In an exclusive interview with the NET, winner of Big Brother Africa Amplified, Karen Igho, opened up on a lot of issues, including the reality show, her relationship with Denrele Edun and the infamous squabble at a Smirnoff gig.

 

Excerpts:

What has changed about you since you won the show in 2011?

I am still Karen Igho, but a mature one. A lot has changed. I am older and wiser now. You will not catch me doing certain things. I have seen life in a different way and I know a lot more now.

How does it feel being the reigning Nigerian with the Big Brother crown?

I feel very honoured and privileged that I still have the position as the last Nigerian winner of the show. However, I must add that to win the BBA is not a joke, whoever will, has to be a lot more entertaining than myself, Uti and Kevin Pam put together. I just think it is not time yet for a Nigerian. It’s just the right person needed.

What do you think was responsible for your victory?

I would say God. While I was preparing for the show, the last thing on my mind was how to win. I just wanted to have fun and learn as much as I could. I was lucky to understand that the best strategy for such games is to have no strategy to avoid unnecessary surprises.

What do you mean by unnecessary surprises?

Unnecessary surprises can be anything. You can wake up one day and realise you have been betrayed by a fellow housemate. We were young individuals locked in a room with cameras and constantly watched by millions of people. It was psychologically draining. We all had to fight for attention, respect and win games too. We needed to shout, be crazy or cause trouble to get all these.

What is your take on Nigeria’s performance at the last edition?

Let me first congratulate all of them for going there. I cannot blame any of them or say exactly what went wrong. Ola and Chris left on health grounds, which is a cogent reason. One’s health is a lot more important than money, but if they both had remained in that house, they would have won. Goldie too did her best. They are all cool people but I guess it was not time for a Nigerian.

 Do you think Goldie was being true or was playing a game?

I cannot say anything about that because I am not Goldie. I don’t know if she was being real or fake. I can only speak for myself. I was real and I did my thing but we are different.

Do you still feel hurt about the stories wriiten about you while in the house?

Not any more  I have forgiven everybody involved. The things written about me were not only false and untrue but slanderous too. I was locked up in the house and could not defend myself. People believed these untrue stories, about me and it continued to spread but I thank God I won the show and I have been able to win the hearts.

 Which of the stories got you most?

The one about me being a stripper was untrue. It still baffles me till date. I was locked up for 90 days with a sum of money at stake and as crazy as I was, I didn’t kiss or have sex with any guy and people could still write that I was a stripper.

Were you a stripper?

I was never a stripper. People don’t even know anything about me but are quick to believe the terrible things they heard. My mom is a very strong Christian and she built my spirituality. People who saw me like a wild card girl do not understand what it is being locked in a room with lots of alcohol and nothing to do. It is impossible not to misbehave but once you are back into the normal world, things change. How many times have I being caught smoking in public?

What then were you doing while in the UK?

My uncle helped with my trip to the UK and I went there to study. I studied Business Administration in Southwark College during which I took a summer class in Theatre Arts. All through my stay there, I survived in a legit way. I joined the UNICEF and other charity organisations, which had African countries in mind. I was also a sales girl for Karen Millen.

Which of the stories were true?

My having a rough childhood was true. My being a stripper wasn’t true. The breast story was true. I genuinely did the implant because I had breast lumps and two of my sisters have done the same (operations).

Tell us about your growing up

I am the first born of ten siblings. My family is a loving and caring one. They stood by me during the Big Brother days. My mother fought severally to defend me. I am from the Urhobo in Delta state, but I was born in Plateau state. I schooled in Jos and Warri. My growing up was not easy. My parents were separated and I had to live with my grand mum. It was not easy at all but I thank God.

What did you do with the money?

I built a house for my mum, another for my grand mum and I invested the rest. I am still hustling to make more money.

What is happening to your clothing line?

Karenified is still there. I rushed the first collection to meet with my birthday last year and because I wanted to raise some money for an orphanage, I planned to visit. It was successful but I want it bigger, so now I am taking my time and getting to understand the creative side of me better because I want it to reflect in the designs.

How did acting come into the picture?

While I was in the UK, studying business administration, I took a summer course in acting and tried my hands on some Shakespearian works. That and many other experiences I gathered improved my confidence in acting and presenting which are some of the things I now do.

What is your relationship with Denrele?

God brought Denrele into my life in a funny way in 2008. I just came back for a holiday (from UK) and my cousins invited me to his birthday party. There we met and exchanged contacts and became friends. He has been instrumental to where I am today and I am very grateful.

How true is the story that you both are dating?

Somebody started the joke on twitter recently and it went viral. Denrele is my brother and he knows the kind of guys I like.

Can you marry Denrele?

I don’t know the future but Denrele and I cannot get married. We have become one family.

Why are you yet to be married?

No be man go come first? Let’s just say I am waiting for God’s time but I am still working on my career and build the brand.

What kind of man do you like?

I want a God fearing and down to earth man and there must be strong chemistry.

Which Nigerian male celebrity will you date?

I know quite a few and would not want to call names. Besides most of them are married. If I mention anybody, you people (press) will be on my neck and once you see me with the person, another story begins. Nigerian acts are all wonderful people.

