Kunle Adeleye
From Thursday, May 11 to Monday, May 15, Nigerian chef Hilda Effiong Bassey, also known as Hilda Baci, made headlines in African and global media with her daring attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the “longest cooking marathon by an individual.”
Her four-day cook-a-thon, which transformed the Amore Gardens in Lekki into a gastronomic Mecca, also generated a lot of excitement on social media, with her Instagram profile growing from 50k to 1.2M followers in only four days.
It was therefore no surprise that Baci extended her kitchen stint to 100 hours after exceeding her initial 96-hour aim and shattering the existing world record holder, India’s Lata Tondon’s 87 hours 45 minutes record continuous cooking in the process.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari, ex-VP Yemi Osinbajo, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Lagos State Governor Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and a slew of other bigwigs congratulated the endeavor.
However, kanyidaily said that two weeks after Hilda Baci’s legendary attempt, the record organization had yet to confirm her cooking record.
On May 16, a Guinness Book of Records spokeswoman stated, “We are aware of the record attempt and are looking forward to receiving the evidence for our Records Management Team to review before we can confirm the record is official.”
But, two weeks later, the record organization has failed to confirm Hilda Baci’s record.
The Nigerian chef recently complained about the delay on Instagram, saying she has been refreshing her email every second in the hopes of receiving GWR’s certification email since she submitted all paperwork.
In response to the circumstance, the Akwa Ibom-born chef stated, “Not me refreshing my email every second since we submitted all the evidence to Guinness World Records.”
Kafayat Oluwatoyin Shafau, also known as Kaffy, a Nigerian dancer and World Guinness Record holder, had previously anticipated that the record authority may postpone confirming Hilda Baci’s effort.
Kaffy, who established the Guinness World Record for “Longest Dance Party” in 2006, said it took nearly two weeks for GWR to certify her achievement.
Similarly, Lata Tondon, whom Hilda is attempting to dethrone, stated during an Instagram live session in mid-May that it took two months for her record to be confirmed and a certificate was delivered to her by Guinness World Records.
The delay in confirming Hilda Baci’s record has sparked outrage on social media, with many criticizing the Guinness World Record over the issue.
READ: Animal rights activist, Idimogu slams chef Hilda Baci for eating dog meat
See some of the Twitter comments below;
@King William: “I honestly don’t see why they’re taking so long. How difficult can it be to instruct your employees to watch a video? I mean, humans watch so much television these days, how difficult can it be?”
@Luckyai: “I got pissed at some point, even went to their page to gather evidence of foul play against them.” However, it turns out that all submitted attempts take 12 weeks to review, so you can relax for the next 11 weeks. Hopefully, they’ll cut it short.”
@HenryEm: “@hildabacicooks hundreds of people witnessed it.” My initial opinion was that you wouldn’t break the record, but something changed my mind and I knew you’d do it. Crazy 9ja folks were there to celebrate and cheer you up. That was your strength, thus I tell you today, that mail go come @GWR pls.”
@Miraculous Sound: “I’m not sure you properly involved or carried them along before going out for this challenge, if not why the sluggishness in feedback?” Congratulations, though; your effort is truly remarkable.”
