Ellah Played in Chase for Biggie's Dollars

 

Uganda came out of the Sunday eviction show of Big Brother Hotshots smiling and bruised in equal measure. Bebe Cool had given a totally unique opening of the show with his seemingly popular hit all over Africa, Love You Everyday. This was a performance better than most that have graced the Big Brother Africa stage this season; he had the crowd bumping and singing along to those crispy lines of "hey hey hey... I will love you everyday".

Maybe it helped that the entire chart-topper is done in English, so everyone could relate to the lyrics and sing along. After that performance, Nigerians, Ghanaians and South Africans among others were all praising Bebe on social media, with one noting: "Nigeria has artistes, but this Ugandan is awesome."

It was on that high that presenter IK took viewers into the house to evict Mozambique's Trezagah and Botswana's beauty queen, Sheila, making Ugandans feel safe. But then IK returned a second time and ironically evicted both Idris' (Tanzania) love interests, Ugandan Ellah and Tswana Goitse.

This came as a bombshell for Ugandans who had predicted we were safe; all one needed were two country votes to stay. In our view, Rwanda was already in the bag; how wrong we were!

After saving Ellah for more than five times, the Rwandans chose to go far west and save Nigeria's Tayo over their neighbour, leaving the Ugandan beauty queen with just Uganda's vote, seeing as Kenya had opted to save Idris. This was the most shocking revelation of the night; Ugandans really needed the Rwandan vote last week, but Ellah had not helped matters by lately preferring to spend all her time in bed playing tonsil hockey with 21-year-old Idris (among others) much to Africa's chagrin.

Now Africa has eight finalists in JJ and Butterphly (Zimbabwe), Sipe (Malawi), Idris, Tayo, Ghana's M'am Bea, South African Nhlanhla and Zambia's Macky2. This leaves Uganda, Rwanda and Botswana as possible kingmakers, considering the fact that Idris calculatingly messed up both Ellah and Goitse's games by playing them against each other in a love triangle. Speaking to The Observer by phone from South Africa yesterday, however, both women concurred, if Idris thought his strategy was to play them, he only ended up playing himself. Ellah also said she had no regrets with how her game played out. We reserve the right of messing up his chances by voting for Ellah's bestie, the soft-spoken Butterphly.

Rwanda has already demonstrated that they don't care what happens next season, by departing from regional politics and voting with the western bloc. And now that all Botswana's hopes burnt out in one weekend, they could become as lethal as a wounded lion by voting with their SADC friends instead of for Idris, seeing as South Africa was the only vote Sheila received last week. JJ has made history as the only housemate to stay in the house to the final week even when he always gets one country vote; that should teach Ugandans a lesson to vote in bigger numbers. The Zimbabwean survived every tiebreaker on mere percentages, meaning he had more individual votes than the likes of Ellah.

Sipe, M'am Bea and Butterphly have been the least nominated housemates; it is surprising how this female trio made it to the finals. This week Africa votes for a winner, so vote wisely. The Nigerians have taken the top prize a record three times out of nine seasons. Zambia was the inaugural winner, while Tanzania, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia have also won a season each. Six of the finalists this season come from those countries again. But do the other two have what it takes to switch the tide? Africa decides.

To vote for your favourite housemate to win the $ 300,000 (about Shs 780m), type 'vote' followed by the name of the housemate and SMS to 8884 on all the major mobile phone networks, or vote via the show's website www.bigbrotherafrica.com.