The necessity of sound mental health, especially in a country where stress is becoming a major health issue, is one of the reasons many Nigerians are creating time to fully participate in lifestyle and entertainment reality television shows despite the hardship in the country caused by the terrible state of the economy.
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Research has proven that sound mental health is crucial to living a quality life as opposed to just being alive in a state of mental disorder that renders living aimless and hopeless.
According to professionals, good mental health provides a 360 degrees quality life in all ramifications, including physical health, emotional and psychological state, coping mechanism and resilience to whatever challenge life throws, and stress control.With sound mental health, a man is not only able to solve problems but also to gain a deeper understanding of self-value and goals, self-esteem and self-confidence, social connection and well-being, communication and conflict resolution, self-love, growth and development, among others.
A recent Chronic Disease Management’s mental health review shows that good mental health is very important at every stage of life; from childhood, adolescence through adulthood as it makes up the overall health of every human being. For example, depression increases the risk for many types of physical health problems, particularly long lasting conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Similarly, the presence of chronic health conditions can increase the risk of mental illness. This is why it is important to be aware that a person’s mental health could be impacted negatively if they are experiencing economic hardship.
To avoid this, many Nigerians have chosen to spend time watching reality TV shows which they confess help them to mitigate the impact of the present economic downturn on their mental health.
The Guardian engaged some citizens on the adrenaline for entertainment reality TV shows that gets a lot of people glued to their screen at the slightest free time, with little or no interest in educational shows or tasks that enhance intellectual development. Why does everyone want to audition for Big Brother Nigeria (BBN) reality TV shows? Why do we have a huge percentage of the Nigeria population between ages 16 and 60 glued to their TV screens to watch the BBN show? Even those who claim not to have interest in the show find themselves consciously or unconsciously engaging in talks to condemn or dissuade people from watching it. Over the past nine years, season to season, this effort to dissuade people from watching the show has failed as the programme keeps soaring and getting more participants, larger audience and sponsorship from wealthy companies. Why does every family want to participate in the Maltina family dance show? Why does everyone want to audition for musical shows, including those with no singing or music talent, to entertain the audience with their poor voices? Everyone rushes to the entertainment shows regardless of the diverse objections and opinions against such shows by religious leaders, academia and others. Still, the passion of many Nigerians for the entertainment reality TV shows is higher than that of intellectual shows and competitions. The ones that are still airing have small audience while a number of others had suddenly stopped for lack of sponsorship and poor participation.
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Based on this, a question can be asked: Why is no one asking what happened to the Zain African Challenge (ZAC), an international inter-university academic competition to support and celebrate education? Why didn’t Airtel pick up where the competition left off after acquiring the company from Zain? Why didn’t other brands or even the government take up ZAC?
According to a viewer, in a review online, the Zain Challenge was “a rare academic sensation that would have spurred thousands of Nigerian undergraduates (and graduates) to continuous, versatile learning. After seeing University of Ibadan perform at the premiere edition, I believed again in Nigeria’s ability to dominate in higher education in Africa. Sadly, the programme never aired after the 2010 edition.”
Another viewer is of the opinion that “When a company dies, its dreams and ideas also die with it. Most organisations won’t patronise educational programmes because they believe education is more of human investment than capital investment thereby making it nonprofit oriented.”
How about Faith Odusi? Why did Nigerians not celebrate young Miss Odusi, a student of Ambassadors School in Ota,Ogun State who, at age 15, represented Nigeria at the Global Mathematics Competition in 2021 and won with a margin of 30 points, defeating participants from Europe, America, Asia, Australia and African countries to become the world best Mathematics student? The judges called Miss Odusi ‘Calculator.’ How come a lot of young Nigerians are not aware of this excellent feat? Rather the name Mercy Eke still rings a bell as winner of BBN reality TV show season 4, five years after. Why did Ilebaye Precious Odiniya popularly called Gen-Z Baddie became a big deal on the same show last year and eventually won the season 8 edition, where she was given N120 million cash and other prices, including international trips, and contract signings. Why are there no multi-million Naira and Dollar companies making the world’s best Mathematics student, Miss Odusi, the face of their brands, when even disqualified housemates of the BBN shows get contracts worth millions of Naira and become brand ambassadors of companies for years? What are the untold stories behind the scene of business conglomerates that would rather invest in entertainment shows than education competitions or shows?
Nigerian citizen speaks:
Chukwuebuka Opara, a mental health consultant said: “It is only naïve and self-righteous people that condemn entertainment and reality TV shows. Why do you think brands and individuals invest in these shows? Do you think they would partner with them if they run a loss? No matter what anyone says, the entertainment industry, not just in Nigeria but also all over the world, is the new oil that smart business owners find worthy of investment. They get back multiple of their investment because of the magnitude of viewership, thereby boosting their brands for more visibility and sales. These huge numbers of viewers who automatically become consumers of their brands see firsthand experience of their products and packages and they want it because the housemates or participants made the consumption viable. This is why entertainment shows like Big Brother Naija and others have a huge number of investors and partners competing to be the major sponsors. The brand with the highest investment is the major sponsor.”
