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!!!!!!!