Guinness World Records (GWR) is urging Africans to emulate Nigerians in their pursuit of breaking records.
However, they emphasize the importance of registering their attempts beforehand and adhering to the rules.
Nigeria witnessed a surge in record-breaking endeavours after chef Hilda Baci’s impressive four-day cook-a-thon in May gained recognition from GWR.
The organization has now measured the extent of this trend.
GWR’s editor-in-chief Craig Glenday told BBC Focus on Africa that his organisation has received 1,572 applications from Nigerians for record attempts since Chef Hilda hit the headlines.
People have been crying non-stop, massaging non-stop and frying huge amounts of snails, among other things – all in an effort to get recognition.
“I really like it when people are passionate about record-breaking,” Mr Glenday said.
“We definitely want to see more people from Africa generally setting records – it’s a good thing.”
But he added that GWR wants to be notified first so they can assess the record attempt and see if it is measurable and establish the rules.
Mr Glenday said 95% of record attempts get rejected.
