Nigerians love the underdog and in a house with Cee-C, Alex and Tobi, Miracle's Big Brother Naija win is proof.
The last time I heard a chorus of screams as loud as last night, when Miracle Igbokwe, was announced as the winner of the polarising reality show, Big Brother Naija, it was 2014 and Ahmed Musa, that gazelle of a winger, had just equalised against Argentina in the group stage of that year’s World Cup hosted in Brazil.
Depending on how you look at it, the housemates on BBNaija, have become heroes and villains in the same way that Ahmed Musa has come to be seen by fans of the Super Eagles since then.
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After 85 days in a shared space, mind games, power pacts, feuds, and eliminations shows had whittled 20 contestants to a final five over the course of 12 weeks, fans were divided as to who would go home with 45 million naira in prize money and instant infamy.
A tale of three
There were three main contenders.
There was the discordant Cee-C whose penchant for rants and starting fights was the most toxic presence we’d seen on a reality show since Nando brandished a knife on Big Brother Africa years ago; there was her love interest and arch-nemesis, Tobi, a needle cushion who had managed to assert himself as the show reached its final days.
Then, there was Miracle; unassuming to a fault, the pilot first came to our collective consciousness for his relationship with Nina, a woman perceived to be less smart than he is. It’s fair to say, for the most part, Miracle was little more than an extension of his relationship with Nina.
In a show most famous and loved for its momentary spectacles, it’s fair to say he was at an immense disadvantage.
Yet, when Ebuka Obi-Uchendu announced the final votes and Miracle was presented as the winner, something we have suspected was given more credence; we love to marvel at wonders and amazing sights but when it goes down to the wire, Nigerians love the underdog.
As romantic as this sound, it’s fairly obvious that being less popular than the rest of the finalists was not enough to secure Miracle the win.
We can’t say for sure if this was deliberate or there was a plan.
Terms of .... endearment
A fair part of that involved endearing himself to a major demographic; the show’s female fans. Much can be said about stereotypes but Nigerians love a good love story and Miracle’s ‘situationship’ with Nina was something out of a fairy tale.
The largest stretch of time I spent watching Big Brother Naija was a measly 15 minutes and, unfortunately, that was the day Cee-C decided to fight everyone in the house, but I’d struggle to keep count of the number of times I heard friends and acquaintances commend Miracle for staying with Nina, even when, they said, she could barely express herself, even when it was clear there was another man in the picture.
Ultimately, that ship hit rocks in the final weeks. Perhaps to her own detriment (she placed 5th out of the 5 finalists), Nina gradually withdrew from the situation, leading to many postulations that she had seen their brief affair as part of a game-plan, or in a fit of remorse, was making an attempt to salvage her relationship with her boyfriend-in-real-life, the infamous Collins.
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If any of this mattered to Miracle, he did little to show it. One of the most ignored sub-plots of Big Brother Naija was how, in the final weeks, nearly all the housemates flipped the coin and projected a different, more distinct version of themselves.
THAT. SAME. ENERGY
If time is fair to him and our collective attention spans do not force us to move on to greater things, Miracle’s consistency through the show’s lifespan and in the face of the biggest threat to the fans’ perception of him could be looked at as the single most important deciding factor.
If fans of Mina(as the duo was called) kept Miracle in the house while other housemates left, they gave him the win because Nina implied she had done her time.
As one of my colleagues, our movies reporter who has feverishly and sometimes, painfully covered the reality show since its first day said, it could well be possible that their fans shifted to Miracle’s side, left Nina in the wind and gave him the win.
In all fairness, during the finale, Nina told Ebuka-Obi Uchendu that what they had in the house would continue on the outside.
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Ultimately, we cannot say for sure if Miracle had a game plan of his own. It’s been said that plans are those that can be executed while everyone else remains oblivious and applauds chance.
Events can fall into place and make things happen but there’s nothing quite like winning simply because it seems the odds are against you, or you’re not expected to win.
It takes an ease of approach and an innate maturity. These are the exact terms by which the fans who voted for him describe who Miracle is. Trust me, I asked.
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