Creative Nigerians use Guinness World Records to seek global recognition
elusive at home
[October 01, 2026]
By OPE ADETAYO
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Nigerians have tried to set two Guinness World
Records in the past week, with a man dancing for seven days and a movie
premiering to an audience of more than 51,000 people, the largest ever
on record.
Since 2023, when Nigerian celebrity chef Hilda Baci cooked for 93 hours
and 11 minutes, setting a world record for the longest cooking marathon
and becoming a viral sensation globally, there has been a deluge of
record attempts in Nigeria, including the longest crying session, a
clothes-washing marathon and a massage marathon.
Nigeria is home to an estimated 220 million people and has one of the
youngest populations globally. The country has long been seen as an
African superpower in the entertainment and creative industries but a
lack of investment and government support has left the nation trailing
global peers.
The flood of Guinness record bids is a way for creative people in
Nigeria to seek the global recognition of their talents, a recognition
they say eludes them at home, according to analysts and participants.
“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.
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Benjamin Daniel, known as Ben Dancer, attempts dancing for 168 hours
in a bid to set a Guinness World Record, at the freedom park in
Lagos, Nigeria, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)
 “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 told The Associated Press 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.”
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