News that the owner of Manga Autos gifted ₦500,000 to Nafisah Abdullahi, the 17-year-old Nigerian who emerged world champion at the TeenEagle Global Finals, is heartwarming. It is a remarkable gesture that recognizes brilliance. But it also exposes the collective hypocrisy that our society’s reward culture is skewed and unserious about excellence, even as we tend to profess the contrary.
Nafisah’s triumph was no small feat, competing against over 20,000 participants from 69 countries, and clinching the top prize in a prestigious academic contest testing English, critical thinking, and communication skills. What did she and her team mates get? Government rewarded her with a ₦200,000 cash award, and then some scholarships, and commendations here and there, including from her home state, Yobe, and from the Atiku Abubakar Foundation. Truly commendable, but tokenistic in scale.
Contrast this with how athletes and entertainers are showered with apartments, cars, and tens of thousands of dollars, sometimes for winning a game or a fleeting competition. We have equally seen how deviant behaviour often attracts more public attention and rewards than discipline, scholarship, or integrity.
What message does this send to the next generation? That notoriety and spectacle pay more than intellect?
In some cases, we have seen an overreach. The tragedy of our skewed reward prioritization has recognized deviance, far too often.
This is not to diminish sports or entertainment, as they are equally deserving of recognition. But the disparity is glaring, and betrays a society that pays lip service to education while starving it of prestige. We cannot claim to value knowledge and innovation when those who achieve global intellectual milestones are barely acknowledged, except through private acts of goodwill.
If Nigeria is serious about competing in a knowledge-driven world, we must recalibrate how we honour excellence. Government, institutions, and corporate bodies should create reward systems that elevate intellectual achievement to the same level of visibility and generosity as sports. Scholarships, mentorship pipelines, and substantial incentives must follow our best and brightest, as a matter of equal or more priority.
