Monday, March 03, 2008

THE APPRENTICE AFRICA

Hiya Everyone,
So how was your weekend?
Mine was good but honestly it was way too short!
I think my new mantra is ‘no more 9 to 5’! I seem to say those words almost everyday now.
Anyways, what did u get up to this weekend? I didn’t do much actually. I pretty much spent almost the whole of yesterday watching TV.
Not very productive…
Last week, something I’ve been looking forward to kicked off and I quite impressed.
The Apprentice Africa aired its first episode on Tuesday.
The contestants seem quite driven and intelligent while the production quality was good.
Biodun Shobanjo was stellar!
Anyway, there are contestants from several countries in Africa including Cameroun, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Guinea and of course, Nigeria!
Here are the profiles of the Nigerian contestants.

Bekeme Masade – 26 ~ Babatunde Ojikutu – 28

Akatu Ochai – 31 ~ Blessing Njoku – 31


Eunice Omole – 28 ~ Michelle Ikenador – 23


Nnamdi Anthony Mbonu – 28


You can visit the website HERE to see a recap of Episode 1.
By the way, Hannah Bertilla Acquah from Ghana is the first to be FIRED...I wonder who will go out this week
So what do you think about the Apprentice coming to Nigeria/Africa?
Do you have a fave? Let us know.....

Have a great week!!

55 comments:

Uzo said...

And i missed the show....

Was it good? I think its interesting...Hope it works out well

Little Miss Media said...

boo hoo.
second.
oh well.
im excited and will watch it soon.

Anonymous said...

heyeeyeneye-

Anonymous said...

nnamdi anthony mbonu, looks like osi umenyiorah - somehow.

Anonymous said...

all these foreign imports - apprentice, west african idols, dragons den, celebrity takes 2 and the list goes on.
when will we export our own shows now? although i will still watch the show.

ShadeCrown said...

Nnamdi is a cutie

Orekelewa said...

Sounds interesting....I wish I had the ability to really watch it....but for some reason I can never commit to anything...even a TV show...lol

dScR?Be said...

WOW!!! Niceee!!! Mehnnn.. Naija is doing it big... heres one 4 pple who "cannot understand our accents" Professional Africans! COOL!!!

Btw, Akatu is hawt! All the ladies r soo pretty! I hope Michelle comes tops!! But how come Hannah sold no balls? lol... eyah.. naija is not beans mehn...

Anonymous said...

I love how Sassy, Sexy & Smart the Ladies look!!!

Anonymous said...

like you said, the show impressed me...good production and intelligent looking cast...shall hopefully watch it to the end...no favorites yet but i'm rooting for one of the girls :)

Waffarian said...

Chei! That Shobanjo guy was good.....hehehehe. Well, hope I'll be able to watch it on the net cos that guy dey kampe!

Unbiased said...

Bella love. Thanks for stopping by. Any way we can watch the apprentice thing online. I so hate not having dstv or mnet in this country (sniff sniff).
Have you seen Miss E yet?

Anonymous said...

i dont mind us copying more developed countries but at what expense to important things like education ,roads and potable drinking water etc. i hope they dont think that the development of a country is measured by such reality shows. i am not hating just saying it the way i understand it

Anonymous said...

why the heck!!! do all the girls have english names?????????/ totally supporting BEKEME and tunde ojikutu if only for this!!
makes one appreciate the ppl selling stuff in traffic sha..cheers
JA

Naija Sutra said...

the ladies are really pretty.

no time, can i watch it online??
im excited to c wat they haveto offer.

Anonymous said...

Interesting. I would luv to watch. Each contestant looks good.

tee

tankojjetty said...

fianlly am on the famous "bella's" blog...
i watched only the end of the first episode...
it was okay...mr shobanjo is the bomb...and as much as i dont like tv,tuesdays are booked for 18wks
was at the website...but i cant seem to find the profile of all these contestants

Anonymous said...

am very impressed w apprentice africa

Anonymous said...

lol what is wrong with having an english name tori olorun ehn? people always want to start something where there is none. kai, you are forgetting that those ppl's parents probably named them or they happen to have a first name that is impossible to pronounce even by nigerian standards...there are such names you know. e.g alevhivhia

i like how everyone is looking smart nd put together, why cant they put such for BBA

Pyeri Boy said...

