TheCable

That 26-year old Laycon (Olamilekan Agbeleshe-bioba) has emerged winner of Big Brother Naija, BBN Lockdown, Season 5 is no longer news. Surely, that he was the ‘winner-elect’ was obvious, so obvious, it was in the words of Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon, a.k.a Igodomigodo, “visible to the deaf and audible to the blind.”

In the course of the show, the few times Laycon was nominated for possible eviction, viewers’ votes showed he was way ahead of other housemates. One week he was pitted against Kiddwaya, another time he came up against Ozo and so on and so forth. Who would have imagined Kiddwaya being evicted ahead of Laycon? The same Kiddwaya whose father is supposed to be a billionaire, who counts as his besties people like DJ Cuppy, billionaire Femi Otedola’s daughter. Yes, the same Otedola who bought Ferrari cars for his three daughters.

However, not only did Laycon survive them all, the voting margins put him head and shoulders above other housemates. There was no contest. He continued this trend until the finale where he claimed 60% of total votes. The closest contender was Dorathy Bachor who came second with 21.85% of the total votes. Then there was Rebecca Nengi Hampson with 15%.  Neo (Emuobonuvie Akpofure) had 1.94% with Vee (Victoria Adeyele) manning the rear with 1.18%.

A cursory look at last season’s BBN (Pepper Dem) finale shows how unprecedented Laycon’s winning votes are. Mercy Eke, the BBN Season 4 winner had 41.77% of the total votes. Although Mike came second with 19.94%, even the housemate who camefifth (last finalist), Seyi Awolowo, had 10.25%.

• An anti-climactic Finale

Perhaps the BBN 5 Finale could have been more competitive and suspenseful if certain housemates had made it to the Top 5. Although we cannot hold Laycon responsible for how the finalists emerged but imagine top five finalists comprising Laycon, Kiddwaya, Erica, Nengi, and Ozo. There’s something to be said for some of the voting twists introduced by BBN’s producers. In the first half of the show, the voting/nomination was inverted somewhat. In previous seasons, housemates would nominate preferred housemates for possible eviction. The names of those with the most nominations are then released to the voting public. But in the first weeks of BBN 5, viewers were made to first vote for their favourites, those with fewest votes then became the Bottom 4 from which the housemates voted for those they wanted to be evicted.

Laycon

There were loud grumblings from viewers who wondered what the point of them voting was if at the end the housemate with the fewest number of votes remained in the show. That system helped people like Wathoni, especially Trikkytee to survive for much longer.

How did we end up with Vee and Neo in the Final 5 anyway? Not only that, with two weeks to go, they were through to the final. This certainly didn’t give the viewers anything to look forward to. I had checked out of the show by this time. Imagine if Neo and Vee had needed to fight for that Top 5 with 2 weeks to go. But as it was, they were ‘handed’ spots in the Finale and they must have felt their game plan had worked perfectly. They no longer had to work hard to push their ‘couple-ship.’ Whereas, unlike Laycon and Dorathy who had to come back from a possible eviction to the final, Vee, Neo and Nengi had peace of mind for at least one week.

• Why Laycon?

There’s no doubt that many people were rooting for Laycon and the list of his fans only continued to grow. It’s hard to say when it began exactly. But what matters is that there was a groundswell of support for him. Why? Laycon’s popularity was due to a combination of factors as gleaned from comments while the show was on. His diehard fans extolled his musical skills-specifically his ability to rap.

Laycon himself said he was better than your favourite short black dude or words to that effect. He was obviously referring to Mr Incredible, M. I (Jude Abaga). You don’t have to agree with him. I don’t. But what’s Hip-hop music without artistes (over) hyping themselves? I’m no rap expert but M.I is the only rapper that I like listening to. Aside from music, there was a lot of talk about how intelligent Laycon was. Of course, there was fellow housemate Erica Nlewedim’s famous ‘mental attraction’ to Laycon.

Nevertheless, it’s safe to say that Laycon’s underdog status may have been the strongest factor. The Erica (unrequited love) situation didn’t help matters either. Whether under the influence of alcohol, she wasn’t subtle about her lack of physical attraction to Laycon. He was seen as humble, and people felt empathy for him. Even those who saw the Big Brother show as Godless form of entertainment saw nothing wrong in attributing Laycon’s popularity to the special hand of God. He was called a child of grace. Then, of course, there’s the fact that people believed he needed the money more than many of the other housemates, would probably put the N85m prize money to better use, etc.

• The Efe Factor

Laycon’s inevitable victory has me drawing comparisons between him and previous BBN winners. Historically, winners of the Big Brother show, whether Big Brother Nigeria or even Big Brother Africa, don’t turn out to be the most successful with the possible exception of Uti Nwachukwu, winner of the Big Brother Africa 5 All Star edition (2010). Maybe it’s because having won the grand prize, there isn’t much left to prove.  After all, how many can remain motivated after moving form near zero to N85m? Getting used to the newfound wealth is a challenge by itself.

Efe

Think of the winner of the first edition of Big Brother Nigeria in 2006, Katung Aduwak. He returned to directing and still is in entertainment. Yet, it’s not just about anyone’s bank account but has everything to do with visibility and general ‘act-ivity.’ Did winning BBN make Katung a household name? Perhaps, for that period. What about in the year 2020? Now, look at Ebuka Obi-Uchendu who was also in that season of BBN with Katung. Ebuka, fourth person to be evicted, was not in any danger of winning the prize money. In addition to being involved in many projects on TV, Ebuka has hosted BBN since its return in 2017 after a long hiatus. He has grown into a bankable brand on his own.

Of all the BBN winners, Efe, Ejeba winner of BBN 2- ‘See Gobe’ (2017) is the most similar to Laycon. Both are musicians. Both gained popularity because of their underdog status. Just like Laycon, people loved Efe’s humility. His favourite catch phrase “based on logistics” became a national slogan. And if you squint, they can pass for members of the same family considering their physical stature, not to mention their dreadlocks. It was during that BBN 2 that mobilization by fans became a thing. I suppose social media also played a strong role. Fans dressed in t-shirts with pictures of favourite housemates moved from place to place campaigning.

I came across Efe’s fans one Saturday morning in Abuja by Jabi Lake. So, it was no surprise when Efe won and became N25m richer among other goodies. He released his EP ‘Am sorry Am Winning’ in 2018 to mixed reactions. Perhaps I should correct that. There were more negative than positive reactions which Efe didn’t take kindly to and soon got into an online war with his fans. By this time, Efe claimed almost all his prize money was gone presumably into investments. Anyhow, neither Efe nor his music is in my consciousness. But I was pleasantly surprised to discover during my research that Efe released another EP in May 2020. His 750 monthly listeners on Spotify are not encouraging stats but it’s possible he’s on some other streaming platforms.

Conversely, Laycon has relative advantage over Efe. He’d made more progress with his music before going into the house. He’s collaborated with better known musicians like Reminisce and Chinko Ekun (on the song “Fierce” off his album Who Is Laycon released in April 2020).  There are other musicians like Teni who are fervent Laycon fans. On Spotify alone, he has 10, 495 monthly listeners. This number can only grow. Equally important, Laycon who’s claimed by both Ogun and Lagos States has the might of the South-West media and personalities behind him. Laycon’s main challenge would be how to use (and sustain) the current momentum to advance his career.

Onoshe Nwabuikwu, AIRTIME columnist is a renowned TV/Film critic, and Film scholar. She also has experience in Advertising as a senior Copywriter and Corporate Communications as Communications consultant. Email: [email protected]