By Sunny Ikhioya

IT was a joy to behold, with excitement everywhere, that weekend, beginning from  May 11-15, 2023. People of diverse backgrounds, all of them Nigerians, united to cheer this young lady on as she lived her dream of becoming world record holder in the cooking marathon. By so doing, she broke the record of an Indian lady, Lama Tondon, who did 87 hours and 45 minutes in 2019.

According to the records, this project took Hilda all of five years to accomplish, with the assistance of a fitness expert and dietician. She crossed the finishing line after 100 gruelling hours and 40 minutes, which is the equivalent of four days and 57 minutes.

 In the course of setting this record, she whipped up 55 recipes and more than a hundred meals; the audience was highly entertained. We have so many positives from this achievement, beginning from the point of setting her goal and preparing for the main events, both physically and psychologically. It is a lesson for everyone; once you set out to achieve something, go about it with focus, determination and hardwork. It is a testimony that dreams can come through if you will it. We have seen it in Tobi Amusan, Kaffy the dancer, Burna Boy the musician and many others who have distinguished themselves at the world stage. It is telling us that no height is too high to attain if we set our minds to it.

That is a universal law and we have them in abundance here in Nigeria. As she was going about setting her record, we realised that she is a lady of Akwa Ibom origin, but resident and doing her business in lagos. A senator from Akwa Ibom State visited the venue in a solidarity of support for her; same as the Lagos State governor and many others. The President and Vice President also sent goodwill messages to her.

Like it happens in football matches, everyone was united towards propelling a Nigerian to global accomplishment. Meaning that we have the Nigerian spirit in us which recognises no tribal, ethnic, or religious interests; it is the spirit that brings out the best in us, the spirit of excellence that has propelled us to stardom through the likes of Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Chimamanda Adichie, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and many others, both within and in the diaspora, not forgetting our sport teams, especially the Super Eagles in true flight.

That is the Nigerian spirit which goes for merit, knowing that it is through merit that we can attain greatness for the country. That was the spirit behind Hilda Baci, as everyone backed and encouraged her. When we choose to go on merit, the sky is always our limit. What is Hilda telling us? Akwa Ibom indigenes have always been known for their culinary skills; it is not by accident that one of them will take Nigeria to the world stage through cooking. All ethnic groups in Nigeria have their own peculiar culture and attributes that, if fine tuned, can take us to great heights; but sadly we prefer to take the easy way out.

The majority of us have decided to take the negative spirit of Nigeria, that of the easy way out, looking for short cuts; that is the group that comprises Yahoo Boys, bandits, kidnappers, religious fanatics and crooked politicians. This is the spirit that propels everyone to want to partake in the sharing of the national cake, with nothing to bring into the commonwealth.

That is the spirit that propels those in leadership positions to only look at people from their tribal and religious enclaves in the distribution of personnel to key institutions in the country. That is the spirit that has made our security architecture and other parastatals to be so skewed out of alignment that the nation is now standing on faulty foundations.

That negative Nigerian spirit is in real battle for control over the true Nigerian spirit and it is gaining the upper hand in the battle; and that is why Nigeria is being referred to as the sleeping giant. The whole world is waiting for the giant of Africa to wake up. We can only achieve this if we enthrone the true Nigerian spirit of love, hospitality, merit, real competitiveness, cultural diversity, hardworking farmers, friendly herders and true leaders. The Hilda Baci experience has shown that the true Nigerian spirit still exists, and it spreads across all the ethnic groups of the nation, as shown from the wide support she received. It is now left for us to harness this great part of us, so that we can take our true position at the world stage.

What is Hilda Baci telling us? In this instance, I recall Dr Reuben Abati and Segun Adeniyi in their respective columns making reference to the penchant of our politicians and leaders for always wanting to eat without cooking. Hilda has shown that with cooking and hard work Nigeria can get to the world stage and you have to cook before you eat. But, conversely, in line with the negative spirit, most Nigerian leaders and politicians know only one direction: to eat and not cook.

That is why the country and many states are in debt today; everyone is eating and nobody is cooking. How do you expect a society to grow from this kind of negative culture? We know them as strugglers, trekking like the rest of us, pounding the streets before they were elected and appointed into positions. But in three months, they change for the worse; they will go about intimidating innocent Nigerians with their heavy security details and convoys. The average Nigerian politician only knows how to eat, not how to cook or sow. This is not even helped by our institutions that are supposed to be guides and checks to the excesses of the leadership.

There is a trending story that once you become a senator-elect, some of our banks immediately put their searchlights on you and credit your account with amounts running into hundreds of millions of naira. You have not assumed duty, you are already on an overdraft running into multi-millions of naira! Only a true saint can escape such ambush; that is the bracket of the negative Nigerian spirit we are talking about. You come in as a leader, with all the verve and swagger, and a month after you get in, there is a noticeable change. What can be responsible for this? In a week’s time, Muhammadu Buhari will be leaving office after eight solid years as President. We should be asking what happened to all the promises he made to Nigerians?

This is a leader who told the whole world that he believed fuel subsidy is a scam, but he is now leaving office with the record of expending the highest amount of fuel subsidy ever recorded. This is a President who openly stated that we must kill corruption or else, corruption will kill this nation, now leaving office with the perception of the most corrupt government in Nigeria’s history.

The other day, the Governor of Zamfara state, Bello Matawalle, was busy exchanging words with the Economic and financial crime commission, EFCC establishment,  accusing them of corruption and turning blind eyes to the corruption activities happening at the federal government level. That is all that we have become, a government that belongs to no one, now perceived as the most nepotistic government to come out of Nigeria, it is all in the negative Nigerian spirit. 

The records are many, the education system is in comatose,  so they are covering up by approving as many private universities as possible,  you then begin to ask, what happens to our public institutions? The message Hilda Baci is sending to the whole country is that, we must institute merit, fairness and justice in all aspects of our national lives and it must cover every single institution. That is the big task that the incoming government must tackle and put to rest if anything is to come out from their government. 

It is not a matter of ethnic, religious or other sentimental emotions,  such persons must have proven records, both in the battlefields and in the administration of men. This criteria must extend to all our security agencies, including the one who serve as defence adviser to the government. By now, I will expect our security departments to begin an assessment of their performance these past eight years and highlight where they have failed. Everyone must come clean and we must expose all of those sabotaging our efforts to attain peace in the country. It is doable but, that depends on the love the leadership and its substructure have for the country. 

Ikhioya wrote via www.southsouthecho.com