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Opara continued: “Regarding why people would rather participate, watch and celebrate entertainment events and TV shows than hard intellectual ones? I tag it ‘hard’ because entertainment and lifestyle are educational and involve intelligent and creative skills to be a success. So academics are the hard intellectual property while entertainment and lifestyle is the soft intellectual property. If you claim to be a pro in dissecting categories and features, you would know that ‘soft’ is not inferior to hard. As a matter of fact, ‘hard’ would always need soft to stay relevant. This is why the world itself has become a place that survives solely on healthy lifestyle and all the features that come with it, of which entertainment is predominant. You want to live life to the core and have everything you ever dreamed of, you need a healthy mental health which is solely dependent on your choice of lifestyle, including ensuring emotional stability, flexibility, good relationships, seeking support, life satisfaction, feeling good hormones, absolute self-care, love and pampering, adequate sleep, proper diet, physical exercise, being comfortable with other people, ability to own decisions on issues without outside forces’ interference, optimism, gratitude, and so on. All these are what these reality entertainment shows feature and people participate and watch them to learn and relearn survival strategies in a world that is unpredictable.
“Life is too short to be miserable and a lot of people are getting to know this reality which also explains why we have Content Creation as a new profession and career path that every age demography, children, teenagers, adults, even the elderly all over the world are now exploring and making reasonable income from this lifestyle creativity. We are in a world where the smallest things have become the most important. Of course education and all the big pro intellectual fields are paramount but those alone no longer do it – they are a one-way-street kind of life with the same ‘about’ and people are bored from running in the same circle. People want to do well and live life to the fullest in the process. This is what entertainment shows and events provide and smart business owners are aware of this and compete to partner with the new oil industry.”
A 40-year old content creator, Mide Beyioku told The Guardian that Nigerians would definitely key into entertainment events and shows, especially the BBN reality TV shows. “What did you expect when hardship, stress, poverty, depression and their likes have become a norm and a way of life? Of course citizens would go extra miles to find a de-stressing mechanism regardless of how baseless or even ‘valueless’ the reality entertainment TV shows are said to be. BBN does it for a lot of Nigerians. There is this excitement in the air when the show starts to air regardless of what everyone is going through. Do you know there is the ongoing assumption that BBN Season 9 is the reason the #EndBadGovernment ceased fire? Although I don’t believe it, what does it matter whether I believe or not, the truth is, the show couldn’t have started at a better time. It came as a reasonable distraction to keep people, especially Nigeria youths, alive and to avoid a repetition of what happened during the EndSARS protests. Everyone went back to their safe corners and took up on the show, which obviously boosted happy hormones to decompress and maybe enough time to re-strategise. Whatever it was, this year’s edition of the BBN show couldn’t have happened at a better time. It is a perfect break, if you ask me. A lot of menace was already created in the North and it was only a matter of time before things escalated in every nook and cranny of the country due to bad government. And if there is anything we are known for in Nigeria, it is the ability to do everything and anything possible to stay alive, bad government or not. So if an entertainment show or event keeps us safe and puts our mental health in check, then entertainment it is!
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“The least of our problems in Nigeria at this time is education. You can call me a mediocre and I probably wouldn’t bother objecting but I will like to state categorically that most of the bad leaders in government are said to have had the best of education, still, see where we are as a nation. All the supposed world-class educational acquisition, what difference has it made? This is why I insist that no citizen should allow his or herself to die for anyone or anything. Acquiring education to the highest level does not make anyone a better human being. In fact, investigations have revealed that the highly educated people in this country are the most insensitive, inhumane and unreasonable who do not have any problem making life difficult for their fellow human beings. They are the ones in government, they are the ones in leadership at different levels, and they are the problems of Nigeria. Don’t get me wrong, education is good but educated people have not taken us anywhere in this country. Often, it is skills and years of experience in different fields that have created the couple innovations and viable results we have as a country, which didn’t necessarily come from being highly educated. So, if participating and watching entertainment shows help people detox from the present situation of the country, help them experience life in all capacities, including innovative skill acquisitions, which if you watch the show you would know that it is beyond the trivial attached to it, then long live these shows!.”
On her part, 27-year-old TemiladeOseni, a lifestyle expert said: “You have no idea how many supposed highly educated and senior citizens of Nigeria deal with diverse mental illnesses. And as we go on a mental health therapy journey with them when they come to us to fix them before they completely lose their minds and even lives as they usually put it, we start their treatment from the supposed irrelevant issues of lives that are not education related. In fact, in the course of their therapy, we often discover that it is this excess education/pro mindset that mostly enabled them to ruin the most important aspects of their lives which they at the time presumed is inconsequential. However, this inconsequential end up ruining what they mostly prioritised, including highest level of education. They are burdened by insatiable bid to achieve career goals and acquire wealth, be in charge, and rule the world, and eventually they ruin their lives.
“We start fixing from the bottom, which is finding out who they are outside this intellectual personality, their relationship with people, family, friends, spouses, colleagues, partners, subordinates, what they do during their personal timeout to relax and holiday away from the supposed relevant issues. At the end of the day, we sum up the fixing and healing process with the need to stay back home to watch dance shows, reality entertainment TV shows, take trips with family, weekend get-away, and touring scenic sites, among others, to boost their feel good hormone and give them an insight to feel their emotions and other people’s emotions just by watching the shows and having all these lifestyle experiences.
“These clients heal faster and become better just by doing these things. They eventually learn work-life balance, the time to work and the time to take a break even if the world is in chaos, and find a way to take life easy because the slightest mental health trigger could be disastrous.”
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