One of the hottest topics in recent times is Big Brother Naija fandom. It is fandom like we have never seen before and has grown into an uncontrollable behemoth.
When the Nigerian version of the reality TV show held in 2006, it enjoyed massive followership as we were all very happy to finally have our own “Biggie’s House”. The show, which wasn’t without it’s fair share of drama and controversy, gave us 26-year-old Katung Aduwak as the season’s winner.
The show didn’t come on air again until 2017 with the second season tagged “See Gobbe” where Michael Efe Ejeba, popularly called “Efe” came out as the eventual winner. The excitement that the show commanded reached a fever pitch and that seemed to be the beginning of what we now have — Icons, Titans, Ninjas, Elites, Explorers and many other interesting monikers the fan base of these house mates call themselves.
Perhaps the most amazing part of this new type of fandom is the way fans go all out for their favourite housemates for birthday celebrations. Popular BB Naija Housemate, Erica Nlewedim, recently celebrated her 27th birthday and the gifts she received from her fanbase, who call themselves ‘The Elites’, were breathtaking.
Apart from putting a birthday countdown on billboards all over Lagos, here’s a list of the other gifts she got:
- A new mansion in the highbrow area of Lekki in Lagos
- Stocks worth $10,000 (N3.8m) from Amazon, Tesla, Disney, and United Airlines
- All expense-paid trip to Kenya
- Charity donations worth N10 million Naira
- Cake made of dollars
- 27 Boxes of Roses
- A brand new Bajaj tricycle
Oh, that’s not all. The Elites also trademarked Erica’s nickname ‘Star Girl’ to make it a legal representation of the former BB Naija housemate. Ain’t that amazing?!
Other housemates have also received a lot of expensive gifts from their fan base in the past, from cars to houses. It has now become some sort of bragging right for the fans to say “We bought XYZ for our star”. It’s a real competition of who can do the most!
Now, I’m not sure how contributions are made or who the organizers are, but you’ve got to give it to these fan bases. Their level of coordination and cooperation is really impressive.
There is nothing absolutely wrong with showing love to the people we love and adore, but those that don’t buy into the BB Naija fever often wonder the motivation behind the benevolence.
- What really is the goal for these fans?
- Why is it so imperative for them to commit so much resources to buying gifts?
- Are there benefits attached to being a BB Naija fan base member?
While we wait for answers to these questions, we can expect forms for the next season to be sold out because, who doesn’t want this kind of love?
