I walked into the vast, exquisite bowl of the historic Tafawa Balewa Square that Saturday evening with my heart in my mouth, very literally.
It was at the end of the largest gathering of Teachers anywhere in the world.
Seyi had just closed a very remarkable event and was waiting for verification from the Guinness World Records
He looked drained, his eyes sunken, and his beautiful wife stood beside him with a mixture of pride and deliberate relief, knowing that there was no way she would ever do this again
Well, her hubby had just assembled 60,000 teachers, and they had come from all over the country, and they had danced, spoken, played games and advocated for better conditions of service and for the emancipation of our comatose system
The announcement came. The Guinness people confirmed that it was a record;. A Nigerian had just gathered the largest congregation of teachers anywhere in the world
The announcement went into obscurity immediately. No mainstream media platform carried it, Social media totally ignored it, and the government and other such bodies walked past.
Then that tart in Ikorodu happened. She was going to try for the record.
She would sleep with 100 men in 24 hours, and then bedlam ensued.
Social media erupted in criticism with the hypocrisy of loudness. The debate and howling reached the high heavens
It was sex, and Nigerians were interested. An irresponsible people. A nation of sex fiends, a nation that was adjudged the highest purveyors of porn sites, with a then-sitting Senator slapping a shop attendant for delaying to bring out his sex toy.
The 60,000 teachers remained in obscurity as this one dirty girl took the spotlight and headlines with her headless challenge
Not even the push back by the Guinness people, who say they have no category for such an act, stopped the massive attention, and it took a revered traditional ruler who called for her arrest, for the hoopla to end.
Why are we like this? Why are we so attuned to frivolous pursuits? What kind of people are we that we shun developmental issues and pursue masturbatory concerns
The other day, the sinfully beautiful damsel, Hilda, decided to cook
She said she wanted to cook the biggest pot of Rice, and 20,000 people showed up
Not even up to the 60,000 Seyi pulled in, but Seyi still hovers in anonymous obscurity while Hilda and the tart from Ikorodu hug the public’s attention
Now, to better situate it, we are not alone in this perverse attachment to sin and vile
Globally, sex and its purile cousins pull more attention than developmental initiatives
The difference is that in ‘better’ climes, we have clusters of well-driven drones who build silos of developmental hub, which produce vaccines, go to the moon, build satellites, invent the iPhone, and generally save mankind.
A tiny minority who work tirelessly to cure gonorhea, build faster Planes, build systems allowing the vast majority to be free to eat Hilda’s rice or wank at the Ikorodu tart.
What I am saying basically is that rather than the very tiny minority who are developmentalists continue to moan at society for their imbecilic approach to life, they should, like Seyi, seize the gauntlet and build the silos that would inevitably save mankind
Seyi is my hero and should be our hero cos he stuck out his neck and pushed for education in a way nobody has, and in the process has put his name in the Guinness Book of World Records
Legend
Duke of Shomolu