Africa’s largest reality show, Big Brother Africa by M-Net, is in its seventh season. The seventh edition to be known as ‘Stargame’ starts on Sunday, May 6 when M-Net opens the doors of Big Brother House to selected housemates from the different parts of the continent. This year, BBA will be live on DStv exclusively for 91 days and it will be 24/7. That is actually no news to ardent followers who have kept faith with the series for six seasons beginning from 2003, the edition won by Zambian Cherise Makubale. “One of the main reasons for the success of Big Brother, in Africa and beyond the continent, is that it creates its own stars from the minute housemates step into the spotlight,” says M-Net Africa Managing Director, Biola Alabi. “The show is built on the idea that, given the chance, anyone can be a star, anyone can find themselves shot to stardom. So this year, we’re honouring this essential element of the show directly in the title, putting the concept of rising stars and dreams of stardom right at the front of what is a challenging, fun, dramatic game.” Three major surprises await BBA followers this season. The first: each contestant must enter with a partner – your best friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, mom, dad, brother, sister, boss, husband, wife, neighbour, hairdresser, anybody! Whao! That, according to M-Net, is called “Double Up”. Mrs Alabi said: “The really big news this season is that entrants must enter as pairs. In the past we’ve seen a natural and continuous cross-over between individuals and their families, their friends. So this year, we decided to include that as part of the game. It will definitely make a dramatic addition to the series so we urge people to enter and experience what will be a uniquely different Big Brother Africa!” The second surprise: an addition of two new participating countries, which are Liberia and Sierra-Leone. M-Net announced that two previous participating countries, Ethiopia and Mozambique will play new part in this year’s edition. Ethiopia, M-Net said, opted out of the show. The reason is not stated. But it can be inferred from the performances of the two housemates – Yacob and Hanni – who represented the country in the previous three editions that Ethiopia featured in. Many analysts of the show felt these two didn’t put up strong performances to clinch the ultimate prize. For Mozambique, M-Net said, there will be a new role. What role this is, M-Net didn’t state yet. Big Brother is full of twists and turns, so viewers can only keep guessing at what awaits them. The third and the biggest surprise: M-Net has increased the prize money from $200,000 to $300,000. In Nigeria, if converted to Naira, this literally equals N50 million. And it is a winner-takes-all! M-Net auditions for BBA7 housemates have kicked off across the continent. Nigeria’s audition held in Lagos on Monday March 5, Tuesday March 6 and Wednesday March 7 at the Protea Leadway Hotel, Maryland. From across the federation, thousands of hopefuls gathered at the audition venue to try their luck. Then the drama this season portends started to play out. In the first instance, one would have concluded that the fact that Nigerian housemates, three times in a row, won the fourth, fifth and sixth editions, and therefore no contestant stands a chance in subsequent editions. But no; Nigerians, of course, older than 21 years, trooped to the venue in their thousands jostling for the slot to represent the country when the show starts in May. Beginning with Kevin Chuwang Pam in 2009; second-time lucky Uti Nwachukwu in 2010, and Karen Igho, a joint-winner in 2011, the show is gradually becoming a Nigeria affair. That was not the drama. The drama played out in the line-up of the people that showed up as partners to compete. Grandmothers came with their nephews, some ladies came with their mothers, boyfriends partnered girlfriends, and a popular act, Trybson (played Dagrin in Ghetto Dreams) came with his manager. There were cases of boyfriends or girlfriends who waited in vain for their partners to show up at the venue and while it was becoming clear their partners were not going to show up, hooked up with other jilted but available partners. One began to wonder how all these elements will play out when the show eventually starts. It was stated in M-Net’s advert for interested participants that entrants for this season, as with previous seasons, must be fun-loving, vocal, creative, original and articulate. In addition to those characteristics, entrants must demonstrate the social flexibility to live in close proximity with others and must be tolerant of views and lifestyle choices other than their own. The piece of information supplied above is vital in the view of previous episodes and encounters with housemates who showed strong objections to the views and behaviour of other housemates leading to altercations and violence, resulting in such housemates’ consequent disqualification; Ugandan Hannington and Tanzanian Lotus in Big Brother All Stars and Big Brother Amplified, respectively. BBA is one show that consciously puts to test housemates’ emotions, attitudes and actions. In playing the game as fairly as they could be, housemates set themselves up for series of intrigues, drama, controversies, conspiracy and the likes, having it at the back of their minds that it’s just a game. It is only when the show is taken seriously beyond the realm of a game that tension is created and clashes occur. In the new edition, viewers must look forward to how the different characters being assembled by M-Net across the continent will accept, tolerate, and cooperate with one another to create an exciting show to last the duration of 91 days. He claimed that skeletal services had “eventually led to the avoidable access of armed robbers to the banking premises through bank staff private entrance. “No bank in Ijebu land should render skeletal services to customers henceforth until the forum’s demands on security are fully met by the state government.” “Staff should move away from banks’ premises till further notice. No loading of ATM should be carried out by any bank. Any robbery attack arising as a result of culpability of any bank shall be viewed as connivance and collaboration with the robbers,” he warned. Olusoga warned that the forum would “not defend or issue any statement to absolve any bank official who out of his carelessness allows his bank to be robbed through skeletal services rendered.” On the assurances by the state government that five APCs would arrive the state by Friday, he said the bankers would call off the action once the armoured vehicles were physically on ground. Corroborating, Tunde Onadeko, chairman, Bankers’ Forum in Sagamu said all banks in the axis have also been directed to shut operations. “We are together in this agitation. Whatever you hear from the Ijebu Bankers’ Forum is our position,” Onadeko said. Meanwhile, Bola Onifade, state chairman of the forum said banks in Abeokuta would open for normal business and denied insinuations that the state government pressured him to back out of the action.