Can I have your attention, please? Church, Teaching, and Chivido 2024.

I grew up in a church where nobody sought to entertain me, even though the church was entertaining. Some Ajodun (church anniversary) would qualify as Fuji or Owanbe party because when the choirmaster started with King Sunny Ade’s “Aye reti Eleyaa mi o” and all those Iya Adura and choir women started whining their waist in the way that may shame today’s tweaker you know they are not ready to go anywhere. More so when it is my mother, Iya Adura Mama Woli Popoola, who has made a change of ten or fifty naira notes that she can spend for two hours, I tell you, the time clock just broke.

However, the same way they dance with all seriousness is the same way they require your attention during prayer or sermon. If you choose otherwise, there is one attention keeper that all children who grew up in Cherubim and Seraphim (C &S) know, and that is “the broom.” Because my late sister-mum and I were very fair in complexion growing up, nothing must touch our body; otherwise, it becomes red. So, I dey mind my business for church. More so when Ololade is watching with the eyes at the back of her head. Maami would say, “To ju ti eye ni alapaaro mi fin ri ran” (eagle eye vision). You know better than to misbehave.

Related to the above, in over a decade of teaching at the university level, I am learning to accept that temperament also shapes some students’ attention and interest in your topic or class. Choleric students seem to like “serious” issues, such as the war in Afghanistan, power politics, and all those topics that call us to be sober. Sanguine students tend to think, “Life is not that serious"(se ogun laye ni?). They think I am a good teacher if I talk about popular culture, media, and celebrity gist. Melancholy students are likely noticing the minor typo in my slide and how my broach is almost not fixed to my dress and my hair is getting disheveled as I walk around the class; those were the days I thought “surveillance” was part of my responsibility as a lecturer. Phlegmatic are likely studying my mannerisms and gestures in the hope of mimicking me to their peers after class. If I remember correctly, I caught some students mimicking me in class one day.

Furthermore, my methods are constantly changing as a teacher who teaches primarily millennials and Gen Z. Now that God is teaching me how to fight grief, my wardrobe is changing because I love looking good as Ololade’s daughter. More so, this generation has to like you to learn from you. That does not mean I am after likability but because perception is critical in learning.

To weave it all together, I think church, teaching, and media should adapt and amend to generation and temperament, but I am unsure about the boundary between sensation and sense. Along those lines, I think social media should entertain, but what is the cost of getting your attention? What is your attention span, and who gets it?

In the last few days, so much attention has been paid to Davido and Chioma’s wedding, which affirms existing works and theories on fame and celebrity culture and takes detours.

Importantly, for all the gender and feminist “analysts and experts” who have something to say about Chivido’s marriage and have advice on what Sophia should do and not do, this picture is how I am looking at you.

Between the erudite, amiable, and relentless Professor, Mojubaolu Okome brought an International Relations (IR)perspective to Celebrity culture and studies yesterday at my panel by asking us to think about the “concentric circles” (a broader ecosystem of which celebrities are part). In a few seconds of engaging with her ever-fertile mind, the four concentric circles of Nigeria’s foreign policy in the “60s and 1970s came to my mind, and my IR expertise went into work mode for almost 2 hours of possible ways we can extend research on International creative economy in relations to what we know domestically.

Thank you for your presence yesterday, ma.

I remain your scholar of politics and economy of Attention.

Posted on Facebook on June 28, 2024

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