by Soma Oj.

Whew! It has finally come to an end. 

We know we have expressed the view that the show is no biggie and it absolutely should not be taken seriously more times than one in the past 78 days that #BBNaija lasted. But we cannot help but try to make some sense of it. Especially from a vantage point of why Efe won. Because when one of five people takes 57.61 percent of the votes, then we have to look a bit deeper into the logistics of things.

Hold on before you fly into conclusions and call us haters. It’s not our fault that a huge amount of people decided to bring down the internet with screams of #BossNation (a)bout a week ago. And we cannot really accept that you all just got so mad and stopped voting because you love Nigeria so much, her inability to sing the anthem was a deal breaker. Don’t lie to yourself. If you were boss nation, the likelihood is that you did not stop voting.

What must have happened is that the #BossNation did not count for much, to begin with – 2.9 million votes or not.

So if not TBoss why not Bisola? At least Nigerians love a good laugh. Honestly, this one beats us. The number of likes on Bisola’s Instagram skits would have one assuming that the Bisola fan base was solid.

But we soon snapped out of it when we realised that kind of thinking rests heavily on a premise that #BBNaija cares about talent. Bisola’s talent in the house and out of it and her ability to get people laughing is no factor in terms of voting patterns. it also didn;t help that she had the loudest mouth and possibly the worst temperament of them all; a trait that made her less endearing with each passing day.

But we are certain that about the talent factor because if it did count, the show would have been hers or Debie-Rise’s to steal. Clearly, it was not. Not for Bisola nor for Debie-Rise. Since we have taken out talent, there’s no need to dwell much on Debie-Rise.

This leaves Efe.

Efe – the one who became interesting by winning the hearts o0f those who cared from day one. Sticking to only one strategy throughout – a story. One that many can relate to. “I’m hungry and I came for the money” or so he said as an introduction on Day 1. Even stripping off his clothes to show a lean (ostensibly hungry) frame. For those who did not catch the hunger narrative, they must have caught on to the ripped stomach and that must have helped in some way too.

And that’s the game he played. A game that former President Goodluck Jonathan also ran with at a point. It worked for Jonathan till the covers blew but lucky for Efe, he only had to remain consistent for 3 months.

Nigerians love a good sob story and Efe consistently delivered that complete with a pinch of ambition. Who does not like to hear that a guy from humble beginnings worked so hard to make sure that he got himself a degree? IBisola may have benefitted a lot from sharing that story about her not attending University earlier than the final week.

If you’d rather not think that you were swayed by Efe’s “grass-to-grace” story, there’s another logically sound way to think about his win. It’s the multiplier effect.

You must have also noticed during the show that some of your friends who don’t watch BBNaija nor care in the least for Efe or any other housemate must have put up one or two #TeamEfe posts. If you were one of us who bothered to ask them why then you got either one of two answers:

1. That they know him personally or know someone who knows him to be a “correct guy”.
2. That their favourite celebrity likes him.

Think about it: if you didn’t care about the show but a celebrity you liked so much asks you to vote a candidate that they liked, there’s every likelihood you’d vote that candidate too if that celebrity had as much hold on you and we think that Ali Baba, Basketmouth, Akpororo, maybe even Wizkid! have on their fans. So not only were these celebrities voting, their own fans too were voting.

Actually, the second theory makes more logistic sense than the first. Still, Nigerians like a good sob story and Efe’s is as real as they come.