From being the first girl to survive three consecutive eviction nominations, Boboye Onduku reveals that Nigeria’s Malvina Longpet has surpassed expectations and has become the first contestant to be assured of a place in the final week of Africa’s biggest reality TV show.
Katung Aduak, Kevin Chuwang-Pam, Uti Nwachukwu and Malvina ‘Vina’ Longpet all have two things in common. They all have links with Jos, Plateau State, and have participated in the Big Brother Africa at one point. While the first three – all guys – were winners of the Big Brother Show, Vina is hoping to follow in their footsteps.
How did the Nigerian get here? She got into the Amplified house by the prodding of her cousin. She had accompanied her cousin to the show’s auditioning. The presenter of a morning programme on Kiss FM, Abuja attended high school in California, USA, and college in the UK. She was in Malta at some point in her life, and came back into Nigeria not long ago.
The ‘Oyinbo’ Nigerian girl
?
‘Black Barbie’ is a professional rapper, radio diva and a hot stepper (dancer). But those are the better parts of Vina that viewers are easily drawn to. Karen Igho, her fellow Nigerian contestant, took the fight to her very early.
“I don’t speak Pidgin English because I do not stay around those who speak it,” Vina retorted when she was pushed to the wall by Karen.
That sparked much controversy for her as Nigerian viewers would have none of the ‘Oyinbo girl’ stance. The fact that she revealed early in the show that she had just returned to Nigeria didn’t help her popularity ratings either. That was the cue her fellow headsmates needed to put her up for three consecutive possible nominations for eviction from the second week. The media production graduate navigated through them all and became the first female to survive three consecutive evictions on all six editions of the show. When as head of house, headsmates nominated her for possible eviction, it finally dawned on her that her being ‘another’ Nigerian contestant was responsible.
Many enemies from within
The fear of being eliminated early from the show was a huge battle for her. It affected her relationships with other housemates.
“She plays girls against one another,” Wendell Parson told Big Brother in the build-up to nominating her for possible eviction the third time.
Ousted Miguel took it to another level: “I don’t think she likes me; she looks at me funnily,” he disclosed to Big Brother.
Malawi’s Felicia never saw any good in the Nigerian contestant. “She’s faking it,” she said. “She tries to talk to the people outside and not the ones inside.”
Those people outside would include Adam, her boyfriend whom the Malawian and the other gossip girls (Millicent and Sharon O) think is also a figment of her imagination and part of her ‘game’.
Zeus was very vocal about his dislike for her.
“Zeus is just like me,” Vina told Big Brother in trying to explain their constant squabbles. There was also some silent battle with Vimbai that exploded when the houses where merged.
Friendship in the midst of the storm
Lomwe provided the early fun for the Nigerian in the house. ‘When I say Lom, you say We’ was a song Vina readily sang.
“Lomwe makes me laugh,” Vina revealed to housemates when rumours were rife that the duo were hitting it off.
The gossip provided some uncomfortable moments for the rapper because Lomwe’s famed better half, Hanni, was her BFF on the show. She was maliciously accused of talking the Ethiopian lass out of any relationship with Lomwe because she wanted him for herself. Whether that was true or not, the Nigerian found her best moments around the same Hanni, a girl four years younger. The fair-skinned law student had offered words of encouragement and advice at every instance of Vina’s other breaking points: the moments after her two Save and Replace sessions as Head of House.
Awkward positions
After grabbing the stakes as Head of House, Vina had prepared her mind for some relief from the consecutive eviction storms. How wrong she was because housemates still put her up for eviction. But the circumstances ensured that she was the only Head of House whose Save and Replace session was an open secret. To rob salt on injury, Felicia somehow believed she would be magnanimous enough to put herself on the eviction chopping board. Felicia was promptly evicted from the show and it drew plenty of tears from the Nigerian.
Her second coming as Head of House was also a tricky one. By some coincidence or otherwise, Hanni and Karen put themselves on the eviction list. It was a case of should she save and replace her BFF, who had been there for her in her moments or should she follow the prevailing trend on the show and keep her country mate. In saving and replacing Karen, her compatriot, she left Hanni (whose country mates voted to keep her in the show last week) to an uncertain eviction fate ahead of the final week. She can only hope Nigerians vote for Hanni to keep her in.
Vina’s other option of saving her Ethiopian BFF would have pitched her against thousands of Nigerians – who have had a hard time believing she is part of them. Finding herself in and out of Lomwe’s bed, and getting a 10-minute massage from Lomwe after putting him up in her country mate’s stead, have not helped her profile.
Impressive and visible imprints
‘Naija No Dey Carry Last’ and ‘Team Orobo’ were inscriptions on T-shirts proudly worn by Zimbabwe’s Vimbai and Namibia’s Bernadina. Those shirts have served to sell Naija in more ways than imagined. The simple truth being expressed is that Nigeria is never behind.
Impressively, the Nigerian is the dance queen of the show as she easily shifts from one dance rhythm and style without any hassles. Add also the fact that she has mounted the stage as Head of House at critical points when other housemates desired to be in her shoes, then you have a lady who would not give up without a fight.
Against all odds
Vina had also survived a fourth eviction against expectations. Her excellent memory had ensured that she became the first housemate to be confirmed for the finale of the Big Brother Show this week. She crossed the eviction hurdle that was set before her to assume duties as Head of House on Monday. This was the same hurdle that Nic and Millicent failed in previous weeks. Just when other African viewers were thinking ‘enough is enough for Nigeria’, Vina has ensured that Nigeria will be the only country to make it to the final week with their two entrants still within sights of sharing the $400,000 prize money. Enough said, Vina has reaped the fruits of her ‘patient, outgoing, spontaneous’ character. Please believe this: Naija no dey carry last.
?