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This past Thursday, I was privileged and honoured to attend the Tastee Spelling Bee Competition organized to commemorate the 10th Remembrance anniversary of Mr Oluwabunmi Adedayo, who we used to fondly called gentle giant.
Oluwabunmi who was the Executive Director of the famous quick service restaurant, Tastee Fired Chicken (TFC) made quite an impact while on earth. He was warm and humble, and always willing to help others, little wonder that his dear parents: Pamela and Kunle Adedayo decided to turn their personal tragedy to a force for good by establishing the Bunmi Adedayo Foundation.
As I sat down to watch the primary school pupils wow us with their knowledge of English pronunciation and spelling, my mind wondered to my days as member of the St Joseph’s Boys High School, Surulere Literary and Debating Society, and a smile spread across my face.
Then my mind again meandered to the video of the quiz competition that occurred at the Big Brother Naija House which has since gone viral, my reaction this time was that of disgust.
In case you missed it, in the said video, the contestants were asked a pot pourri of questions ranging from mathematics to current affairs. What really caught many people’s attention was the scandalous answers that emanated from theses “celebrity” contestants.
One was asked who was Nigeria’s first president, the contestant did not know! How embarrassing was that.
Another was asked what was the meaning of CAC. She went : ” CAC (she pronounced it kak), CAC”, she looked so shocked as if she had been asked to climb Mount Everest and then blurted some gibberish as answer. All they wanted her to say was CAC is the acronym of Corporate Affairs Commission. How difficult can that be?
It was, therefore, a huge paradox and heart-warming to see these pupils, including a contestant from Pacelli School for the Blind, show their proficiency in the English language.
They lapped up their questions with effortless ease, in fact, some of them were spelling words that I, with my over 30 years’ experience in journalism, was encountering for the first time.I was really impressed.
When one juxtaposes the wondrous performance of these kids to the woeful performance of the Big Brother Naija Housemates, it is not hard to see why our country is where we are at the moment.
When I expressed my angst to an older friend on the Big Brother Housemates show of shame, he laughed and asked me what I had expected
He went on to explain to me that the criteria to be a housemate and win over 100 million naira, juicy prices and endorsement deals did not require any intellectual rigor.You are not expected to be intelligent or take any aptitude test. Just fill out a form, upload a video saying something about yourself and a photo!
Then, you must be articulate, interesting and willing to share your must private thoughts in an open forum to strangers and also be ready to cavort ceaselessly! That’s all!
He therefore affirmed that expecting any seriousness from the Big Brother Naija housemates was like Waiting for Godot.
I believe it is time for us to begin to change our mindset for the betterment of our country. What exactly is our priority as a nation? What are the things that interest us? What are the things that we spend our money on and what are the things that we spend our time on?
In contrast to the huge advertising and sponsorship that is poured on big brother naija, knowledge-based shows like the Spelling Bee, debate shows and quiz compettions never get any traction or attention by Nigerians. Winners hardly are appreciated with the kind of cool cash and media frenzy associated with big brother.
This kind of mentality has to change. If we are to turnaround the fortunes of our country, we have to change our attitude to knowledge and education in general.
It is time for corporate Nigeria to stop paying lip service to talent shows that are intellectually-focused, yes, not everyone has to be educated, but the large number of a country should rank up on that index especially even if to just showcase your talent, if Nigeria wants to take its rightful place at the top table of world prominence.
It is said that “Ideas rule the world” and that soft power is the new gold. How can we compete if we do not invest in our kids and youths like the Bunmi Adedayo Foundation.
Indeed, BAF has taken education as its focus. It has been in the forefront of training teachers and improving the learning experience of pupils.
According to the Foundation “It’s not about building schools, it’s also about building teaching and learning. That’s how communities flourish. They’re agent of change”
The Foundation is devoted to changing lives of children, by innovatively improving the quality of teaching and learning in Nigerian public primary schools.
The Foundation has so far organized 103 trainings, intervened in 1300 plus schools, built one state-of-the-art library, upgraded 5,200 plus teachers, donated one 40-seat ICT laboratory, worked in 56 plus Local Government Education Areas and impacted 15,000 plus pupils.
There is no doubt that we have to catch them young, feed them with the right ideals and ideas that will build them into worthy citizens.
On the day of the spelling Bee, which was won by my name sake, Michael Ofiemum, with Toluwani Toluwani and Janet Oseni taking second and third respectively, the Adedayo’s again showed that their milk of human kindness never runs dry when they extended full scholarship to six pupils of Navy Primary School.
Just like the Spelling Bee winners, contestants and their teachers went home with many prizes, gifts and loads of joy, the smile on the faces of the parents and relations of the scholarship recipients was indescribable.
There is no doubt that the impact of the Spelling Bee Competition and Scholarships by the Bunmi Adedayo Foundation will be etched on the hearts of these pupils and many years later, they will grow up to discuss how this rare opportunity shaped their lives and trust me, at that time, no one will be talking about who won Big Brother Naija 20223.
Let us all decide to invest wisely today by touching lives one child at a time!