YAYYY FOR EUNICEEEE!

Pyeri Boy said...

And i am bigging up STORM PRODUCTIONS for their fab work with this show!

Anonymous said...

nice. my bro is part of the camera crew!

Anonymous said...

lol.........the 9ja ppple look promising!!whatever that means!!!lol

Hair Azara said...

YAYA!!!!! APPRENTICE AFRICA!!! am soo excited!!

http://hairbyazara.blogspot.com/

9jamommy said...

Oh wow I saw them selling the soccer balls a few weeks ago in VI, but didn't buy any..lol, sorry ladies, had no idea it was for the apprentice.

Bella how now? long time, good to see you're still going strong.

Anonymous said...

oh plleeeeeeeeeease-
its apprentice africa and we have euncice,mary,jane,alicia,laura,jackie,blessing ati bebelo and u dont think thats funny?
I bet they dont go by htose names in the office and please we all pronounce names like EBUKA/OFUNEKA/even OKOSISI so where is it so difficult to pronounce?
i let my co-workers know i prefer to not have my name shortened and that's despite me having an english baptismal name but NO, i mean no one of my friends call me other than by my yoruba name so how weird is it that it is in apprentice africa that we now have a cast of so many people with english names, including girls with strong IGBO acents-how the heck r people all over africa going to learn about other people's names like gaetano,tapuwa,bruna, etc! but jane and john are cool names?
pls lets get real

Joy Isi Bewaji said...

mehn! they all look hot! i'm sure their brains are hotter! lol!

how have u been my sister?!

Anonymous said...

lovely show. The website is also pretty tidy. By Unotech media

Anonymous said...

Hey bella. I heard Nominations for soundcity awards are out, do you have info about it?

Damola said...

I think this is a very welcome development to the African community. I have watched other episodes in the UK and it has been a great success. I hope this one is a success as well.

Damola
www.unotechmedia.com

Yankeenaijababe said...

the show seems cool to me but they seem to focus more on peeps abroad giving less chance for the local Naija peeps. Anyways, seems like a great show to watch. Naija can't seem to have its own music. I pity the poor girls selling soccer balls on the streets. It must be hard ooooo in a system where u don't want to go where u no trust for fear of security, no good credit card system and all that stuff. Sha, wish them good luck.

Anonymous said...

can we watch it in the UK...wonder why none of the african channels would be showing i.e BEN, OBE, or even "This nollywood...lol" would have helped their marketing

Anonymous.ER

Anonymous said...

so strong igbo accent = igbo first name
you my dear friend with your english baptismal name are ignorant.

to each his own, i dont know why and when an english name became a sign of whatever ailment you are pushing. as if all the movie characters in nollywood arent jane john and nelly . psheew

Anonymous said...

and um Bella, can you remove that live feed thing abeg, it smacks too much of FBI surveillance

Anonymous said...

It's very interesting the social issues that are discussed on Bella's blog.
I'm one of those pple with "modified/shortened" names and in retrospect, it stemmed from at first making it easier for others to pronounce my name, and then morphed into the belief that HR people toss out your resume if they can't pronounce your name. Now that I'm a little bit wiser, I grudgingly admit that a little bit of 'colo-mentality' was in the mix.

For everyone who has refused to change their names, use their english names etc. I applaud you
but instead of "attacking" why not try to engage people in conversation. At the end of the day, it's all about putting food on the table and clothes on your back.

Anonymous said...

at anon above me. thanks
i too have a name commonly mispronounced by my fellow nigerians and an english middle name. but i go by the name i have always gone by, and refuse to let anyone anglicise even my naija name. and i always pronounce with my conc nigerian accent none of that tobi=toby stuff. but that is me, and i respect everyone's elses right to do whatever it is they feel they need to do in a foreign land.

abi our patriotic nigerian has not noticed how many asians in the west give their kids english names, presumably so corporate adn social life is a little bit easier, yet these second gen kids are as asian and western as can be. and he/she seems to forget that millions of nigerians have english first names...johnathan goodluck, david mark, daisy danjuma blah blah blah

Anonymous said...

