When Big Brother Naija host Ebuka Obi-Uchendu announced last week that two evicted housemates will return to the house, social media plunged into a frenzy. Big Brother Naija observers, even the ones removed from online platforms, turned this game-changing decision into water-cooler conversation. They weren’t having it. Criticism was flung towards Big Brother and the show was rubbished. The idea that booted-off housemates will get back into the competition, having briefly acclimatized to the real world and leveraging on outsider perspective, didn’t seem fair to the other housemates.

As the controversy trailed into the week, I found it amusing that most people weren’t aware of the Big Brother Constitution and, beyond Nigeria’s version of the reality franchise, how the return of evictees is a common trope in a competition like this. But it’s settled now. Two former housemates have publicly been voted in and they are…drum roll…Anto and Khloe. Anto’s reentry comes as a huge surprise though, and heavy on double significance. She’s the first housemate to be evicted in the non-partnership era and the first, quite swiftly I must say, to be thrust back into the game as a wild card.

To a large degree, we were all expecting Khloe’s return after getting disqualified alongside her partner K. Brule. Since Ahneeka and Ifu Ennada were evicted, and Alex turning herself into a nervous wreck after Leo departed, Cee-C has kind of ascended into a cloud of barbed feminine power, infantilizing Nina because she’s the youngest and being on a “higher level” than everyone else.

Yeah Khloe gon set Cee- c straight! Go girl #bbnaija

— CocoIce (@COCOICEOFFICIAL) March 25, 2018

With Khloe back, and unarguably the only housemate who can single-handedly keep Cee-C in check and toughen the competition, Big Brother Naija just got more interesting. In an interview on Rubbin Minds in February, stand-in host Oscar Oyinsan zoomed in on the beef between Khloe and Cee-C, to which Khloe says, “…this monster that people were afraid to confront in the house.” And to Cee-C’s on-and-off relationship with Tobi: “I have nothing to say about those people.”

Khloe also said she won’t return to the house if called back. But apparently she’s got her eyes on the prize, and she can do that while becoming Cee-C’s biggest nightmare.

The moment Cee C sees Khloe & Anto #BBNaija

Cee C: pic.twitter.com/Nu9u2tgLf4

— Light Yagami (@Ethan___x) March 25, 2018

Bernard Dayo

When Bernard Dayo isn’t writing about pop culture, he’s watching horror movies and reading comics and trying to pretend his addiction to Netflix isn’t a serious condition.