This phrase has been going on for some days now; I have read and heard different perspectives on the matter but here’s my thoughts on it too.
What you give is what you get. What you sow is what you reap! Really, it is like planting cassava and becoming angry when maize does not grow. Perhaps one of the most uncomfortable conversations we need to have in Nigeria is about what we celebrate. Every society has a reward system, some rewards are formal: salaries, promotions, scholarships, grants and appointments. Others are informal: attention, respect, visibility, social status and influence. But whether formal or informal, the principle remains the same: Whatever a society consistently celebrates, it will eventually produce more of. This perhaps explains The Olodo Uprising on going conversation. I guess you now have an idea of my perspective….
One thing I know for sure is that we are not unintelligent people, Nigerians are smart and bright but we seem to have only gradually created a social ecosystem in which intellectual depth, competence, scholarship, craftsmanship and rigorous thinking often struggle for attention, while spectacle, controversy, lifestyle and sensationalism receive enormous rewards.
The Olodo Uprising is therefore not primarily about people, it is about incentives and this incentive is something we all contributed to, knowing and unknowingly. Everyone has blamed the government, blamed the educational system, in as much as much reformation is apparently needed in those areas but can we look into other causes or enablers?
I would like to call out our media institutions, in fact, if there is truly an Olodo Uprising, I would argue that the media has played one of the most significant roles in amplifying it. Not government alone, not our educational system alone but also the media.
Traditionally, the media has three broad responsibilities: to educate, to enlighten and to entertain but somewhere along the line, it seems to me that entertainment appears to have swallowed the other two. Turn on the television, open the blogs, scroll through social media and listen to many radio conversations, what dominates? Celebrity relationships, who unfollowed whom on Instagram, who said something controversial enough to trend for the next forty-eight hours?
Again… imagine two stories arrive at a newsroom on the same morning, the first is about a Nigerian researcher whose work could significantly improve agricultural productivity. The second is about two celebrities fighting publicly over a relationship. Which story will dominate social media? Which one will receive repeated media discussions? Which headline will attract the most clicks?
Meanwhile, somewhere in Nigeria, a teacher could be transforming learning outcomes in a community school. A young entrepreneur could be building a productive enterprise. A policy expert could be proposing a solution to a national challenge but nobody calls them, puts a camera in front of them and gives them a two-hour primetime conversation. Why? Did serious conversations stop selling, or did the media stop teaching society to value them?
The media is powerful in shaping culture! When sensationalism consistently receives the front page while intellectual achievement is buried somewhere inside, society learns something, when controversy produces visibility and thoughtful contribution produces silence, young people are watching. What media is subtly saying or teaching is attention is more valuable than contribution.
I understand the economics of media, that attention generates traffic and traffic attracts advertisers, ratings and clicks matter, engagement matters but then media cannot conveniently forget its enormous cultural power. The media does not merely observe society, the media curates society. It decides who or what becomes visible, whose voice is amplified, what conversation dominates the national space, what achievement deserves a headline. It decides what is repeated until society begins to believe it is important. Media does not only craft narratives, media shapes culture! And culture is formed partly by what receives repeated attention. If you give controversy ten hours of airtime and competence ten minutes, you have sent a message. If a celebrity disagreement receives twenty headlines while a major scientific achievement receives one paragraph, you have sent a message that “this is what matters”and society is listening, we must understand that media attention itself is a reward. You do not need to give someone money to reward behaviour. Visibility is a reward, followers are a reward, influence is a reward, endorsement opportunities are rewards, social legitimacy is a reward.
So, when the media repeatedly gives enormous visibility to sensational behaviour, it unintentionally creates an incentive system.
People begin to understand what generates attention. Be controversial, outrageous, say something offensive, create drama, start a public fight, expose your private life, just do whatever is necessary to trend. And then we become shocked when an entire generation begins to optimise for visibility. Why are we surprised? We showed them the algorithm of attention.
The Media Cannot Be Neutral About Culture, imagine if every major television station in Nigeria had a weekly primetime programme celebrating Nigerian problem-solvers and these programmes receiving the same production quality, publicity and sponsorship as entertainment programmes.
Imagine the winners of national science, mathematics, engineering and innovation competitions becoming household names.
Imagine their faces on television every week. Imagine children recognising Nigeria’s best scientists as easily as they recognise musicians and footballers. Would that not shape aspiration and influence culture?
Would that not teach a young Nigerian that thinking, solving and building can also produce visibility and respect?
Of course, it would because media shapes imagination and imagination often shapes aspiration.
This is where I disagree with the idea that the media is simply a mirror of society. A mirror only reflects but the media does much more. The media selects, edits, amplifies, repeats and frames and whatever is repeatedly selected, amplified and framed eventually influences culture. That power comes with responsibility.
Yes, we need entertainment, celebrate our musicians, promote Nollywood, show football, discuss lifestyle.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with these things but where is the balance, the education, the enlightenment?
Where are the conversations that stretch the mind? Where are the programmes that make intelligence attractive?
Where are the platforms that make competence visible? Where are the stories that tell a fifteen-year-old Nigerian:
“You can become famous for solving a problem.”
Whenever we discuss Nigeria’s intellectual decline, we immediately blame government, then we blame the educational system.
So, yes, both our government and educational institutions have responsibilities, also does families too have a responsibility.
Corporate organisations have a responsibility. Also, our media institutions must accept their share of responsibility because if there is an Olodo Uprising, someone gave it airtime and headlines.
Here is a call for responsibility; it is a call for balance. It is a call for the Nigerian media to rediscover its role not only as an entertainer of society, but as an educator, an enlightener and a builder of national culture. Because media does not merely tell us what happened yesterday, media helps shape who we become tomorrow.