How ironical there is a thread on Naijarules about a Nollywood movie called Beyonce and Rihanna ?
People seem anoyed about the name of the movie!!

Anonymous said...

Bella I just read a mean comment by a lady called Ekaette on Naijablog
Jeremy's article about himself titled "ME".She seems to think BellaNaija and her readers are fake.Check it out.

Anonymous said...

yes they r pretty..lol..nice blog!

Anonymous said...

hehe,....a random moment of madness in the middle of the night....hehe.!!! Bella I love this blog!!! pls dont stop the music...hehe!!!! you dig?

Anonymous said...

na wa o!! not sure why some people are so pro-english names!!!
and the person who is wondering why 10 out of the 12 or so girls (example for)on Apprentice 'AFRICA' have english names is 'ignorant'?
why can't people argue maturely? it begs the question...that the producers didnt notice this. so if asian people are julie wong, we too should jane and john kokobiri?
we lose so many opportunities to be ourselves...
i would love to hear ijebuman's take on this....
is this the same way oyinbo people adopt our names? ven though they have english names...
its an observation and its not that serious... tothe person who thinks he/she is ignorant
J

Anonymous said...

I assume Moshood Kashimawo Abiola is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay TOO difficult to pronounce as opposed to David Mark...
if i'm not mistaken, the only problem i see is that this is meant to be APPRENTICE AFRICA- i woulf find it a tad bit sad if there was Apprentice India and they were mostly jonathon Suresh and Daisy Mohindar- (too much HEROeS in my system)

Anonymous said...

the website's pretty tight yeah. rare writing for naija TV sites

Uzo said...

So bella, when will you update?>

Ms Sula said...

What about us Africans who have no African names but our last name (and in my case, that doesn't even sound African)... I think it's a Nigerian culture to give your kids a Nigerian name, and I applaud that practice very much... But you can't really blame the kids for what their parents decided to do, no?

Is there a way to watch the show online? I actually almost applied for it... :)

Omuluzua said...

I have mixed feelings. Why do we feel the need to copy western reality shows? first it was big brother, then african idols, now apprentice? its getting very disturbing. Does it mean we lack creativity? soon we'll have the "African Bachelor" / "Bachelorette"
phew!!!!

Anonymous said...

please note, i only called our patriotic nigerian ignorant when s/he made the assumption that someone with a conc igbo accent must have a conc igbo name to go with it. if that is not ignorance err i really don't know what else is

i have said my own

Anonymous said...

i want to hear you pronounce kashimawo. *hiss* or even soludo sef. acting as if everyone's name is easy to pronounce or as if you could pronounce every nigerian name you came across.

what about the tons of nigerians that give their kids arabic names in the name of islam. shey them too, they be sellouts

Anonymous said...

looks like it'd be fun... lmao@ what you wrote after leave your comment.. i Love it

mum said...

I think the show is nice from the clips i saw but nigerian producers should come up wiv something original and indigenous. Meanwhile pls check out my blog

dat 1 okrika babe said...

damn i wish i had AIT or bentv or something, i would so love to watch Apprentice Africa.

Apmis said...

Update: the show is in episode 4 now. the website is www.theapprenticeafrica.com. the website is usally about a week behind so that the rest of africa can catch up but if you want recent update as it is happening this is the place to go: The Apprentice africa
It has ben a pretty exciting show thus far.

Anonymous said...

Hmm apprentice Africa very interesting..and wait to Ms. Agyare..knew her from middle school..
P.S- check my blog
http://coffieblog.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Hello,

Been to the Forums...

http://www.theapprenticeafrica.net

Fun....

Anonymous said...

Hi just found a cool website on the one of the apprentice.It has some information on the other apprentice. Check it out www.reginaagyare.com