How did you get the Naija FM job?

I got the Naija FM job through Collete Otusheso (MTV). She encouraged me and introduced me to my boss, Gbemi (Olateru Olagbegi), Deji Awokoya (Beat FM) and since then, its been fun for me. I love the Naija FM family.

How was your first day on air?

I was nervous. I almost peed in my pant. I was confused and didn’t know what to do, but thanks to Ifektive and my other colleagues, they made it very easy for me and now I am loving it.

What project are you working at the moment?

At the moment, I am working on a Rukky Sanda movie and I have also gotten an invitation to be a part of a soap opera that will be aired across Africa.

What is the update on your assault case with Simrnoff gig?

We agreed to settle out of court because at the end of the day, the deed has been done and the lesson learnt. I also hope that with this the government stands up and ensure that our force men are properly trained on how to relate with the citizens

Former Minister of the Federal capital Territory, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai has revealed that former President Olusegun Obasanjo was scared jittery that late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua would arrest him.

He made this known In his book, “The Accidental Public Servant,” adding that Obasanjo had considered the Yar’Adua/Jonathan presidency in 2007 weak.

According to El-rufai,“There are those who say Obasanjo’s revenge for his third term defeat was intentionally picking two incompetent people to be president and vice-president, but I do not full agree with that. I think Obasanjo picked them for a different reason. He thought they were weak people he could control and through whom he would continue to exercise power. I think that he thought Yar’Adua would be an acceptable president, but would be weak and subservient to him in many policy areas and would be consulting him regularly so that Obasanjo might be a Lee Kuan Yew sort of figure exercising power from behind the scenes.”

“If I am just naïve and the ticket that ended up succeeding Obasanjo was meant to be a third term revenge, it did not exactly work out. Yar’Adua revolted against him, reversed virtually everything he did and even began investigating him. Obasanjo recently admitted to a close friend of ours that throughout the years Yar’Adua was in power, he was constantly in fear of being arrested because it was clear to him that at some point, Yar’Adua was after him.

Speaking about the issue of the ejection of former Chairman, Code of Conduct Tribunal, the late Justice Bashir Sambo from his official residence in 2006, the former head of the Bureau of Public Enterprise insisted that the jurist was an illegal tenant in the house.

He said “Perhaps the most publicised controversy arising from the sale of houses programme was the ejection of Justice Bashir Sambo in August 2006 from his official residence located at 1, Aso Drive, Maitama District. At the time, the carefully choreographed media war led by the Daily Trust newspaper was going on, I chose to maintain silence, and just directed the Secretariat to put out full-page adverts explaining what it had done and why. I thought that was the end of it.

“Sadly, less than a year later, Justice Sambo who was former chairman of Code of Conduct Tribunal, died on April 29, 2007 in a Cairo Hospital. He was 76 years old and had been ill for some time.

“For that reason, I decided never to join issues with those who thought that the ejection of the deceased jurist was inappropriate and went as far as suggesting that it was the cause of his “premature” death.

“I will simply tell my side of the story on the sale of the house in question, subsequent cancellation, and the actions that followed naturally with reference only to letters written by Justice Sambo, himself and the other officials in the government.

“These exchanges of correspondence culminated in my directive to the sales secretariat on July 17, 2006 to eject him immediately from the house in question because he had by then become an illegal tenant.

 

In a truly revealing interview with Punch Newspaper, Foluke Daramola, admitted that she had been raped when she was much younger and spoke on her career and Nollywood.

Excerpts:

 

Why I am more into movie production than acting

I am a person that is very restless in nature. I have been acting for over 18 years. I feel that it is becoming monotonous for me; doing the same old thing over and over again, despite the fact that creativity is dropping by the day. I still do a bit of acting; it is just that I am more of a production person. I am even derailing a bit back into doing English soap operas which was what I started out from. I started with soap opera and English movies before I delved into Yoruba movies.

Competition from upcoming actors

The only thing that is constant in life is change. If you do not look beyond and think outside of the box, you are going to box yourself in the corner. What I mean by that is that there is no how you would not grow. There is this proverb that says you have to take a bow when the ovation is loudest. Taking a bow doesn’t mean leaving the scene; it means you should go and re-strategise and find ways to work around things that would make you relevant. There is no way I would say my younger colleagues should not grow. I started out when I was a teenager and I have had my fair share of the industry. I’m still having it. I’m still staying relevant. The only thing you can do is just to make yourself relevant. A threat from the younger generation is not one that relates with me. I am not one that would sit in a corner. A lot of my colleagues ask why I read so much. I just had my masters degree, I am going for my Ph.D. I believe in dynamism and upgrading myself at every point in time so nobody is a threat to me.

Journey so far

When I started I was very young. I was about 16 years and I had not entered the university for my first degree. At that time, I was a young girl who wanted to have fun and I did not see myself as anything. One thing about me is that I have had it in my sub-conscious that stardom would not change me or take anything away from me. I have had my challenges, times when I wanted to party with my friends, go to clubs, parties, go out to have fun. People see me and begin to talk. At each point in time, because I was a teenager, I might have made one or two mistakes. At the end of the day, I learnt while growing up in the industry that you do not do things like this, you just walk around them. It is just part of learning in life. I am not one person that regrets anything. I just learn from my past. Anything I have done in life, I do not wish they never happened.

