BBA: Dillish rich as Nigerians stumble

Dillish Matthews won the seventh edition of reality TV show Big Brother Africa, a win that many say was by default orchestrated by the East Africans.

This was after Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania voted in her favour in what some pundits have termed as revenge towards Nigeria’s dominance.

She became the only third woman and the first Namibian to win the coveted prize money after Cherish and Karen.

Dillish and Zambia’s Cleo proved to all and sundry that women are indeed a force of nature. The two hotties pipped their male counterparts, Elikem and Melvin to the Top two, as well as their close friend Beverly.

The gorgeous Namibian started The Chase race as an underdog and was labelled everything from lazy, to a pampered princess.

As the game rolled on however, Dillish quickly emerged as a very strong contender for the Chase title and won her fellow Housemates and Africa over, with her quirky, accented alter ego, aptly titled Princess Dillish.

Speaking to The Beat after her victory, Dillish said at the beginning she did not expect to win and she too thought other contenders had been in the pole position for the grand prize.

“It never crossed my mind that I could even reach the top 10 but when people like Natasha, Feza and Pokello were evicted I started to develop a feeling that may be it could be me. They were strong contenders,” she says.

In a season that was filled with more romance than any other Dillish stuck to her guns and was never involved with any of the housemates.

“Of course there were times when I saw some guys with their six packs and thought, wow! But I knew I had something from the outside, so I wasn’t really interested in anyone,” says Dillish on her faithfulness.

While in the house the 22 year-old admits that she longed to see and even touch her boyfriend Steven Gaeseeb who was at the final show in Johannesburg and it was all there for everyone to see as he coroneted her.

“I am 100 and one per cent happy that Dillish won. When she first went into the house, I knew that she would make it far but I never knew it would be this far. I still had faith in her,” he said

It was probably for this reasons that Dillish warmed her way into the hearts of millions of fans across the continent.

While her fellow housemates got themselves into hot water, fighting and gossiping their way to what they hoped was the top of the mountain, Dillish remained grounded and maintained cordial relations with her fellow housemates.

Likewise it could have been for the same reason that other housemates got the boot so early especially those who were double timing on their girlfriends and boyfriends like South Africa’s Angelo.

She says she has learnt a lot during her 91 days in the house and now with her $300,000 fortune, she plans to bring her family together by buying a house.

“A house for my family would be an ideal present, the rest of the money I shall plough into my business of hair products,” she says.

What others say

With the grand prize taken the losing quartet of Beverly, Melvin, Elkeem and Cleo were all still in an upbeat mood and some are actually looking forward to pursuing what they started in the house.

Speaking to The Beat, Ghana’s Elkeem who was the last male contestant in the house said he was looking forward to making it work with Zimbabwe’s Pokello.

“I met Pokello in the house and we had a thing for one another, we both agreed that we would try it from the outside,” says the fashion designer.

Even with Pokello’s tainted image which is punctuated with scandals that include a sex-tape, the Ghanaian will take her on what seems to be a binding trip to Mombasa after he won the prize of being the most romantic housemate.

“For sure that has to be Pokello -we shall head to Mombasa and see what we can work out,” he told The Beat.

As for his problems with Tanzania’s Nando, Elkeem says that it is all in the past: I have no problem with him, I have already apologised to everyone.

Beverly seems to be entangled in one of those triangles especially after his new found love Angelo proposed to his long time girlfriend.

But even then the Nigerian beauty still claims she is in love with Angelo who was there when she was evicted on the final day.

“I don’t really regret anything, I really love Angelo,” she told The Beat.

Their relationship has caused a backlash in her native Nigeria to the extent that she did not receive any votes from the West African country

Her fellow Nigerian, Melvin who was the second to be evicted, says despite the fact that he expected to win he thinks Dillish deserved the money.

“I can’t take anything away from her, she deserved the money and besides I feel I have grown and learnt a lot, something that money cannot buy,” she says.

The Nigerian debacle

Nigeria is often known for fielding strong candidates as a result producing three winners in previous five seasons including the just concluded The Chase.

Something went wrong somewhere, with two candidates in the finals the west Africans seemed to have a strong case and they were the team to beat.

However, that is just as far as it went, voters were divided and some were undecided, especially after Beverly’s exploits which turned her into an outcast for her fellow countrymen.

The double candidature in the finals proved to be their undoing because Nigeria as a bloc had to choose between the two.

As already mentioned they were against the whole continent as Melvin got votes from his native Nigeria and Beverly had to settle for sympathy from Ethiopia.

Though East Africans have been accused of a conspiracy against their western brothers, there were definitely some lessons to carry into the future.