Nigeria wants to be known as the land of Guinness World Records
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Two new Guinness World Record attempts were made in Nigeria in the last week, including a seven-day dance marathon and a film premiere attended by more than 51,000 people, the largest audience ever recorded.
A wave of record attempts has swept Nigeria since 2023, after celebrity chef Hilda Baci spent 93 hours and 11 minutes cooking to secure the longest cooking marathon record, gaining worldwide viral fame. Subsequent bids have encompassed marathons for clothes-washing and massages, as well as a prolonged crying session.
Home to an estimated 220 million citizens, Nigeria boasts one of the youngest populations in the world. While widely regarded as an African powerhouse within the creative and entertainment sectors, a shortfall in investment and state assistance has caused the country to lag behind international counterparts.
According to analysts and participants, this surge in Guinness record attempts serves as an avenue for Nigerian creatives to pursue international acclaim for their talents—a recognition they feel remains unattainable locally.
“The Guinness World Record is a global platform for the work to be recognized,” said Benjamin Daniel, the man seeking the dancing world record who has worked with the famous Kuti family. Guinness World Records was in the process of verifying the record on Wednesday.
“The people who are supposed to pay attention to us as a people are not doing it. So if the local people are not listening to us, let us run to the global,” Daniel said of the situation of dancers in Nigeria.
In the past decade, Nigeria has wrestled with a dwindling economy and soaring inflation. Unemployment has steadily risen, forcing the young to leave the country and seek opportunities elsewhere in a widespread syndrome called “japa” in Nigerian parlance, meaning “to escape.”
Analysts say the perks of a Guinness World Record can make up for deficient institutional support locally.
“What is different is the perceived value and the reach of the recognition. A Guinness World Record holder can go anywhere and lay claim to their recognition, compared to the achievements they might have gathered in their home country,” David Akinfenwa, a Lagos-based public relations executive, said.
Guinness World Records said that 5,042 people in Nigeria applied for a record between January 2022 and September 2026, with 3,346 record attempts. That makes Nigeria seventh among countries by applicant volume and eighth among the number of attempts.
“Guinness World Records has seen strong enthusiasm for record-breaking from people in Nigeria across a wide range of categories. It’s always exciting to see the creativity, determination and ambition people bring to their attempts, and every application is assessed against the same global criteria and evidence requirements," the organization said.
Nora Awolowo is one of the filmmakers of the movie Black Market that set the record for the world’s largest premiere of a movie, with 51,258 people in the audience.
“Nobody can tell me anything is impossible," she said. "There is no room I walk into now that if I tell you what I have done with my film, you would not put respect on my name.”
