Emeka Ike recently emerged the first winner of Gulder Ultimate Search, Celebrity Showdown. In this chat with NONYE BEN-NWANKWO, he talks about life in the jungle and his alleged romance with Muma Gee.
Would you attribute your victory at the last Gulder Ultimate Search, Celebrity Showdown to luck?
Whatever comes to us can never be by luck. If you believe that anything that comes your way is by luck, you are taking away God’s glory and you are giving it to an unknown feature. While we were on top of water, I was on the boat. If you noticed, I was the last man on the boat. That fear factor came to me that I had relegated myself to the background by sitting at the back. There and then, another voice came to me and said, ‘The first shall be the last and the last shall be the first.’ I did not just stop there. I had to know if I was the one speaking or if it was God. I told God that if He was the one speaking to me, I would make a contact with Him to tell him I heard Him. I scooped water from the river and told God that I had heard him.
Was that why you didn’t give up even when it looked like the others were ahead of you in the final task?
I didn’t give up. God and the Devil give us messages, but you have to choose the person you listen to. The spirit of frustration came into me and told me that the others were ahead of me, but I didn’t listen. The other voice reminded me that the others hadn’t found the treasure yet. I had to keep digging. It taught me a lesson. Even when you are failing, keep thinking. It is not over until it is over. I kept digging and digging. My mind told me that I was free to dig anywhere. The first port of call was Darey’s point. I used my head to make some calculations and in less than five scoops, I was able to touch the treasure. My mind was in all I was doing.
You also said it was your intellect that got you the prize. Are you saying the others are not intelligent?
At every point in any human being’s life, you need to be on top of your game. We could be 10 intelligent people in a room, but all of us have to radiate on different frequencies. You may not give out the right frequency when you are required to. That doesn’t make you not to be intelligent. My mind was there as I said earlier. I was studying them. I don’t think they were studying me. I was looking at their attempts and at the same time, I allowed the spirit in me to control me. It was God that told me to go and dig at Darey’s place, and I went there, dug and found the treasure.
A lot of people felt you saw Darey as your biggest rival.
My rival was my best friend, Daddy Showkey. He is a strong man. Darey couldn’t have been my rival. Showkey is stronger. I was following my mind.
Come to think of it, you once said you are not really into endorsement. How come you became a part of GUS?
Don’t say I am not into endorsement. I just don’t endorse. I need to endorse the right product. You don’t have to think that because actors are broke, you can invite them and give each of them N3 million to endorse your product. I will not be a part of that. I feel that good things come to you in God’s time. That is the way I operate. GUS was more like a quest for me. I was committed. It was not about endorsing any brand but winning a contest. That was why I went in for it.
We learnt that you were not meant to be on the list initially; you were called upon on the day of the opening and you jumped at the offer.
That is a lie. They had called me many times before then but I told them I wasn’t interested. I have never liked this endorsement deal as you already know. I just didn’t feel like being a part of it. But later, I came back one day and met my bags packed. I asked my wife what the problem was and she said she packed it for GUS. She encouraged me to go and be a part of the show because she believed so much in me. That was how I left.
Your relationship with Muma Gee in the jungle brought about a lot of talks and scandals…
I was comfortable with the talks and scandals the ‘relationship’ brought. Showbiz without scandal is not showbiz. The important thing is that it does not take you outside your focus. There was nothing physical between us.
Even the bathroom sex?
There was no kiss. There was no hug and, of course, there was no sex. All the stuff you saw was for the paparazzi and the drama. If you noticed, when the other girls got very angry, that was when Muma got very close to me. We were enjoying the drama. Sometimes you would see us whispering into one another’s ears. You needed to know what we were talking about. The others would shout and say that I should be ashamed of myself; a married man going after another lady. I would whisper into Muma Gee’s ear and say, ‘As if we don’t know what we are doing. They should go ahead and talk’. We would laugh and people would think we are intimate. We knew what we were doing, but people didn’t know what we were doing.
Why did you single out Muma Gee to act with?
I think Muma singled me out. Maybe because she saw me as the right person that could play along with her, who would not think she was leading him on. Muma is mature. In all the brouhaha, she was calm. That is one mark of a mature and enterprising individual. I give her kudos for that. You don’t have to sit with kids who just rant and rave. She was always composed and articulate even when the others were fighting her.
Why did you plan this ‘drama’?
When we got into GUS the first day, we had this alliance between us. We decided to add a bit of drama to the show. We chose to act as lovers in the show. We wanted to bring about some talks. The fact that we didn’t do anything immoral is our justification.
Didn’t you think your wife would mind?
I called my wife and told her what we were planning before the show started. I told her Muma was going to act as my wife in the show. My wife said I should go ahead since she knows me and what I can do. My wife said there is no reality show without love drama. She just encouraged us to play it well. Muma called her guy and told him about our plans as well. We were on national TV. I am the chairman of St. Nicholas College. I am a role model to many people. I will not go on TV and misbehave like it was reported to the extreme in the media. But suggestively, we created drama. All the drama was to keep the house warm and the context flowing.
You even cried when she got evicted. Was that drama too?
A bit of it was drama. I evicted her. That would have been very harsh of me to have claimed to love somebody and still be the instrument of her destruction.
Given the chance, would you date Muma?
If you are talking about the present, I am sorry you are asking a wrong question. I am a married man. I cannot date her.
Would you date her if you were not married?
If I didn’t know her before I got married, I would date her. The reason for dating is to date a woman who is in charge of her world, who is in control of her world, who will look at situations around her and access them and who will think before she acts. That is the kind of woman that attracts me. Maybe I would have dated her if I wasn’t married. But I am married to a very beautiful woman and I don’t have any regrets at all.
Was she the only one that you saw as mature in the jungle?
She was very mature. Weird MC was very mature too. You have to be conscious of your fellow humans. You don’t have to trample on others to get to where you are going. You can make your point without hurting anybody.
The first night at the jungle, you chose to make your bed in the female’s corner, and it caused a lot of issues.
I didn’t choose to make my bed at the ladies’ corner. We got to the jungle and we were supposed to make a tent. If we all made the tent, we couldn’t have eaten that night. Daddy Showkey was the one that told the females to go and cook food while the men would make the tent. No decision had been made about the sleeping arrangement. We were still making the tent before the trouble brewers came with their problem. I had to stand my ground. I had nothing on my mind. It is a reality show. If you choose to make a fool of yourself on national TV, that is your choice.
Were you acting in everything you did in the jungle?
It was just Muma Gee’s own that was for the camera. Every other thing was me. If I don’t want to talk, I will not talk. Before now, a lot of people cast me in bad light. They saw me as arrogant and erratic. I felt GUS would be a platform for me to correct this misinterpretation of the real Emeka Ike. You don’t know me and you go to press and put up lies about me. You don’t know me and you say I am not educated. Who told you? Why don’t you go to YABATECH and ask them who I am? Why don’t you ask Ndudi Elumelu if he schooled with me? People have been passing wrong information about my person. I felt GUS would be a good platform for people to know about me. They would know the Emeka Ike that is not erratic or impulsive.
Did you give Muma a part of your prize?
Let’s leave that question for now. It is our family business and I am not going to discuss it with you.
