Big Brother Naija, level up or level down?

As many feared, this year’s edition of Big Brother Naija (BBN) season 7 has begun despite the earlier opposition from some Nigerians. There were those who felt that the time wasn’t quite right and called for the rescheduling of the 2022 edition of BBN because of Nigeria’s upcoming elections. Their fear was that citizens especially the youths could be distracted and not pay adequate attention to politics and the need to elect the right people in 2023. On the bright side, BBN ends sometime in October in time for the youths to join the electioneering campaigns. Anyhow, Multichoice and its other business partners must’ve felt that the show must go on and decided that the Big Brother Naija show must hold. Tagged “Level Up,” the reality TV show had a 2-day launch on Saturday, July 23, and Sunday, July 24, 2022. A dozen housemates were unveiled on each day bringing the total number of housemates to 24.

So far, so confusing. Even at the best of times, the first week of Big Brother is usually when viewers settle down to learn all about the housemates. Now with 24 housemates, it was always going to be a challenge to know them well in such a short period of time. For this year, to further complicate matters, the housemates have been divided into Level 1 and Level 2 which Youtuber Anita Ihesie has taken to calling Trenches (Level 2) and Banana Island (Level 1). Each level has 12 housemates, and they live in different houses. Although there are two dedicated Dstv channels for Big Brother Naija, Level Up, the two channels will feature both houses intermittently. So, how exciting is BBN Level Up? It’s early days yet but from what I can gather (from vloggers and others), the BBN excitement is taking a slow time to burn.

A lot was said on the first day of launch and most of it bordered on how underwhelming the first batch of housemates into the Big Brother mansion on Saturday, July 23, 2022, was. I had the same thoughts after catching highlights of the day one launch even though at the time I didn’t know this was the widely held view of many who’d watched the day one unveiling. As I’d watched through Youtubers and others, I wasn’t sure if it wasn’t the vlogs that had affected the quality of what I saw. BBN season 7 housemates were being dragged on social media. They were accused of being hit by Buhari’s bad economy and some of the women were teased about things like their poor-quality wigs, below-standard clothes, etc.

But it’s not about fashion alone, how interesting, and genuine are the housemates? In other words, how genuinely interesting are the housemates? Some of the highlights I’ve watched so far look contrived. You could say things will change and heat up as the weeks go by.  Let’s wait and see. I’ll be sure to bring you up to speed in the coming months.

• Who are the standout housemates?

It’s barely a week since the housemates got into ‘Biggie’s House.’ I haven’t quite gotten familiar with all the housemates. As if that wasn’t hard enough, this year, there are two houses, but I’ll mention the housemates almost off the top of my head that stand out: This year like other years, there’s at least one married housemate. 28-year-old Kess (Kesiena Tony Adjekpovu) is married and says his wife is in total support of him having fun in the House. Yes, famous last words. Let’s talk to him again sometime after the show comes to an end. Anyhow, married female housemates appear to have worse experiences as the case of last season’s contestant Tega’s case with her estranged husband shows. By the end of Sunday, after all the housemates had been revealed, the 26-year-old actor and footballer Sheggz (Segun Daniel Olusemo) got a lot of attention from women (and some men who were afraid of their girlfriends and wives falling for him).  Into this mix comes Chichi (Chinenyenwa Desire Okoebor) who describes herself as an exotic dancer or what everyone else insists is a stripper. There are other names like Chomzy, Giddyfia, Eloswag, Allysyn, Groovy, Pharmsavi…These aliases sound like tongue twisters.

Is this the year of the Edo woman?

There appears to be a sizeable number of housemates from Edo State, nothing further than Benin-City and its immediate environs. Of course, as an Edo woman myself, I’m partly excited and partly afraid, hoping these women don’t disgrace our collective destinies: Phyna (Ijeoma Josephina Otabor), Chichi (Chinenyenwa Desire Okoebor), Diana Isoken Edobor…Is this the year that an Edo woman wins BBN?

What does it mean to be polyamorous?

Hermes Chibueze Iyele introduced himself as polyamorous. According to his introduction, he has two girlfriends who know of one another. As things stand, we have a stripper, a polyamorist, and who knows what other closeted examples there are in this year’s BBN. My only concern is that polyamory isn’t about cheating your partner by practicing what looks like polygamy. Polyamory “is the desire or practice of having romantic relationships with more than one person at the same time, with the informed consent of all partners involved.” The part that wasn’t highlighted by Hermes is that these polyamorist romantic relationships can be mixed and don’t discriminate against same-sex relationships. In other words, in addition to his two girlfriends (are they called girlfriends in a polyamorous setup?) Hermes can also add a man to the mix.

Why is it so hard to keep up with BBN outside of Nigeria?

I mentioned earlier having to watch BBN through vloggers and others. The reason is that I’m not in Nigeria at the moment. And despite having Dstv premium subscription, I can’t access DSTV or Showmax where I am. For some reason, Showmax has been stopped in Canada. Not even if I disguise my location with a VPN. This makes me wonder how in 2022, organisers of BBN haven’t yet figured out how audiences from across the world can follow the show. This doesn’t have to be live-streaming as they can create or use their existing media channels to show highlights.