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BBA: Hakeem lost focus

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MUNYARADZI Hakeem Mandaza became the 12th housemate to be evicted from the Big Brother Africa: The Chase Diamond’s House on Sunday evening.

MUNYARADZI Hakeem Mandaza became the 12th housemate to be evicted from the Big Brother Africa: The Chase Diamond’s House on Sunday evening.

Report by Melissa Mpofu

He was evicted together with Malawi’s Fatima who received one country vote, while he had no vote.

Hakeem was visibly shocked when the show’s host, IK, announced that he had been evicted.

But, for close followers of the show, Hakeem’s departure was no surprise because he seemed to have lost the plot somehow during his stay in the house and lost viewers’ votes along the way.

During his first nomination in the second week of the game, Hakeem received six popularity country votes to save him and it seemed like he was Africa’s favourite considering that he had the highest votes compared to other nominated housemates.

Weeks later, his votes plummeted to zero, showing how unpopular he now was among the show’s viewers.

Whoever said women have been many men’s downfall was right because Hakeem’s love, Cleo (Zambia), somehow contributed to his early eviction.

During the first weeks of the show, viewers loved Hakeem as he was good-looking, sweet, caring and generally seemed like an interesting fellow.

He got close to Cleo and the two were in some kind of a romantic relationship.

This was taken well by the show’s viewers who flooded the shows television straps with messages of praise for the relationship.

But, Hakeem changed drastically the day Cleo was separated from him when Head of House sent Hakeem to the Diamond’s House leaving Cleo in the Rubies’.

She did not seem moved by the change, while Hakeem behaved as if the world had come to an end.

Diamonds’ housemates welcomed Hakeem to the new home and tried interacting with him, but he did not budge as he kept preaching the “gospel of Cleo”.

This is when he became a bore to watch because all he ever spoke of was Cleo while Cleo never spoke of him much.

He was vulnerable as Diamonds’ housemates constantly nominated him for eviction because they wanted to play the game with Hakeem, but he chose to only play with Cleo.

Weeks later, he was re-united with Cleo, but he was frustrated after discovering that Cleo had been given an opportunity to re-unite with him earlier, but refused saying she wanted to concentrate more on the game.

She was right, but Hakeem would not understand and started backstabbing Cleo, talking negatively about her to other housemates.

Their relationship was never the same again although the two tried to mend things as Cleo constantly reminded him that they needed to focus more on the game.

Also, Hakeem lost some support when he openly confessed that he would never be friends with Pokello because the two were from different classes.

On the other hand, Pokello told Big Brother that she cared for Hakeem and took him as a younger brother.

Unfortunately for Hakeem, his chase in the house eventually came to an end on Sunday.

Two weeks ago, he was up for eviction and was saved by his lover’s country Zambia who voted for him while Zimbabwe voted for Pokello.

This week unfortunately, his lover, Cleo, was also up for eviction and Zambia voted for her, and again Zimbabwe voted for Pokello leaving Hakeem with no vote.

As they say, charity begins at home, if Hakeem had at least received a vote from his country, he might have survived on Sunday, but unfortunately, that golden vote went to Pokello who bagged four country votes.

Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe voted to save Pokello and as usual, she had the highest popularity votes as compared to other housemates.

But, compared to last year’s Zimbabwean representatives who fought, Hakeem represented the country well because he always had Pokello’s back as his home girl because he always told her each time people gossiped about her and would confront those who spoke badly about her.

He also loved Cleo dearly, but probably his romantic game plan was not what this year’s BBA viewers were looking for.

Pokello, on the other hand, was hurt when she learnt of Hakeem’s eviction on Sunday, saying the only person she could call a friend and trust had gone.

Hakeem is expected back home tomorrow at midday.

Meanwhile, chances are high that Pokello will be up for eviction this week as she received the most number of nominations for eviction.

The game continues with 16 housemates, 47 days and eight countries left in The Chase for the $300 000 prize money.