…Activist wants DSTV to shift reality show till after general elections
Mixed reactions are now trailing the commencement of the first season of Big Brother Titans (BBTitans), scheduled to start on Sunday, January 15.
TheIdeal News recalls that the DSTV, organisers of the show, had announced that the TV reality show will feature housemates from Nigeria and South Africa while the winner will go home with a mouth watering grand prize of $100,000.
But the announcement has been greeted with divergent views from one of the political parties , the Labour Party (LP) and some Nigerians youths.
The LP has disclosed that the reality show is capable of distracting the youths from participating in the forthcoming general elections and should be shunned while some Nigerian youths have advised the presidential candidate of the LP, Mr Peter Obi, to concentrate on his campaigns and leave the young ones to decide on what is good for them.
Some of the youths, including students from the University of Lagos (UNILAG), University of Abuja (UniAbuja), University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) and Ahmadu Bello University (ABU0, Zaria, have also said that students, working class and elders will definitely watch the show and participate effectively throughout the three-month period of the reality show.
According to the students, the TV reality show has nothing to do with general elections, saying that voting in an election is a matter of choice and not compulsion.
One of the students from UNILAG, Chinedu Opara, said, “ The presidential candidate of LP, Mr Peter Obi, should concentrate on his campaigns and leave us alone. We, as students, will watch the reality show.
Voting is a matter of choice and students will vote for their preferred candidates. It is not the duty of a political party to dictate on what we should watch on television. Nigeria is a free country.
Another female student from UniAbuja, Miss Precious Samson, said, “ What is the problem with these politicians. What was their contributions when we were at home for eight months.
Now a reality show that will entertain, inform and educate us is now their problems. Kindly tell them to leave us alone and face their political campaigns. They can’t infringe on our fundamental human rights. “
On her part, a civil servant in one of the federal ministries in Abuja, who simply identified herself as Zainab, noted that the reality show is a welcome development.
She added that BBTitans will bring about the relief from the stress of queuing long hours at filling stations, harsh economy and insecurity.
Zainab said,” I no longer watch TV or listen to news because the things you see on the news everyday are capable of causing high blood pressure. To me, the show is a comic relief and welcome development.”
But the Labour Party (LP), has warned Nigerian youths against the reality show, saying that the show is a distraction to them.
The Chief Spokesperson of the LP presidential Campaign Committee (LP-PCC), Dr Yunusa Tanko, stated this during a press briefing in Enugu, on Wednesday.
According to him, the reality show is targeted at distracting the youths from casting their votes on the election dates.
Tanko also alleged that the reality show was being sponsored by one of the major opposition parties, to distract the youths from voting for their choice of candidate.
Tanko said, “The essence of this press conference is to alert the ever vibrant Nigerian youths of the hidden agenda behind the new reality show tagged: “The BBTitans.
“We have credible information that it’s being sponsored by one of the major opposition parties to distract the Nigerian youths from changing the leadership that has placed them in perilous times laced with abject poverty.”
Tanko also claimed that the information made available to the LP revealed that the son of one of the presidential candidates in active collaboration with others visited South Africa to hatch this plan.
He said, “As a party with the sole aim of turning our dear country into a place where poverty, unemployment, ‘japa’ will be seen as a taboo is being threatened by an opposition that hates the Nigerian youths with passion.
“BBTitan or whatever they may call it will distract the youths from taking what belongs to them now.
“The Big Brother Naija ended not long ago, why the ‘Titans’ now that we are facing a major election that will determine the future of the Nigerian youths.
Tanko further alleged that the reality show is laced with a lot of unforeseen dangers for the youths because their attention would be divided.
He said, “As a party we are not against reality show because it helps the Nigerian youths to break the poverty line but for now, for the common good of all it should be shifted to another convenient date.
“This should be after the general elections must have been concluded.
“Those putting together a reality show at this time when we are counting days to the general elections are enemies of the Nigerian youths and by extension all well-meaning Nigerians.”
He said the question Nigerians should be asking the organisers is whether they are truly friends of the political entity known as Nigeria or enemies of progress.
The LP-PCC spokesperson further alleged that the reality show is designed by a major opposition political party, claiming that at the right time, the LP would unmask the arrowheads of the show to the Nigerian youths.
Speaking in similar vein, a human rights activist, Abiodun Funsho, has called on Nigerians not to be distracted by the reality show.
He also said that the past years have been tough for the country and the youth cannot afford to toil with the future.
He urged the organisers of the show to put it on hold until after the general elections.
Funsho said ”This is a serious period and also trying times for the country and we cannot afford to mortgage our future in the hands of bad leaders. The only way we can succeed to voting in the right people is to put the show on hold.
“This will make our youth to be focus on what lies ahead which is the election. Every vote count and those lock up in the BBTitan House will not have the opportunity to vote”.
, scheduled to start on Sunday){kind=link}