What Are We Really Rewarding?

What Are We Really Rewarding? When I read this topic, my stomach twisted. As much as I wanted to pick a side, my thoughts were stretched between two opposing truths.Every generation chooses what it applauds. Some generations clapped for warriors, others for inventors. Some immortalized poets whose words outlived their bones.Ours?We seem to applaud whatever captures our attention first. Sometimes it is wisdom. Sometimes creativity. Lately, it seems to be noise.Perhaps that is why this topic unsettles me. Not because people admit they do not know.Those three words—"I don't know"—are not confessions of failure. They are invitations to learn. They leave the door unlocked for curiosity to enter.What unsettles me is what happens when that door is shut, locked, and then decorated and praised.Somewhere between laughter, likes, skits, and memes, ignorance changed its appearance. It no longer bowed its head to learn. It walked into the room wearing a crown. What was once a label people escaped has become one some people proudly embrace.I watched, amused at first. Then curious. Now, concerned.Ignorance is not a stain. It is an empty page. The tragedy is not that the page is blank; the tragedy begins when we frame the blank page instead of writing on it. There was once a time when being called Olodo carried deep embarrassment. In Yoruba culture, Olodo is an insult describing someone who is unintelligent, lacking in common sense, or unwilling to understand.<img alt="" src="/media/inline_insight_image/file_000000005dc481f6a9d6d7c70006b912.png"/>So when did the insult become a trend? Perhaps somewhere along the line, especially here in Nigeria, we began to mistake being deliberately clueless for being entertaining. A wrong answer became a catchphrase. A moment of ignorance became a meme. Before long, people were no longer simply laughing at ignorance; they were rewarding it with attention, followers, and influence. Attention has become a currency, and too often, ignorance earns it more easily than wisdom.An influencer intentionally gives obviously wrong answers during street interviews or acts clueless in videos, and audiences laugh. The views multiply. The followers increase.So I have to ask:Are we rewarding ignorance?To understand Olodo, we must understand that ignorance is not merely a lack of academic knowledge. It is a lack of knowledge coupled with an unwillingness to learn.Yet we also live in an age that celebrates authenticity.We hear phrases like, "This is just who I am," or "I won't change for anyone."Authenticity is a mirror. It reflects who we are. It was never meant to become a prison that prevents us from becoming who we could be.Someone may naturally be impatient, yet spend years learning self-control. Their impatience may be authentic, but so is their decision to grow. They are choosing who they want to become instead of surrendering to who they have always been.Accepting ignorance as an unchangeable part of ourselves is not authenticity. It is resignation.A seed is authentic because it is a seed, yet no one praises it for dying beneath the soil. We celebrate the tree it becomes—the branches that stretch beyond themselves and the roots that dare to sink deeper than yesterday.Growth does not betray authenticity.It fulfills it.At times, the world seems confused.We cheer the person who performs ignorance for entertainment, yet mock the one who spends sleepless nights studying. We call them "forming" simply because they take excellence seriously.Yet we are equally guilty of another mistake. We laugh at those who ask questions we consider foolish while placing only academic intelligence on a pedestal, forgetting that intelligence wears many faces.In our society, we sometimes tell children to stop asking questions because they are "disturbing." We mock those who speak too well, study too much, or dare to dream differently. Then years later, we wonder why innovation seems scarce and why mediocrity feels so comfortable. A society cannot keep laughing at learning and expect excellence to become its habit. The system is already broken. Every scientist began with questions. Every writer began with a blank page. Every child enters the world knowing almost nothing.Ignorance is where every journey begins, not where it should end. So, are we rewarding ignorance or authenticity? I believe we are rewarding both, while dangerously confusing one for the otherAuthenticity gives us permission to be honest about where we are.Ignorance asks us to remain there.Wisdom smiles gently and says,"Keep walking." The world is constantly evolving, and so should we.The problem is not that we begin as Olodo; the problem is when we decide there is nowhere else to go.Perhaps the real uprising is not Olodo. Perhaps it is our willingness to confuse honesty with stagnation, entertainment with excellence, and authenticity with the refusal to grow.Ignorance may be where every story begins,but it should never be the chapter we choose to remain in.<img alt="" src="/media/inline_insight_image/file_00000000eb4c81f4bcad0e8bbf25124b.png"/>

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