Drama at its best!

Episode 15 of the Apprentice Africa began with a phone call from Lillian to Eunice asking her to gather the other three contestants in the living room to await a conference call from the CEO in 5 minutes. The call from Mr. Shobanjo began with him telling Eunice that he hoped she wasn't missing the USA that much. She replied in the negative which was of course to be expected.


The CEO went on to deliver the week's task which was for Nutricima Limited, a branch of PZ Cussons. The two teams were to conduct market research and present a long term launch strategy for Nutricima's latest product, Power Fist Plus, an energy drink. Whichever of the two teams presented better research findings and a better launch strategy to the Nutricima executives would win the task.

The four remaining contestants then headed to the Nutricima offices for a briefing from the marketing team led by Uche Ofodele, the Nutricima marketing director. They went on to provide the two teams with the basic product info such as origin, packaging, retail price, and the like. Then it was time for the product tasting which was a crucial part of the research and strategy. After the tasting, off they went to the streets of Lagos to conduct their research.




Matrix Corp started off at a basketball court, sampling the most obvious target for any energy drink, sports enthusiasts. They arrived at the court armed with sachets of the product, water and of course Eunice's charm. She was able to get the ball players to sit down, taste the product and give their views. She asked all the relevant questions and the best part of all, team Matrix had all of their research on tape, so later at the presentation, they were to present footage of their sample audience's views as opposed to slides on a PowerPoint presentation, more effective, i must say.




Eunice and Isaac went onto carry out product sampling of the product on the streets of Lagos finishing off at the taxi park. They identified the taxi drivers as part of their core target audience considering the number of hours they spend at the wheel and the constant need to stay alert.

Zulu Corp conducted their market research at a market. This was not a really good idea, i believe. One of the shop keepers was completely unwilling to help Blessing with any information and the more she tried, smile and all, the more rude he became. To him, she was just interrupting his business unprofitably. Deox was out in the crowd trying to get views from the people in the market but no one in his audience was interested in helping him. Their aim was to get as much of the product and as many giveaways as they could get their hands on. Subsequently the two were mobbed by throngs of people in the market place.

It was quite clear that Zulu corp were more daunted by the task at hand than Matrix Corp when they spent the night awake, brainstorming and such as Matrix members slept like babies. The two members of Zulu were clearly not working together and this would spell doom for them in the near future. At one point, Deox is seen typing on the laptop and when Blessing comes in to express concern about the time factor, he says he can handle it and off she goes. She goes on camera to complain about how slow Deox was. Not at any one point was she seen actually trying to take charge of the situation. Was she just scared off by the man's massive physique? one can only wonder.

Presentation time and Matrix was up first. Eunice took the Nuticima executives through the research that they had conducted and she presented them with a video catalogue of views and comments as opposed to the usual numbers on a power point presentation slide. This got the Nutricima executives very excited as they got to see and hear for themselves what the public had to say about Power Fist plus. Isaac then presented Matrix's recommended marketing strategy to launch the product onto the product onto the Nigerian market which included PR, promotional campaigns, and the like. Their presentation was very detailed and organised but what i personally found to be disappointing was the fact that they had failed to put a cost to their strategy. As such, when one of the executives asked Eunice how much it would cost them to implement the said strategy so as to attain the 250 million Naira in 4 quarters that Matrix had projected, Eunice did not have a straight answer.

Zulu Corp's turn came soon enough and their presentation was almost sleep inducing. Blessing made an unenthusiastic attempt to explain their research to the Nutiricima executives and it was clear that she wasn't trying too hard to convince them. I can only imagine what Eddie would have done in such a situation, that man had a knack for making you believe whatever it was he was he was saying, whether or not you understood t was irrelevant. As a dear friend of mine would say, Eddie could sell ice to the Eskimos!!! Well, Blessing apparently wasn't trying at all. It was quite clear that she was seeing that presentation for the first time in her life as she stood in front of the Nutricima executives.

Zulu Corp was questioned about why they only went to one location to carry out their market research and Blessing cited time constraints and the traffic jam. At this point you would be forgiven for thinking that Matrix had done their task on another planet or another city where there were no traffic jams and more than 24 hours in a day..

The most humorous moment was when Blessing said that if Nutricima used their launch strategy, they could have sales of 50,000 cartons a day. This first caused everyone to raise their eyebrows, they then looked at one another and burst into laughter. And the team's response was, in the future, why not? Talk of trying to salvage that which is so obviously lost.

