In the 1960s, Professor Chike Obi was a national celebrity. Nicknamed "the great mathematician," he was celebrated across Nigeria simply for being b
In the 1960s, Professor Chike Obi was a national celebrity. Nicknamed “the great mathematician,” he was celebrated across Nigeria simply for being brilliant at mathematics.
There were songs written in his honor, schoolchildren aspired to emulate him, and when he walked into an event, he was recognized and revered not for wealth or political power but for intellectual achievement.
Obi went on to become the first Nigerian to earn a PhD in Mathematics, trained generations of scholars, and won the UNESCO Science Prize in 1987.
His fame sent a powerful message: knowledge itself could make you a national hero.
Fast forward to today, and Nigeria still produces extraordinary mathematical talent.
Each year, Nigerian students win global math Olympiads and science prizes. But unlike Chike Obi, their names rarely make headlines, no songs are written about them, and they are quickly forgotten outside small academic circles.
The culture no longer celebrates intellectual mastery.
Compare this to China, where winners of national mathematics competitions are treated as celebrities, profiled in major newspapers, and revered as proof of the nation’s progress.
In Nigeria, by contrast, a young person with similar brilliance struggles for recognition – because intellectual excellence is not what we, as a society, choose to respect anymore.
This was not always the case.
Nigeria once stood at the intellectual forefront. Wole Soyinka became Africa’s first Nobel laureate in Literature in 1986, while his contemporary China Achebe, though controversially overlooked for the Nobel, reshaped world literature through Things Fall Apart and other works.
For a time, intellectual excellence was not only possible but widely admired.
The coinage “Olodo Uprising” by Janet Meizem on Twitter captures the current reversal sharply: the rise of anti-intellectualism in Nigeria. 
Olodo – a Yoruba word loosely meaning “not good at school*: has come to represent a social phenomenon where ignorance is not just tolerated but, actively glamorized.
Why has Nigeria gone from celebrating great minds to mocking them?
Three reasons stand out.
1. Culture
The culture has shifted from collective pride in intellectual achievement to an obsession with material success.
Where once a mathematician could inspire songs, today a fraudster with flashy cars and a large Instagram following commands admiration.
The social markers of status have moved decisively away from intellectual ability toward conspicuous consumption.
2. Decline in Educational Quality
The collapse of Nigeria’s public education system has created generations of students for whom excellence is rare and sometimes even ridiculed. Overcrowded classrooms, underpaid teachers, and a near-total erosion of academic standards mean that genuine intellectual achievement often looks alien – and instead of being admired, it is dismissed.
3. The “Hushpuppi Effect”
Perhaps most damaging is the rise of a culture that glamorizes shortcut wealth and internet fraud. Ramon “Hushpuppi” Abbas, with his extravagant lifestyle funded by cybercrime, became an aspirational figure for many young Nigerians before his arrest. In this climate, intelligence, diligence, and slow, hard-won progress pale in comparison to quick money.
The result is a society where hard work is undervalued, and intellectualism is derided.
Conclusion
The Olodo Uprising is more than a social media phrase; it is a national crisis.
A society that mocks intellect and glorifies ignorance cannot innovate, cannot compete, and cannot sustain democracy.
If Nigeria is to reclaim its future, it must rediscover the spirit of Chike Obi – a culture where being a thinker, a problem-solver, and a scholar is something to be celebrated, not sneered at.
Dr Ola Brown is an entrepreneur, a medical doctor, a trainee pilot, and the founder of Flying Doctors, West Africa’s first indigenous air ambulance service
