Tobi Bakare, a former contestant on the third season of Big Brother Naija, has shared why he left his banking career in order to pursue the TV reality show in 2018. The actor claimed to have worked as a currency dealer for Heritage Bank for four years before quitting because he found the employment to be “boring.”
Olumurewa and Michael Sonariwo’s most recent edition of Menisms’ audiovisual podcast included a segment about Tobi.
In his words,
“My personality when I’m doing the same thing over and over tends to get boring. At that time I was still young. I think I was 22 at that time. So, I said ‘okay I have always wanted to go on this show [Big Brother Naija], and I’m tired of this [banking] job.’ So, it was either I start processing my japa [Visa] to Canada or I can go for [BBNaija]. And then it was more like you can go for this thing [BBNaija] and then come back and process your Canada [Visa] and whatever life brings.
“I was just really tired of where I was. So, I was like okay let me take a chance on this [BBNaija]. So, we went for Big Brother and then I didn’t really think after Big Brother this is what I want to do, that is what I want to do. I was just like okay, in case anything should come up, I got like management, someone I respected and trusted. And I was like ‘Please o, whatever it’s I’m doing there [Big Brother house], plz make sure there’s value to be gotten when I get out’.
After leaving the Big Brother House in South Africa, the former TV reality star said he was thrilled to see his former employer at the bank pick him up at the airport in a range rover. It was his first time getting inside a range rover, he acknowledged. As his Instagram page soared to 250k followers, he claimed to be thrilled as well.
Tobi revealed that his supporters contributed N800,000 to his account as a result of him not taking home the top prize.
