The Worst Thing That Happened to Nigeria was Podcasts

Let’s face it, apart from the never ending plagues of insecurity, inflation, underdevelopment and corruption facing Nigeria, podcasting has joined the list. Like Olaniyi Olayemi (@disaffectedng on twitter) said, we’re in the era of ‘Podpocalypse’.

Podcasting has become the order of the day for the Nigerian, it has slowly become the worst medium that Nigerians will lay their hands on. Do not get me wrong, not all Podcasts have proven to be detrimental to the enlightenment of the country, however, the turn that podcasting has taken, as well as the genre that has seemed to overcome other genres of podcasting recently, has shown the vast declining state of good podcasting in Nigeria and the distracting element it had been covered with. This genre – Entertainment. 

Do you agree or not? Follow me through!

A Podcast is a programme, especially an audio programme produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on computer or portable devices such as mobile phones. From this, Podcasts were basically audio blogs that evolved into video content.

Nigeria, just like the rest of the world, has joined the podcasting wagon which is vast becoming an epidemic. There are different genres of Podcasts ranging from socio political commentary to religious prayers and sermons, to science and tech talks, to entertainment. Notable Podcasts in Nigeria include: I Said What I Said (ISWIS), Nigeria Politics Weekly, Step Up Nigeria, The Offside Musings, etc. These Podcasts majorly discuss and analyze the Nigerian current affairs, culture, politics, economics and social trends. They are educative and prove the criticality that a Nigerian could show. 

Where then did it all go wrong?

In my study, podcasting in Nigeria started going wrong when it became entertainment-centered. Since the word ‘content creation’ entered the Nigerian dictionary, it has known no rest. Literally everyone became content makers. This is not to discredit authentic and good content creators who are really good with what they do and create meaningful contents, it is just to say that inauthenticity has taken over the content space so much that they might render the name ‘content creators’ useless. When two people are in businesses of the same nature, they both strive to be better than each other. In the process towards this end, they craft different ideas to make them stand out. This applies also to content creators, they try to create contents that are unique to them, either with their names, costume, pick up lines or the content idea generally. We are however not here to talk about content creators and their niches, the point is, many anchors and founders of Podcasts have turned their podcast into a content-centric enterprise whose aim is just to generate attention from the public. They have done this so much that Podcasts have almost lost relevance. Thinking from my point of view, listening to the contents of some Podcasts these days has made me develop a stereotype about them. I easily conclude these days that Podcasts are irrelevant and their contents, useless. Who would blame such thoughts? Podcasts these days have turned into enterprises featuring two or a group of people who set the camera, mic and couch and start running commentaries on entertainment, dating gossips and displaying their shallow thinking prowess. Just like business owners study their clients to know how best to promote their products to get more buyers, podcasters must have studied hard and come to know that this generation of Nigerians only like to be entertained and comment on what not. It is no wonder that the larger population of youths these days do not know much about politics, the Nigerian culture, economics and current affairs, or better said, many are less interested in educational and thought provoking issues. When I go on media spaces like Instagram, Facebook or X (twitter) the way so called educated youths run commentaries display the rate at which a large number of Nigerians have derailed and lost the act of criticality. It is no wonder as well why Nigeria as a country has remained unchanged, underdeveloped and corruption-filled. The lack of intellectualism and criticality has cut deep into the present generation, or many prefer to be distracted by irrelevant entertainment than be involved in matters of the intellect. Podcasters have seen this and made it a thing to discuss topics that could generate outrageous reactions from the public and ‘sell their market’. 

Take for example, in a recent podcast anchored by Honest Bunch Podcast which was created by Chinedu Ani Emmmanuel aka 'Nedu', a media personality called Sadiaboj, made some comments that caused frenzy reactions from the public. In their relationship discussion, Sadiaboj confidently advised ladies to ‘bill’ any man that collects their phone number. According to her, the billing would make her know if the man is responsible and especially because ‘she is beautiful’. While many Nigerians lauded her, many disproved her idea. If listened to closely, an intellectual should be able to denote the lack of criticality, in-depth knowledge and logic that has crept into podcasting. Why should anyone be paid because they look good? What logic is there in talking about how much you are worth and how you must be paid in thousands or millions to prove the point? People spend their money to get items, especially ones that look good and work well. For me therefore, it is only people who have objectified themselves that support getting paid because they look good. 

What happened to genuine and pure relationships that aren’t viewed as money making ventures? What happened to values and authenticity? They are simply lost.

Again, relationship talks are not bad, in the stead of these recent fund-centric relationship commentaries on Podcasts, there should be talks on growth, hard work, honest work, conflict resolutions and how to generally become better partners and not parasites.

In any type of work, whether small or big, honesty is the best policy. Podcasters these days lack honesty. There have been cases of podcast producers inviting celebrities to have a conversation on their podcast and cutting off some conversations that look controversial in order to gain public attention. Like I said earlier, they must have known how much the social media audience has lost in-depth knowledge and their lack of ability to think deeply. In anyways, there is the need for a reorientation, re-education and proper enlightenment of podcasters and their guests in the entertainment industry. 

Entertainment should not be the tool of distraction from the bigger problems that the country is facing, it should rather be the medium where this generation is educated on the happenings and where they brainstorm or run commentaries on current affairs. 

On another thought, relationship talks and the likes that are neither political nor economical, are not bad in themselves, they should in fact be intertwined and discussed critically.

Lastly, maybe my opinion is faulty, maybe not. Maybe podcasters Should not even be blamed for losing their authenticity, maybe inflation should take the blame for making people look for money by all means. Maybe we have just lost the will to be critical of the corrupt government. Maybe our only coping mechanism in this hardship-immersed country is fake attention to irrelevant topics and loud and relaxing laughters at the different weird conversations that come up on the media space everyday. Maybe I am indeed critical of the recent podcast system in the country or maybe I just want to provoke the intellectual bunch that would agree, maybe, maybe not. What do you think?