And if we genuinely want an uprising of thinkers, innovators, builders and problem-solvers, then our media must help make intelligence, competence and contribution visible again.
Perhaps it is time to change what gets the microphone. Because whoever controls attention eventually influences aspiration.
Then consider the corporate Nigeria too, every year, billions of naira flow into entertainment, music, reality television, lifestyle events, celebrity endorsements and sports sponsorships. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, entertainment is a legitimate industry (music creates jobs, film/movies and sports contributes to the economy) These sectors deserves to receive corporate support but not at the detriment of other educational and intellectual initiatives. The real question is: what else are they funding? And is it to equal attention and investment?
How many major Nigerian corporations have sustained, visible programmes supporting mathematics, engineering competitions, national reading programmes, scientific research, public policy debates, technical education, academic publishing, young inventors, teacher development, University laboratories and libraries?
Imagine if the same corporate energy used to build music and entertainment platforms was deliberately deployed to create and build intellectualism, with corporate backing and supporting students, research, innovations, and intellectual causes, that are inspiring, enlightening and educating. Imagine the winner receiving ₦100 million, national recognition and corporate backing.
Yet our children are learning, seeing exactly who and what society celebrates.
There is another dimension to the Olodo Uprising that we must confront: our relationship with wealth and success. We have sometimes separated wealth from value creation, we celebrate the outcome without interrogating the process.
A professor may spend thirty years producing knowledge and walk quietly into an event unnoticed. Then someone who is wealthy whether his source is known or not enters, and the entire room rearranges itself in respect, regard and honour for his show of wealth. Now, tell me, what lesson does the young person in that room learn? That knowledge matters? That character matters? That contribution matters? Or simply Get money however you can and you will be recognized, repected and regarded. And then we are surprised when young people pursue wealth without patience, process or productive value. Why are we surprised? We taught them because our young people are watching.
Consider a brilliant secondary school student in Enugu, Kano, Lagos or Ibadan, who loves mathematics and does well in her academics, spending hours solving problems and dreams of becoming a scientist. But she however, looks around observes the people dominating public attention are rarely scientists, the people receiving major endorsement deals are rarely researchers or the people invited to speak about success may have little connection to intellectual or productive achievement.
Meanwhile, her parents might be struggling to pay for books or school fees, her school laboratory barely functions and no scholarship and there is no corporate sponsor looking for her. Then she opens her phone and finds out that a person becomes famous overnight for creating controversy. Within months, endorsement deals arrive.
Please, let’s be true, what exactly is the system teaching her? We can give motivational speeches about education but children are intelligent. They study incentives, they observe what is rewarded. They know what society truly values.
This Is How Culture Is Built! Culture is not primarily built by what we say, it is built by what we repeatedly reward. So, if noise receives attention, people will make noise, if controversy produces visibility, people will manufacture controversy, if unexplained wealth produces respect, people will pursue wealth without concern for process, if entertainment receives investment while knowledge struggles for funding, talent will migrate towards entertainment.
Again, this is not an attack on media and entertainment industry, it is an argument for balance in our national reward architecture. A serious society must deliberately celebrate many forms of excellence. The musician, actor, footballer should be celebrated but so should the teacher, the engineer, the scientist, the researcher, the craftsman, the entrepreneur building a productive enterprise, the public servant who reforms a broken system, the young person solving a community problem…..reason because every celebration is a signal, teaching the next generation what is worth becoming.
It is easy to insult young people and to complain that “this generation does not read.” It is easy to lament declining intellectual depth and blame educational system or the government but perhaps the question we should ask ourselves is ‘’how have we all in one way or the other contributed to this Olodo Uprising? What have we designed them to value? What have we been celebrating in front of them?
We created media systems that monetise sensationalism and clicks bites. We created corporate sponsorship systems that disproportionately reward visibility over value. We created social systems that worship wealth and has attached respect, and hour to it. We created educational systems where curriculum isn’t meeting with the economic reality and also where brilliant students struggle without support. We created public spaces where intellectual conversations receive little attention. Then we complain that young people prefer entertainment, controversy and quick money. That is like planting cassava and becoming angry when maize does not grow. The Olodo Uprising Is a Systems Problem because systems produce according to their design. Hence, we need a new reward architecture. So, if Nigeria genuinely wants a culture of excellence, innovation and productivity, we must deliberately redesign what we celebrate.
Corporate organisations must begin to see investment in knowledge, education, research and intellectual development as part of nation-building.
The media must recognise that it has a responsibility beyond chasing clicks.
Schools must make intellectual achievement visible and aspirational.
Religious and traditional institutions must become more discerning about the people they honour.
Professional bodies must celebrate competence publicly.
Government must create prestigious national platforms for innovation, science, engineering, education and public service.
And we as citizens must become more intentional about who receives our attention because attention itself is a currency.
Perhaps the Olodo Uprising did not happen because people suddenly became less intelligent, possibly it happened because, slowly and consistently, we changed the reward system. We taught people that visibility matters more than value, that wealth matters more than its source, that controversy can be more profitable than competence and that entertainment deserves investment while intellectual pursuit can survive on passion.
Then people adapted because people always study the system because a society will eventually produce more of what it rewards and if we want an uprising of thinkers, builders, innovators, researchers and problem-solvers, we must first build a society where thinking, building, innovation, research and problem-solving are visibly rewarded.
Culture follows celebration. Behaviour follows reward and the future will increasingly resemble whatever we choose to applaud today.
Thoughts of Atinuke Odjenima
Your Transformational Growth Catalyst
