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Catholic Entity Petitions for Withdrawal of “pornographic film” from Nigeria's Screens

A poster demanding the cancelation of Big Brother Naija. Credit : CitizenGo

The leadership of an international Catholic activist organization that spearheads family issues is petitioning the government of Nigeria for the withdrawal of a reality TV show, which it says showcases “pure pornography.”

In a Tuesday, September 7 petition addressed to the country’s Federal Minister for Information and Culture, officials of CitizenGo say Big Brother Naija, which is part of the international reality TV franchise Big Brother, is a mockery to Nigerian cultures and traditions. 

"The Federal Minister for Information and Culture must stop this show from airing since the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) seems complacent," CitizenGo officials say. 

Big Brother Naija, they add, is a "celebration of obscenity, eroticism and idleness." 

"In one episode last two weeks or so, the inmates were shown openly kissing and caressing one another," they explain.

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Nigerians risk losing their culture to disastrous lifestyles because of the TV show, officials of the entity founded by the by the ultra-Catholic HazteOir organization say. 

"There is a great danger in importing the destructive foreign lifestyle to Nigeria. Explicit sexual overtures, which appeal to the prurient interest in sex damages a country’s moral ecology in an analogous way in which oil pollutant damages a country’s ecology," they say. 

They continue, “Since the inmates are Nigerians, they should have been projecting the Nigerian cultural heritage. But instead of doing that, they are bastardizing it." 

CitizenGO officials add that "the biggest tragedy of the ongoing reality show is that our children are also watching it."

“Children are our future. Therefore, we should protect them from lewd exposure, which might prevent their growth into free, independent and well-developed citizens,” they say in the petition. 

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CitizenGO officials are the latest to demand the withdrawal of the reality show whose sixth season is ongoing. 

On September 5, a Catholic Priest in the West African country said the show has no values. 

“What is Big Brother and what are the ideas portrayed there? What exactly are young people learning from that show? You cannot be openly watching pornography and you call yourself a Christian,” Fr. George Ehusani, the Executive Director and Lead Faculty of Lux Terra Leadership Foundation said. 

The Nigerian Priest who spearheaded the Psycho-Spiritual Institute (PSI) described Big Brother’s logo as satanic and called upon Nigerians to unite against the TV show. 

“I want to tell you all right now that the Eye sign of big brother is an evil sign and it’s known as the lucifer sign,” the award-winning Catholic Priest said.

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The Abuja-based Priest added, “This matter should be hugely discussed in our society and if we do not come together to do something about it too there will be a lot of damage to be worked on by the time we realize it.”

Last month, members of the Ohanaeze Youth Council, an Igbo socio-cultural group, also urged the  Federal Government to ban the ongoing reality show. 

“With the high rate of lack of moral values among teenagers in Nigeria, BBNaija is a social monster that has come to ruin the lives of Nigerian youths, mostly the teenagers who are easily carried away by social trends,” the President of Ohaneze Youth Council, Igboayaka Igboayaka, said.

Magdalene Kahiu is a Kenyan journalist with passion in Church communication. She holds a Degree in Social Communications from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). Currently, she works as a journalist for ACI Africa.