Nigeria: I Auditioned for BBNaija Five Times - Season 7 Winner, Phyna

Phyna beat 23 other housemates to claim the grand prize of the keenly contested reality TV show on Sunday night.

BBNaija season 7 winner, Ijeoma Josephina Otabor, popularly known as Phyna, the winner of the just concluded Big Brother Naija level-up edition, has revealed how her persistence paid off after five years.

The 25-year-old budding actress revealed this at the Big Brother Naija prize presentation ceremony at the Multichoice office in Ilupeju, Lagos.

Phyna beat 23 other housemates to claim the grand prize of the keenly contested reality TV show Tagged 'Level Up', which premiered on 23 and 24 July.

The six who made it to the finals are Adekunle, Chichi, Bryan, Phyna, Daniella and Bella.

The reality tv star, while thanking the organisers, said, "I want to say a major thank you to Big brother for giving me this privilege after four years; in the fifth year, I am here, and it's something amazing."

In a session at the prize presentation, Phyna, who hails from Edo State, expressed themself to God, her fellow housemates and the show's sponsors.

She said, "I just want to appreciate everyone out there who voted for me; even with all my 'mmm' (referring to her flat was), I still made it".

When asked about her most challenging moment in the house, she said it was difficult to tell as she had several high moments.

"I did not have a difficult moment in the house, except when I needed to fight for chow (food). That was a difficult moment because we needed to argue during the merger. I had to blend with the other level and get to know them, and literally, we were all fighting for chow".

Speaking further during her session, she explained that in the next five years, she aims for greatness. She said, "In the next five years, by God's grace, heaven would not only be my limit, but it would be a starting point."

Behind the contents

At the gathering, Busola Tejumola, Executive Head of Content & West Africa Channels at MultiChoice Nigeria Limited, spoke on the magnitude of processes that went into the season.

Speaking on the level of engagement on the show this season, Ms Tejumola confirmed that the votes were unprecedented.

"Over an N1 billion votes shows those are decisions people make weekly, which shows we were entertaining them", she said,

She also disclosed that the planning process was long as the show production started months before the show went on air to ensure smooth sailing.

"Outside the production, a lot goes on behind the scenes, from making sure we don't go off air to keeping the voting. There are so many points that form the whole package," She said

Speaking on the twists, she said it was a season of many firsts and starting from the house.

*From the look and feel, the introduction of new levels to the house itself and the management of two channels for the first time to show the number of contents that could have been missed, this season was no doubt successful".

Phyna's rewards include a N50m cash prize, a top-of-the-range sport utility vehicle (SUV) from Nigerian automaker, Innoson Motors, a trip to Dubai for two packaged by TravelBeta, and a year's supply of Pepsi, among other prizes totalling N100m.

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