My Abuja: Bassey

Big Brother Africa contestant Michael Bonny Bassey (known as Bassey) represented Seirra Leone in this year’s show. An actor, model and final year student of History and drama at the University of Sierra Leone (Fourah Bay College), the 22 year old has now moved to Lagos to further his film career and has visited Abuja many times.

It was easy for me to adjust to the Big Brother House. If you come to Sierra Leone and see where I live, we’re like 15 in the house, so I’m used to it. I have been living with so many people for such a long time. I’m also used to different cultures because there are different races in my home where I grew up. I adapted really quickly. There was never a time I felt like “Oh, I I wanna go back home, I can’t handle these people anymore.” I handled it really well.

BBA taught me not to trust people. What I learnt is that you can never take people for granted, and you shouldn’t trust people. There were people I considered friends in that house, but after BBA I found out all the stuff they have said about me. It was really difficult to believe.

My life is way better now after BBA than before. BBA is such a huge platform for me and my career. The reception has been amazing from people, but it’s just that you don’t have any privacy. You put pictures on your Instagram page and people take them and post them on blogs and lie about it. But I love the attention, I’m not gonna lie, I love every single bit of it. I live in Nigeria now because I want to continue my acting career and might be hitting a Nollywood screen very soon. It’s really, really good. If it wasn’t for BBA you will not know my name.

I think being in Nigeria is good for me. It’s better than my country; I’m not going to lie about that. I have gigs and so much more opportunities here. It’s really good. I’m going to go back to school [in Sierra Leone] even though I live here now. I’m going to go there for my exams and then come back, and keep returning until I’m done.

I used to live in Lagos. I was schooling there when I was a teenager, then I left for Sierra Leone but I have moved here now because there are so many more opportunities for my career and my life.

Abuja is a really good place if you’re not in the entertainment industry. But it’s a bit slow for those of us in the industry. For me, most of the jobs are in Lagos; it’s too quiet here.  Abuja is really good, there’s less traffic and all but I prefer Lagos because of my career.

I love Maitama! I love the area and the houses. It’s like Lekki in Lagos or Beverly Hills in America. I also love the Caribbean Lounge. The guy that owns the place, Abubakar, is very nice. Most of the other clubs I went to I didn’t really like.

I want to buy a house in Abuja. I love Abuja; it’s just a place for me to chill and not work. I want to be part of every good thing happening here. If I have my way I’ll be part of everything. And thank you so much to Metropole for having me.