Two years since the Andre Blaze Henshaw sexual assault allegation, what has been done?

Andre Blaze Henshaw

The fifth season of Big Brother Naija has hurtled towards four eviction batches already, wildly becoming a pop cultural fixation, amassing fandoms and offering reprieve from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. By now, die hards would have noticed a conspicuous change with who presides over the show as the voice of Big Brother. Andre Blaze Henshaw was left out this season, and although viewers have pointed this out right off the bat, everyone seems to have moved on.

No one knows for sure who voices the current Big Brother, but there have been speculations that actor Kenneth Okolie has taken up the mantle. Andre acted as the de facto authority in the house since the show made a return in 2017, his baritone lending a crisp, military quality to the show that was also capable of producing empathy and sensitivity when needed. Helping viewers navigate the evolving dynamic between housemates, and therapist for them to process their feelings, Andre’s Big Brother was more than just a voice

These sketchy reports about who has replaced him is hardly the focus of this piece, but the sexual assault allegations that popped up against him in 2018, revealed by writer, speaker and feminist Olutimehin Adegbeye. Olutimehin tweeted her ordeal in May, 2018, against the backdrop of a heightened #MeToo movement and the reckoning it brought, outing Andre as the one who sexually assaulted in 2016 while incapacitated, in full view of other people.

The following year, the BBC had interviewed her for a recent program about toxic/evolving masculinity and its impacts. What they hadn’t informed her was that Andre had also been enlisted for the same interview. Upon discovering this, and the accompanying trauma and pain rendered afresh, Olutimehin informed the BBC that Andre sexually assaulted her and asked for interview to be edited or deleted.

They declined.

Andre denied the allegations on Twitter: “The things being said about me, those that know me can attest are not the actions of the person they know as a friend, son, brother and father.”

EbonyLife TV released a statement addressing the allegation, an ethical obligation owing to the fact that Andre co-hosted one of its nighttime talk shows Men’s Corner. They seemed genuine enough, and promised to carry out an investigation to inform their next course of action. Since then, no word has been heard from them.

Andre continued to run his show, and when it was time for the next season for Big Brother Naija, he still reprised his role as Big Brother. Olutimehin would later recount her ordeal again on Twitter, a reminder for those who may have forgotten. It wasn’t just a conversation about sexual assault; it also called out our complicity in silencing victims of sexual violence, and the intersection with the vested interests of capitalist, corporate power.

Big Brother Naija is DStv/MultiChoice’s most prized entertainment product, a revenue machine and incubator for promising talents to launch themselves. In a climate where corporate accountability and transparency is nearly non-existent, it would have been shocking to see DSTv/MultiChoice yank off Andre as the voice of Big Brother, in response to the allegation. Within two years, the cable company has said nothing about it.

We don’t know if Andre’s departure from the show this season is a fallout from the allegations, or if it was merely an expiration of contract. Either way, his exclusion is good for the show’s optics, in that Andre is no longer enthroned as a powerful figure and thus minimizing the risk of Olutimehin getting re-victimized. So far, the current season of Big Brother Naija has hit a rhythm, and doesn’t look like it will be needing Andre Blaze Henshaw anytime soon.

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