My dream of becoming a lecturer

I have always wanted to be a diplomat. I have always loved to be a lecturer; that is why I’m still upgrading my education. I had a scholarship in Canada but I had to postpone my admission to take another course. It is an ongoing process.

My parents’ reaction to my career

My dad is late; I lost him when I was very young. My mum was strongly against my movie career. She felt that I would be too exposed. Later, my mentors called her, spoke to her and gave her the assurance that I would still go to school. They told her that I would still be educated and do the normal things people do. She grudgingly agreed but I’m sure she has not regretted it so far. I sneaked to location several times after she said I should not go. There was a time she had to shave my head because I sneaked to location. I thought I would be back home that day but I did not get to our house until 2am. She was really worried; immediately she saw me, she picked a pair of scissors and shaved my head. I had to put relaxer on my hair to make it look like rough curls. Later, when she saw that I was determined and dogged about it, she allowed me. She just made me to sign an undertaking that I was going to go to school. She is an educationist so I had to sign and give her the assurance that I was going to go to school.

My first crush

I would say that my first crush was my first relationship. I was about 17 years old then. Unfortunately, he was not the first person I had sex with. I share it with the younger generation because it is something that has been talked about but I have got over it. The first time I had sex, I was raped. I had my first relationship with the first person I had a crush on, Seun Olomofe. He is one of the most caring and considerate persons I have ever met in my life. He was my mother’s close friend’s son. He was one person that showed me so much love. He was always there for me; he was the first person to ever make me a special card. I had a huge crush on him. When sex was not coming to play in the relationship, he said he was tired and I was so heart-broken. I was supposed to go to University of Lagos; it was because of him I changed my admission to Obafemi Awolowo University. I saw him as an epitome of the kind of person I would like to spend the rest of my life with. That was the first major crush that I had.

My first sexual encounter

My first introduction to sex was rape. It was with one of our tenants. I got so close to him and saw him as an elder brother. He looked at me as someone that had been exposed because I was busty and he thought I had had a sexual experience before. So he had his way with me. Then it was not something you tell the whole world. People said we should keep quiet about it. Then they tried to make trouble with him but subsequently people said we should keep quiet about it. We had to try and manage it in our own way even though it affected me for a long time psychologically. I had to gradually get over it. I believed so much in the principle of keeping your virginity till you are married. I started showbiz from Teen TV on DBN with Chichi Okaro. Then I used to be so vocal and when we spoke about pre-marital sex and virginity, I was always so passionate about it. It was such a disadvantage and a pity for me.

My experience as a busty lady

At the initial stage, I used to be so ashamed of myself. At that time, I would wear clothes that would not let my bust be noticeable. I was trying everything I could so that it would not be obvious. Subsequently, when I started acting and reading books, I read a book that said the best admirer you have is yourself and the way you carry yourself is how people would take you. I had to psyche myself to love it. After I did so, I noticed that I was getting advances even from people I didn’t expect, like some of my late father’s friends. Being a deep thinker, I always look at the advantage of everything, I saw that it was something I could not change so I had to make the best out of it. I got it into my sub-conscious that it was a plus than minus. I have had reasons to talk to a lot of people that are busty and who do not appreciate themselves. They now see it as an asset than a liability.

Errors in subtitles of Yoruba movies

The reason why that occurs is because we all want to be a jack of all trades and master of none. The few people that are educated know that there are supposed to be professionals for everything .The ones that are not believe that because they have a popular face, they are already stars and can do anything and get away with it. It’s partly the reason I reduced acting because it was already becoming a mess. If you know you are good at acting and you are a popular face, it does not mean you know it all. Some people are perfect for some jobs but because they want to cut corners and believe they can do it better than the next person, they make a mess of it.

My recent project

I am working on my latest project called Cobwebs. It is a cinema-bound movie. We take our movies to the cinema because we are expanding our scope. Home videos are giving us a lot of problems. So we have decided to do something else that would expand our network. We are shooting that. We are planning on featuring Femi Kuti in the movie. We are still talking with him. I know he doesn’t act but if I can get him, it would be a big break.

About my love life

No comment

 

President Goodluck Jonathan, has labelled the documentary on the state of decay at the Police College, that was aired on Channels Television, as a smear campaign.

Jonathan, arrived the premises of the institution, at about 3pm for an unscheduled visit and saw first hand the state of things at the College.

It was major embarrasment for CP I.F. Yerima, the commandant of the college, who could not explain how the media house got exclusive images of the horrible sights in the establishment.

“This is a calculated attempt to damage the image of this government. The Police College, Ikeja is not the only training institution in Nigeria,” the president said.

It was gathered that a group of police recruits, hailed him as he made a tour of the facilities saying, “Our number one President, the God sent President, the President of Nigeria, among others.” Jonathan acknowledged the cheers by raising his right hand.