission in Nigeria. Our airwaves should not become dumping grounds for all sorts of foreign movies and programmes that destroy our social and cultural values.

Therefore BBA should be subjected to a serious review to ensure that its contents are in accord with our cultural and ethical values.

We recognise the fact that no people operate or live in a vacuum as culture is not static. But that does not mean those cherished values that promote moral discipline amongst our people should be thrown to the dogs in the face of avoidable onslaught of contrived immorality by money making media invaders.

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