One on One With Merlvin

BA finalist Melvin Oduah may not have won the grand prize, but he definitely won the admiration of Nigerians, with many saying he is the best representation Nigeria has ever had in the history of the competition.

The 27 year-old actor and model from Delta State had a chat with NET at the Protea Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos shortly after returning home from South Africa…

 

Do you think you were cheated?

 

I would say no, because when you say cheated it depends on where you are trying to bring it from. I believe other continents felt that West Africans were dominating the game because in history, Nigerians had won more than any other country in the continent and at that point West-Africans were three of the finalists so there was a possibility that other continents felt this was becoming a West-Africa thing.  Nigerians have won it a number of times, and it’s more like they are dominating the game. It’s only normal for other countries to feel, hey no! If it continues to go like this, we are not happy with it. So they decided not to vote West African countries this time and decided to go with other countries. It’s not cheating, they just felt it’s what they should do. So in those terms I’d say no, we were not cheated. They probably shouldn’t have looked at countries as their basis for judging, so I’d say their probably decision making was wrong but we were not cheated.

 

You contested for Mr. Nigeria and Gulder Ultimate Search and didn’t win. This time around in the BBA you still didn’t win, do you think you are jinxed?

 

I contested for the Gulder ultimate search in 2009, and finished as the first runner up. I contested for Mr. Nigeria in 2011, and again I finished as the first runner up. In 2013 I contested for BBA the chase and yet again I finished as a runner up. Well, I am not jinxed. I think we could also take our time to look at the positive side of this thing. It’s not easy to be in these three major competitions first of all, and reaching the final stage. So, I think I should be given some credit for getting to the final stage. Definitely, it does have its down side because it gets to you when you find out that you get to the final stage but you don’t finish with the ultimate prize. It’s more like making you come all the way to the gate and forgetting the keys, but it’s all good. It’s destiny. You have to look at the positive sides of it, then you move on from there. The fact that I did not finish as the first does not mean it’s over for me. And that’s what I’ve always been doing. If I had decided to sit down and say this is not for me, I’d probably not have contested for Mr. Nigeria, and after Mr. Nigeria if I came second and said this is all bullshit, I’d probably not be here today. So I always look at the positive side of everything that happens to me and I believe it’s a story. So the fact that I don’t finish with the ultimate prize does not me I should go back and sulk. I’ll keep doing what I have to do and I’ll keep aiming for the top.

 

What strategy did you have in place so as to get you close to the prize?

 

Before I went to this competition, I was asked time and time again by different people, my strategy for this game and what I was going to do to win. And I kept saying the same thing, I’m going in there to be myself. The Melvin you see on a regular basis is the same Melvin you would see in the Big Brother The Chase.

 

Are you saying that was the real you we saw in the house?

 

That was the real me. Everything you saw in there was real, nothing was fake, nothing was made up to make anybody like me or hate me, no. And if I wasn’t thinking of winning I wouldn’t be there in the first place. Of course I wanted to win. I thank Nigerians for voting for me. I will always be a proud an ambassador of the country

 

How would you sum your entire BBA experience?

 

Considering that I and Beverly were chosen to represent the country and the fact that we were in the House from the beginning to the end, made our participation in the show remarkable. There are a lot of people who don’t know anything about Big Brother. For me, I learned a lot of things while in the house and it was a great feeling.

 

You were attracted to Selly and later to Dillish. Who were you really attracted to?

 

I don’t fall in love and I didn’t see myself falling in love in the house. Love just don’t happen. For me, love is a gradual process. That was why I didn’t ‘toast‘ anybody.

 

You were quite close to Dillish in the later part of the show, do you love her?

 

I don’t love Dillish. We are just cool. If Stephen (Dillish’s boyfriend) didn’t exist… we never know! To get Dillish as my wife wasn’t my main priority in the house…we were just cool like that.

 

Now that BBA is over, what’s next for you?

 

For me, I was an actor and a model before I went to BBA, and my entertainment career is just going to go into greater heights. It’s going to be the same for me.  You are going to be seeing more and more movies, and this platform actually exposes you to get involved in a lot of other things, hosting shows and events. So I think for both of us, our entertainment career will just keep getting better.