By Kennedy Awowoh

Big Brother is inspired from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four with its theme of continuous oppressive surveillance. The first version of the show was broadcast in Veronica in the Netherlands in 1999.

The format has become an international TV franchise while each country or region has its own variation, the common themes is that the contestants (housemates), are confined to the house and have their every action recorded by cameras and microphones and that no contact with the outer world is permitted.

Nineteen Eighty Four published as 1984, is a dystopian novel by English novelist George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell’s ninth and final book completed in his lifetime. Thematically, Nineteen Eighty-Four centres on the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimentation of all persons and behaviours within society. Orwell, himself a democratic socialist, modelled the authoritarian government in the novel after Stalinist Russia. More broadly, the novel examines the role of truth and facts within politics and the ways in which they are manipulated.

The story takes place in an imagined future, the year 1984, when much of the world has fallen victim to perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance, historical negationism, and propaganda. Great Britain, known as Airstrip One, has become a province of a totalitarian superstate named Oceania that is ruled by the Party who employ the Thought Police to persecute and annihilate individuality and independent thinking. Big Brother, the leader of the Party, enjoys an intense cult of personality despite the fact that he may not even exist. The protagonist, Winston Smith, is a diligent and skilful rank-and-file worker and Party member who secretly hates the Party and dreams of rebellion. He enters into a forbidden relationship with a colleague, Julia, and starts to remember what life was like before the Party came to power.

Oceania is ruled by the “Party” under the ideology of ingsoc and the mysterious “Big Brother” who has an intense cult personality and followership. The party brutally purges anyone who does not fully conform to their regime using the “Thought Police” and constance surveillance through “Telescreens”, Cameras and hidden Microphones. Those who fall out of favour with the Party become “Unpersons” disappearing with all evidence of their existence destroyed.

Winston Smith works in the Ministry of Truth where his main job description is to rewrite historical records to conform to the states ever changing version of history. Winston revises the past editions of The Times, while the original documents are destroyed after being dropped into the “memory hole”

Winston Smith secretly opposes the Party’s rule and dreams of rebellion, despite knowing that he is already a “thought criminal” and likely to he caught one day.

The Nigerian version of the show, so far has five seasons-the first airing from 5th day of March- 4th of June 2006. Katung Aduwak emerged winner of that season. The 2nd season of the show premiered 11 years after the first season on the 22nd of January 2017 with Efe Ejeba as winner. The 3rd season premiered on the 28th January 2018 with Miracle Ishokwe as winner. The 4th season premiered on the 30th June 2019 and unlike the previous episodes, the show was set in Lagos with an initial 21 housemates and another 5 a month later. Mercy Eke AKA Lamborghini was crowned winner. The 5th edition obviously premiered on the 19th of July 2020 with 20 housemates. Olamilekan “Laycon” Agbeleshe won the show with an improved ground prize of 85 Million Naira.

Basically housemates are sustained by the votes of the viewers who either vote via SMS, desktop website, big brother mobile site or the DSTV or GOTV apps. While voting by SMS costs 30 naira, votes via the mobile sites are free but data cost apply.

The followership of the show in Nigeria by young people has become worrisome as it tends to take their focus away from nation building initiatives, citizen participation in governance and the important role of citizens holding their governments to account. Once the show is up, the youth who are obviously frustrated with the government tune in and become totally unaware of what is happening in the politics, economics and governance spaces. For instance during the season 5 show, the government of Nigeria increased electricity tariffs by more than a hundred per cent from 30.23 Naira to 62. 33 Naira per kilowatt. Similarly, the government, again, increased the pump price of petrol to 151 Naira from 148 Naira. All of these serious economic decisions meant nothing to an average Nigerian youth who is engrossed in the show and is either an Elite, an Icon or a new tribe depending on who his/her favourite housemate on the show is.

The importance of youth in national development cannot be overemphasised. Their creative energies, intellect and youthfulness cannot be allowed to go to waste. We cannot afford not to be involved in policies that directly affect us and potentially have negative implications on our future and the future of our children because of a television show. To do that will be not being wise. It will mean we are engrossed in passing temporal pleasures to the detriment of the future with vast opportunities. We cannot afford to be this passionate about a television show and not be at same level, passionate or concerned about our country and its governance. We must be willing to multi-task our energies for both or be focus on nation building. Our futures are uncertain and it is dangerous to be docile.

Kennedy Awowoh Is A Youth Development And Inclusion Advocate. He Is A Legal Practitioner Based In Lagos, Nigeria.