Congratulations... You're an Olodo. - by Princess Chronicles

"Your mate came first. You came 37th. "What exactly do you know?" His report card was barely out of his school bag when judgment was passed.His mother didn't ask how school went or whether he understood the lessons.She didn't ask whether he was happy. Her eyes stopped at one thing.37th out of 40."Seun, Olodo!" That word probably hurt more than the result itself...Nobody asked what he loved.Nobody noticed he could make an entire room laugh with his stories.Nobody cared that he was the first to help classmates solve everyday problems. Years later, social media is debating an "Olodo uprising." Some say we're glorifying ignorance. Others say people are finally being authentic. Overtime, we're asking the wrong question.For years, we've confused academic performance with human intelligence.We've celebrated one kind of brilliance while quietly dismissing every other kind. In Nigeria, we say education is important, yet our educational system continues to struggle with underfunding, inconsistent support, and limited investment. At the same time, we often judge people's worth almost entirely by academic results. Then we wonder why the conversation has shifted.Here's the irony. Many of us complain that people no longer value education...But when was the last time we watched a five-minute educational video from beginning to end?When was the last time we picked up a book because we genuinely wanted to learn not because an examination was around the corner? We laugh at content creators.We dismiss them as unserious.Yet we spend hours consuming the very content they create.Our attention is the reason many of them earn a living. Whether you like creators like Peller or not isn't even the point.The point is that the world has changed. Value is now created in more ways than a report card can measure. Someone can graduate with distinctions and still struggle to communicate, collaborate, adapt, or create value.Someone else may never come first in class, yet build a business, create opportunities, and impact millions. That doesn't make education useless.It reminds us that intelligence has never worn just one face. The real uprising is authenticity uprising.People refusing to squeeze themselves into a single definition of intelligence that was never designed to accommodate everyone. The child who came 37th deserved guidance.The brilliant student deserves to be celebrated.The creative mind deserves to be respected.The skilled artisan deserves dignity.The storyteller deserves a seat at the table too. Perhaps we've spent so much time asking whether we're ignoring ignorance or celebrating authenticity that we've ignored a bigger conversation altogether. The next time you're tempted to call someone "Olodo," pause..Ask yourself:By whose definition of intelligence?

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