By Oluwole Leigh
The last few weeks have been quite interesting. The Future Awards (TFA) dinner was held at the State House, Abuja. A star-studded line up of its 100 Most Distinguished award winners got a handshake from the Vice President along with a photo-op.
The event aired on Channels TV with many following proceedings on Twitter. Of course, a lot of comments were generated on Twitter. Some of the commenters saw nothing wrong with taking the Awards to Aso Rock and Rivers State while others saw the idea as immoral.
A quick study of the comments revealed that some of the angst was directed at the ‘non-professional’ awardees. These were actually folks who others felt should not have lent their good names to that event. Little thought was spared for those we can refer to as ‘professional awardees’. These are individuals whose existence seems to be derived from receiving awards. A lot of vitriol was exchanged by commenters on both sides of the fence as well as those sitting on the fence. It was pretty hard to decide the side that won the debate
The comments raised by the TFA Nay Sayers could be summarized as follows:
1. The TFA Organizers have collected money from Government.
2. The TFA Organizers give the awards to their friends.
3. The TFA Organizers are hobnobbing with our oppressors.
4. The TFA Organizers have used Social Advocacy for Private gain.
5. TFA Attendees sold out by not breaking bottles on the heads of some of the corrupt leaders in attendance.
6. The TFA Organizers are positioning themselves for Future Political Appointments
The TFA Organizers are in the best position to provide answers to the questions listed above. I do not possess enough grey matter to answer on their behalf. So far, they have held their events with the support of the Federal Government of Nigeria, Ekiti State Government and Rivers State Government. I can safely bet that they are going to keep running with their winning formula. Their growth pattern over the years has shown that they are probably not going to change their style/format.
My opinion is that a lot of the ‘e-Anger’ headed in the TFA direction stems from the fact that there are no alternatives to the mainstream events.
We have Mainstream Narratives such as TFA, Dynamix, City People, NLNG, Silverbird and Thisday Awards. Alternatives have to be nurtured to replicate or counter the effect of the mainstream ones. This is exactly what has been done in advanced societies to help create an abundance of perspectives. In the U.S, we have the Razzies as an alternative to the Oscars. The Swedish Parliamentarians hand out the Right Livelihood Award which is regarded as the Alternative Nobel Award.
If concerts at the Swanky O2 Arena don’t do it for you, go ahead and get muddy at Glastonbury. MTV allows the Rock stars to show off their endowments on ‘Cribs’ while it makes them look foolish on ‘Punked’.
Creating these alternatives would help us to see things from other perspectives. Systematic exclusions/absence of alternative viewpoints can lead to violent outbursts as we constantly see. Building these alternative platforms may require as much energy as the mainstream ones demand. However, the use of Internet makes it easier to conduct your own show and hand out your awards.
So, let the mainstream guys put out their stuff while the alternative guys put out their stuff and let the public enjoy the Potpourri of Perspectives.
Our conversations would be more interesting if we had a Village People Awards to make fun of the City People Awards. Ping Pong World Awards could rival Hip Hop World Awards. XNaija could be set up to poke fun at YNaija. Whenever the TFA folks head to Aso Rock, TSA (The Stomach Awards) guys could head to the Alaafin of Oyo‘s Palace for some piping hot amala.
I am convinced that there is a viable market for anyone desiring to work on setting up these Alternative Concepts.
The question is ‘Are you Angry enough’?