The boardroom session began with Mr. Shobanjo singing praises for Uche Ofodele such that she was left blushing. He went on to say that she knew her onions in marketing and therefore he would rely on whatever she told him.

She began by saying that she and the rest of the Nutricima executives were very impressed with the fact that the two teams had come up with such good results in such a short period of time. She said both teams had given them old and new feedback, some things they had heard before, some they were hearing for the very first time. On her impressions of the two team's presentations, she said that Zulu had listened to them and focused on improving product availability and increasing the retail market. Matrix had listened to the customers and come up with a full comprehensive presentation including variant research, a promotional plan which as quite impressive.

She went on to say that in choosing the winning team, they had decided to pick on the strategy that was clear and that Nutricima could implement quickly, that is in the next month. And the winning team, Matrix Corp. The CEO corroborated her decision saying that he had looked at the two presentations and it was a very well deserved win for Matrix corp since their approach was more wholesome and well rounded. He said that after all that hard word, they needed to unwind and therefore their reward was spa treatment at the Nail studio and spa. We were later to see Isaac blushing at having his hands massaged by a lady at the spa, in fact, i think he was blushing the whole while Eunice looked at peace.

Back to the boardroom where drama ensued. Deox said it was Blessing's decision to conduct the research in the market and that if he had not called one of the distributors later, they would not have gotten the valuable information from his point of view. Blessing was refuting every word that Deox said so much so that the CEO asked Deox what exactly he had contributed to this task. Deox went on to enumerate all the work he had done on the presentation and the marketing strategy, everything fell on deaf ears.

The CEO put Blessing to task regarding their choice to sample only one location during their research. He hopeless defence included lack of time, traffic jam...the CEO found this to be ridiculous, you must understand they were in the same city and time zone as Matrix Corp!!

Mr. Shobanjo went to tell Blessing that he had reports saying she had gotten quite emotional on this particular task and why was that? Her response will go down as one of the most famous lines of the Apprentice Africa "I worked on this task and am a human being sir...."

"So is Deox!" the CEO replied.

He had just signalled the beginning of Blessing's torrent of words. She said that Deox was extremely slow and so had frustrated her on the task. She said he was typing so slowly on the laptop. The CEO asked her why she hadn't taken the computer from him, her response was "he wouldn't let me!" There were gasps of disbelief in the air. Well, according to Blessing, Deox wouldn't let her take the laptop from him so she decided to go to her room and cry, oh and she made sure everyone was aware of her impending emotional breakdown.

It was really comical watching the look on the CEO's face. He appeared in shock that someone had made his little girl cry!! He went on to tell Deox that he had received the same reports about his speed or lack there of. Deox denied this at which point Shobanjo became incensed "Are you calling me a liar?" Psychological warfare at its best. At this point it was clear that Deox had lost the battle and that any attempts to save himself would be like a drowning man clutching at straws. The CEO appeared to consult with Mimi and Paul but it was clear that it was a foregone conclusion that Deox would be fired and so he was, fired! And the Oscar for best performance in a reality show goes to, you guessed it, Blessing Njoku from the Apprentice Africa!!!!

Deox was one of the strongest contenders in the show and it was sad to see him go but we all recognise that Blessing outplayed him because she knew she could emotionally manipulate the boardroom decision while he thought that the CEO's sanity would prevail, that was not to be the case. To Deox, i say, well done. At least you left with your pride and integrity and we can at least think of you as an adult!

If you have been watching this show from the beginning, some things are very clear. In this particular case, Blessing appears to be the typical teacher's pet. From the beginning, she appeared to have mastered the art of playing victim and she got away with it on every single occasion. This is the only boardroom appearance where she has not opened the flood gates of her tears for the camera. But she did so every time her team lost such that the CEO out of concern would ask her what the matter was. What i find immensely disgusting is this childish drama from a full grown woman! I once said there should be a movie titled "Confessions of a full grown drama queen" starring Blessing Njoku. Now it should be even more compelling. Watch out for "The Victim" starring her royal highness the queen of drama herself, Blessing!!!

