Rewarding Controversy And Ignoring Excellence Must Stop – Basketmouth

Basketmouth

Popular comedian and Nollywood filmmaker Basketmouth has criticised the growing culture of rewarding controversy while ignoring excellence in society. He recently had his say via his Instagram page, and Nigerians have been reacting.

Accusing some Nigerian blogs and media platforms of prioritising scandals over genuine achievements and hard work, Basketmouth said that those who build businesses, create jobs and positively impact lives rarely receive the attention they deserve.

Lamenting how our society has gradually embraced mediocrity and outrage culture, the host questioned why success stories no longer generate the same excitement as public scandals.

His words, “Some Nigerian bloggers have mastered the art of turning negativity into premium content. One scandal trends for days, but genuine excellence barely gets a headline.

Somebody builds something remarkable, breaks barriers, creates jobs, sells out shows, changes lives – we get silence. But let there be one embarrassing moment and suddenly every platform becomes CNN.

At some point, we have to ask ourselves: when did celebrating mediocrity become our culture? When was the last time brilliance trended the way controversy does? When did we stop applauding people for winning?

A society that only amplifies failure slowly teaches people that greatness is irrelevant. And that’s dangerous.

We need to normalise celebrating achievements, discipline, creativity, consistency, and hard work again. Not just gossip, outrage and downfalls.”

WOW.

Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in The New York Times. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there is no clear or agreed-upon definition for the term, which has made it a subject to several controversies.

The origin of the term “Nollywood” remains unclear; Jonathan Haynes traced the earliest usage of the word to a 2002 article by Matt Steinglass in the New York Times, where it was used to describe Nigerian cinema.

Charles Igwe noted that Norimitsu Onishi also used the name in a September 2002 article he wrote for the New York Times. The term continues to be used in the media to refer to the Nigerian film industry, with its definition later assumed to be a portmanteau of the words “Nigeria” and “Hollywood”, the American major film hub.

Film-making in Nigeria is divided largely along regional, and marginally ethnic and religious lines. Thus, there are distinct film industries – each seeking to portray the concern of the particular section and ethnicity it represents. However, there is the English-language film industry which is a melting pot for filmmaking and filmmakers from most of the regional industries.