Posted by Nseobong Okon-Ekong on
It was a fitting birthday present for Nigeria as her name was written in gold again when a group of young Nigerians set a new world record for the longest dance party by remaining on the dance floor beyond 52 hours three minutes.
It was a fitting birthday present for Nigeria as her name was written in gold again when a group of young Nigerians set a new world record for the longest dance party by remaining on the dance floor beyond 52 hours three minutes.
The danceathon contestants who put Nigeria's name in the Guinness Book of World Records were still shuffling their feet on the dance floor at the time of filing this report.
The former record of 52 hours three minutes was set in the United States of America in 2003.
The Nigerian dancers danced beyond the former world mark at 10.15p.m. yesterday amidst jubilation and a rain of champagne to celebrate the heroic effort of the dancers who were sweating it at the studios of Silverbird Television, Lekki-Lagos.
The danceathon started at 6.11p.m. last Friday with the dancers orgainsed into four groups with 30 dancers each. Each party was named after popular animals-zebra, eagle and antelope- in the Nigerian environment.
To emerge winner, a group must have at least 75 (23 persons) percent of its contestants at the last count. The winning group is expected to share the top price of N2 million amongst its surviving members.
Organisers of the competition, Silverbird and Nokia said they were poised to fashion out novel ways of projecting Nigeria in a good light to the outside world.
The danceathon was a huge spectacle while it lasted, keeping many television viewers in Lagos and its environ glued to their sets for the duration of the event.
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At the time of the filing this report, one of the coordinators of the programme, Mr. Jaco Akinyemi-Johnson who spoke with THISDAY said that Silverbird and Nokia were not only interested in setting a new world record but to give Nigerian youths something to live by encouraging them them to put their creative energy into productive and efforts that add value to the community and the nation at large.
Besides the world record, the last person was expected to get an additional reward of N1.5 million.
It was not all smooth sailing for many of the enthusiastic contestants as some of them fell by the way side due to exhaustion, high-blood pressure and other medical conditions which the medics on set adjudged as high risk to the health of the contestant.