I have the utmost respect for Mr Biodun Shobanjo and though sometimes i have disagreed with his boardroom decisions, i still respected him. The one thing i find embarrassing is that he has continuously fallen for Blessing's emotional displays and let it cloud his judgement. That i find deplorable. He has always fired PMs for failing to rally their members to victory and not taking responsibility, where did all his lessons disappear to now? He concentrated too hard on seeing Deox as the big bad wolf against his sweet little red riding hood. Deplorable i must say but there is redemption for the show to some extent. I have been trying not to let this slip for those in East Africa but i can't help it, Blessing was fired in Episode 16. It was the interview stage and the decision wasn't up to Mr. Shobanjo and so the panel concluded that she was too manipulative! Finally, someone saw what we have been seeing all along. To me, if Blessing had won the Apprentice Africa, any credibility that the show has would have gone down the drain with her tears of joy.

From the grape vine, i hear that there is no way a non-Nigerian can win this show but i will still keep my fingers crossed for Isaac because he deserves it more than an American, at least he's African, Ghanaian to be precise. Just imagine how it would sound saying an American won the Apprentice Africa. All for Isaac, rise up!!!!!!!

Functionality and practicability

The opening sequence of episode 14 of The Apprentice Africa took place in a school playground and thus it was easy to guess that this week's task would involve children. Well, I hoped it would make this episode more interesting than the last one; children are always fun, adults...hmm, not so! The 5 remaining contestants met the CEO and his advisors in the playground of Abbey junior school for the delivery of the week's task. Mr. Shobanjo said the 5 of them should be proud of themselves for making it thus far in the competition and at this point they were at a critical stage where one little slip could bring you down. These words were surely to resound later when someone was given walking orders.

The task was to design, create and present 2 original uniform sets for the students of Abbey junior school. 1 set for the female and the other for the male pupils. Mr. Shobanjo asked the contestants to pay attention to style, practicability of the uniforms, the realities of the environment and the needs of their clients. He said their designs would be presented to the executives of Abbey junior school who would then judge both teams on the basis of originality, functionality and marketability. The team with the highest score would win the task.

The contestants were then ushered into one of the school's classrooms for a briefing by Ms. Odeleye, the school's administrator. In an effort to guide them, she asked them to bear in mind the texture, weather, durability of the fabrics because they were designing uniforms for little children between 3 and 10 years of age. She explained that although the children worked hard, they played hard and that their designs should consider the playground and be able to stand the test of time. She also informed them that the school's colours were actually yellow and green although it had never been reflected in their uniforms which were red and white. She therefore asked them to consider these two colours in their designs.

Eunice was project manager of Matrix Corp and Tunde was PM for Zulu Corp. How the two teams arrived at this, we have no clue but I am assuming rotation because it is the only explanation I can give myself as to why Tunde ended up as PM on this particular task. This was the beginning of Zulu corp.’s problems. Blessing was excited about this particular task as she loves working with children and it was easy to see her enthusiasm as she drew designs of uniforms on the blackboard. Deox was impressed with her creativity unlike Tunde, the PM whose ears were glued to the words of the consultant his team had been provided. Deox said Blessing is a very intelligent and creative person who unfortunately does not push forward her views and ideas. She had brilliant ideas for the uniforms but she chose to shut up when Tunde trashed them. She just withdrew into herself and resigned herself to doing what she was told. At this point, it was clear that if the team lost, Tunde was definitely going home.

At Matrix corp., things were running smoothly and Isaac and Eunice were working very well together. Eunice expressed great admiration for Isaac's passion. When he got excited about something, he did whatever it took to see it through. The last two members of Matrix corp. sat together, discussed and decided on everything together. They decided to come up with two uniform sets, one for the pupils from pre-school to Primary 2 and the other set for primary 3 to primary 6. At one point, they decided to have a pinafore and shirt for the girls in the lower section. Eunice came up with the idea of having the shirt inbuilt so as to have one piece. This idea was discussed and incorporated into the team's designs.

This was not the case at Zulu corp. Tunde placed Blessing and Deox in charge of purchasing shoes and socks for the models and preparing them and the venue for the fashion show. Tunde and his chosen sidekick, the uniform consultant went out to buy the material for the uniforms and later to the tailors. Blessing and Deox played their part perfectly as per Tunde's instructions.

On the day of the fashion show, Zulu corp. got to go first with Tunde presenting the models onto the runway and explaining the designs. Their fashion show was titled "A new me" No one appeared excited about this apart from Tunde, clearly this was his idea.
The Zulu uniforms were of checkered yellow and green shirts and blouses whereas the shorts, trousers and skirts were green in colour. For the lower primary section, they had a dress for the girls and a short sleeved shirt and shorts for the boys. For the upper section, they had a skirt and blouse for the girls and a long sleeved shirt and trousers for the boys. Their uniforms had three questionable features;
1. The checkered pattern
2. Long sleeved shirts.
3. The green satin strips on the shirts.

