Did Hilda Actually Cook That Rice?

Did Hilda Actually Cook That Rice?

By Dr. Usoro I. Usoro

You know that old saying: “Too many cooks spoil the broth.” Well, Nigeria has just flipped it upside down: Too many cooks… cooked Guinness World Records.

Hello! Is that Hilda Baci? Our culinary Amazon. Network is bad, but I just say make I hail o. The woman who turned Lagos into one big kitchen and social media feed.

The headlines everywhere say she “singlehandedly” cooked a pot of rice that could feed a small country. But, hold it. Hilda had 10 assistants helping her stir, chop, lift, and sweat, abi?

Well, forget Nollywood drama —this was bigger. She fed 20,000 people. And more! Yes, you heard right. Jesus Christ fed 5,000 with bread and fish, and had been in religious history since. No Nigerian government has managed to feed 1,000 without stampede or people climbing chairs and jumping fence. But Hilda? Hilda opened a restaurant of destiny for 20,000 souls. If that’s not superwoman moves, what is?

So, hey! Hilda didn’t break one record. She scattered religious record. Set humanitarian record. Shattered good governance or stomach infrastructure record. Reordered management and organisational records. And, recreated the Guinness World Record!

But here’s the spice: Hilda wasn’t the lone Iron Lady. The reality was more like a cooking orchestra. Ten sous-chefs were flying around that pot like bees in a honey festival. Chopping here, stirring there, sweating everywhere. That’s a cooking Avengers Assemble.

Okay, we Nigerians love a lone-hero story. One man saves democracy. One woman feeds a nation. One prophet solves everybody’s problem. But truth no be one-man-show.

Guinness World Records allows “assistants,” fine. So, Hilda wasn’t exactly cook 200 bags of rice, alone. If she had been, she’d still be there, stirring that pot today. Ten times round that giant pot and she would have been begging for oxygen, to see the bottom.

Here’s the controversial pepper: Hilda did not cook that pot of rice alone. Ten people cooked it with her. Deep down, it’s like saying Burna Boy did a concert “alone” when 200 backup crew, dancers, and light men were there sweating buckets.

Still, that doesn’t make Hilda less amazing. It makes her more Nigerian. Because in this country, survival is a group project. From fetching water to borrowing maggi from neighbour, nothing big happens without community.

Anyway, even if Hilda had 50 assistants, the feat still shakes the earth. It takes vision, stamina, and madness (holy one) to pull off that kind of marathon. She fed more mouths in ne day than some state governments feed in a year. She made Nigerians line up without fighting, stampeding, or calling soldiers. Who else can do that?

The point is: Hilda deserves flowers. But let’s give credit where it’s due: her team too deserves a spoonful of praise. Because no matter how superwoman you are, you can’t stir a GWR-sized pot alone without collapsing like PHCN transformer.

So, here’s the UTME question: Did Hilda cook the Guinness World Record pot? Technically? No. Ten people did. But did she lead it, organise it, coordinate it, inspire it, and turn it into a spectacle that fed 20,000 Nigerians? Absolutely.

As the elders say: “When the yam is too big for one person, you invite a village. But when it’s time for photo, only the landlord smiles.”

So give Hilda her flowers, but don’t forget the others, who helped make history!