Omashola Kola Oburuh is a Nigerian model and a businessman who manages a club in South Africa. The ex-Big Brother Naija housemate, who was one of the fans favourites at the last edition of the show, in this interview by FEMI OGUNTAYO, reveals what motivated his outfit at the just-concluded African Magic Viewers Choice Awards ((AMVCA) and also shares his Big Brother Naija’s experience. Excerpts:
How have you been coping with Coronavirus and how has it affected you?
I will say yes because business slowed down for everybody. Really, it is not all about me alone now, when it comes to this issue of Coronavirus, it is more about the country and the people out there. It is a deadly disease and the right thing we should all do is to stay away from it, everybody should sit at home; no going outside.
Tell us the Omashola story, how was growing up for you?
I am a typical Warri boy; born and bred in Warri, born October 14, 1980. My parents are from the same place, I was in Warri for 15 years and I came to Lagos in 1995 when I started my secondary school.
I attended Omole Grammar School, and when I finished my secondary school, I was in Osu, now Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU). In 2017, I got introduced to Joan Okorodudu, she came from America to do modelling and she discovered me as a model. So, she took me out of the country for the first time in 2007, to represent Nigeria in the Best Model of the World competition. She took me and Bunmi Mokoya and Mokoya won the competition, where there were 50 females and 50 males. I represented in the male category for Nigeria, Bunmi represented in the female category. She actually won the competition and that was the beginning of my success.
After then, we decided to go to different countries, China for fashion week, Bulgaria and South Africa. When we got to South Africa, she figured out South Africa was a very close place to home and we wouldn’t need to be flying back and front every time. And South Africa literarily has everything we needed for modelling to happen. So I have been staying in South Africa since 2007, that makes it about 13 years now that I have been living in South Africa till I finally made it to the Big Brother, which was last year.
Last year was a big year for you. How has life been after the Big Brother Naija show?
Last year was a big year for me and I must say, life after Big Brother has been amazing. I am a celebrity now; a lot of people knew me more than they know me before. Like I said I left Nigeria 13 years ago and nobody knew me then. The show was like a big introduction back into the country. Now everybody knows me. Now, I can do what I could not do before; shooting movies, doing skits with online celebrities and still pushing up my own business. Just that the Coronavirus has slowed things down for now, so life has been so amazing after the show. We thank God, I will not lie.
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How was your Big Brother audition experience?
My big brother audition experience was one of a kind; it was something I never planned for. I was not interested, I had never watched the show. It was a friend of mine who told me I should go for the audition, that I had all it took, I didn’t know what he meant by that, but he was always on my page. So he believed I was funny enough to entertain Africa you know. I was in Ikeja when they were doing the audition, the morning of the audition, the guy was already there by 3am, so he told me that I shouldn’t worry and he is going to be on the queue for me. So, in the morning when I woke up, I got his message, and I saw the pictures he posted from the audition venue, the long queue and everything.
So I got to the venue and at the end of the day, they didn’t pick me. I was disappointed and you know I was like, this is Naija now, all these things na scam. They already knew the people they want to pick, they were just wasting our time. So, I went back to South Africa. But they called me like two weeks later, that Ebuka posted something like they needed one more person in the big brother house; that there was an online audition for Big Brother Naija show. I was like, since I was in South Africa and it was online, I do not need to waste my money and all that. Let me just do a video. They said we should do like a two minutes video, so I did the video and I sent to the Big Brother people. They saw the video, they liked it and that was how I was picked from online. I was literarily the 21st person, the one person they were looking for to join the competition. So, it was a one in a lifetime experience. If I could go back to the house again, I would go. (Laughs)
Let us talk about your love life and what is your type of lady?
I do like to keep my love life private because social media these days is something else. My kind of lady, I love a sexy woman with good brain. A woman who has home training, with nice charisma, nice smile, nice shape, beautiful both from inside and outside, and above all, must be God-fearing.
Your outfit at the recent AMVCA got a lot of people talking, what informed such an outfit?
Coronavirus was out there and I do not think Nigeria was educated enough to know what was going on or, maybe, they knew what was going on but they were just being ignorant. I watch the news every time I wake up, that is the first thing I do every day, and I noticed that a lot of countries are suffering already and not just any particular country. These are not just any countries, we are talking about China, Italy, France, United Kingdom, America, and they couldn’t control this virus, neither do they have the cure. Nigerians just think this was just a joke; nobody was talking about social distancing, everybody was just making jest of the whole thing, thinking maybe because you are black or because you are from Nigeria, the disease will not come near you and all that.
So, I was like, these people really need to wake up. The president and the people just need to wake up and do something. So, when the award was coming up, I went to meet my fashion designer and I told her, please I need an outfit for this award and she asked if I wanted to win the best dressed or I just wanted to trend and I told her I wanted to pass a message across with my dressing. I told her I wanted to pass a message about Coronavirus, like an awareness and she was like, say no more.
She just came back from Turkey and she came up with a very beautiful fabric and she brought it out and I said: I want that one. This fabric if you noticed has three different layers; it has the yellow, kind of gold colour and mixed with black. So, the colours, for me, represent the entire races of the world, the virus is no respecter of gender or race. At the same time, she got the mask, which was normal for protecting yourself from Coronavirus and all that. The skull, I needed to pass a very strong message with the skulls, it was to let people know that if you guys do not take this thing serious, you will die, because people were dying all over the world. So those were what the skulls stand for. The message is that death is coming, so wake up. I know it was going to draw a lot of attention, but at least, it passed a message across.
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When you heard the news that the attendees of the AMVCA needed to be quarantined because of a possible contact with Coronavirus, how did you feel and have you been tested yet?
To be honest with you, I was not scared; I was not worried at all. Because, number one, I went there prepared, knowing that I would meet a lot of people. If you see the pictures, I had like two security men with me, because I told them, sincerely I don’t want to shake hands with anybody, I don’t want to move close to anybody, because I know it was going to be crowded and I was there to pass a message. I will only be stupid if the messenger went and did the opposite of what he was supposed to do. I was there with my face mask and my own hand sanitiser. It was a good thing they were sharing hand sanitisers at the entrance but any single person that I didn’t want to disrespect that I touched and had contact with, I used my hand sanitisers immediately.
Now it is over14 days after the award, I haven’t had a single symptom. So there was no need for me to do any test because I know I am not positive. I am very conscious about my health and I know how dangerous the disease can be and I have been in my house since, as long as I could remember. If they say everybody who was at that award night should go do test, you know what I think? I think every single person in Lagos should go test because on that day, I saw more than 5000 people at the award night. So, let us just say the 5000 people were exposed to Coronavirus. Do you know how many people those 5000 would have met with by now? Then maybe the whole city should go do test, but for me, I am good.
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