When they asked for questions from their audience, the first question was about the long sleeved shirts and Deox stepped in to answer as to why they chose to have long sleeved shirts for the boys in the upper section. He said that this was done so that the students of Abbey Junior School could stand out from the other children in the other schools in the area. Was this a classic example of shooting from the hip? Later in the boardroom, Deox said that they had decided to have long sleeves after speaking to the older students and realising that they wanted to wear long sleeves to look like their fathers and also because of the air conditioning in their classrooms. I must say, his second attempt at the question was a lot better than the first one. I was actually shaking my head in wonder along with the school's administrator after that first answer.

Matrix corp. presented their models with their designs after modeling lessons from Eunice, herself a former model. She noted that teaching the kids how to model required patience and understanding. Matrix's models were less enthusiastic than those of Zulu corp. on the catwalk but the focus was on the uniforms. Matrix corp. had decided to use white and green. For the lower section, they designed a green pinafore for the girls with an inbuilt white shirt and for the boys, a short sleeved white shirt and green shorts. For the upper section, they had a white shirt and green skirt for the girls and for the boys, a short sleeved white shirt and green trousers.

When questions were invited, the first one was about the fact that on the pinafore for the girls in the lower section, the zipper was at the front. Eunice explained that this would make it easier for the kids to dress themselves as opposed to if they had to reach back and try to zip from the back. She was also asked about the shorts for the boys in the lower section and whether they had an elastic band at the waist. She answered in the affirmative saying that this would make it easier for the little boys to get them on and off as opposed to having to manoeuver buttons or zippers.

In the boardroom, the school administrator informed them that even before they presented their designs, the school executives had had a discussion on what the focus of the uniform designs should be and the basis on which they would be judged. She said that they had unanimously agreed that overall emphasis would be on functionality, after all, the students were in school to learn. At this point, foreboding was visible on Tunde's face.

Ms. Odeleye congratulated both teams on a job well done. When she finally got round to announcing who had actually won the task, she said that Zulu's designs were nice, colourful and cheerful but on the basis of functionality, Matrix corp. won the task. According to her, the Matrix design was functional, simple and not distractive whereas the Zulu design was fashionable but lacking in functionality. The results basing on the fabric, comfort, design and finishing were Matrix 53 points and Zulu corp. 42 points.
Matrix corp.’s reward was a celebrity photo shoot at Fruition which greatly excited Eunice and Isaac. On the Zulu side of the boardroom, Blessing was on the verge of tears as is always the case whenever her team loses. Tunde was unsettled and kept shaking his head in disbelief. Deox was very calm, it was like he knew exactly what was going to happen.

When it came to who should be fired, Deox asked Tunde to do the "honorable" thing and resign instead of wasting the CEO's time. Tunde took great offense at this and went on to defend his skills as a leader citing his various "leadership achievements" church inclusive which had Deox rolling his eyes and the CEO completely unimpressed. Every second thing he said was, "the lady said this, the lady said that..." in reference to the advice he received from the uniform consultant. This was his coup de grace.
It's like Tunde knew that his demise from the competition was imminent because he did not try to pin anyone down for their loss but went on a futile attempt to convince the CEO to keep him on. The more he talked, the more everyone was convinced that he really did not have a chance as the winner of the Apprentice Africa. I am sure he would have gone on talking if the CEO had not stopped him to deliver his final verdict.

The CEO went on to tell Tunde that most times he is congratulated for successes that he can only attribute to the members of his team. He said that no leader relied solely on the advice of outsiders as opposed to his own team. He reminded him that it was supposed to be a team effort and that he had wanted to see their creativity not that of the uniform consultant. He said the uniforms they designed could be worn by the kids to parties not to school. Inevitably, Tunde was fired.

I don't understand how Tunde could get it so wrong after the words practicability and functionality were repeated so many times in so many different forms. He managed to come up with haute couture uniforms for Nigerian primary school kids! Perhaps he and his uniform consultant can set up a haute couture shop for uniquely designed children's clothes, they could make a killing and who knows, this way, he could eventually make the 250,000 US dollars a year that he flushed down the toilet......I truly doubt it.