Adventure of a Lifetime

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

The idea first came to me sometime between December 2011 and January of 2012. I was at the time, a student of electrical/electronics engineering at the University of Benin.

The plan was to load up my phone with enough airtime and text multiple short-codes to a specially dedicated MTN number. But I was broke—still am:(—and needed support.

So I reached out to a couple of my friends and told them my idea and they told me to go for it while providing me with financial support. In January of 2012, I started my bombardment. I fired text after text and sure enough got questions which I responded to with ease. And that was it. No feedback whatsoever. It was a waste—or so I thought.

The months that followed would go on to define my life. Maybe one day I will get to talk about that in detail. In May of that year, I got a call. I think I was wagering with friends over a game of Whot when the phone rang. As soon as the person on the other end introduced herself, I quickly stepped away from the rowdy room I was in.

She told me she would ask a question and I would have 30 seconds to respond. No preparation whatsoever. After a brief pause I told her to shoot.

“When was the N1,000 note introduced in Nigeria?” She asked.

Remember, I had 30 seconds. I began to think hard and fast. I knew that the N500 note was introduced in 2001. The N1,000 note came after…but when?

With time running out I blurted, “2006”. She thanked me and told me that she would reach out to me again if I was successful.

After the call ended, I went straight to Google. On seeing that my answer was wrong, a feeling of disappointment overwhelmed me. I was off by a year. The N1,000 note was released on October 12, 2005.

I don't know if I resumed playing Whot after that episode. Knowing myself, I probably wouldn't have been in the mood anymore for ‘pick two’. I was a good player—but so were the others. In that state I was almost surely going to lose money as my frame of mind was unsettled.

I would later move on from it. It therefore came as a wonderful surprise a few days later when another call came in from the same lady.

“Congratulations, I'm happy to inform you that you've been selected to take part in the game show. Can you make it down to Lagos by this date? Your transport to and fro will be covered. Let me know if this date works, if not we can reschedule.”

There was nothing to ruminate about on my end. The answer was an emphatic ‘Yes!’

She then proceeded to provide me with some advice. I would need to come dressed in a dark-coloured outfit, I would also need to provide contact details of at least four of my friends who must be available to pick up the call should the moment arrive.

Ladies and gentlemen, thus began my journey towards the hot seat on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

My friends were happy for me. I had had a very rough year up till that point; a life-saving appendectomy followed by missed 400L first semester examinations meant that my academic year was derailed. The news came as a ray of hope in a time of despondency.

I was to arrive somewhere in Ikeja where I got to meet with other contestants. Outwardly I wished them luck but in truth I didn't. Because their good fortune likely meant that I would be unlucky. It was time to get a much needed win for myself. As Nigerians say in pidgin English, all man for himself, God for all.

We were transported from Ikeja to a luxurious hotel in Lekki. I still vividly recall the journey. Omawumi's ‘If you ask me’ was playing on the stereo. It was my first time hearing the song which I couldn't help but vibe along to. I still have it on my playlist till this day.

The next day we headed for Ultima Studios. It must have been around 11AM or so when we arrived. For about an hour we were trained on how to use the computers as well as tips on using lifelines.

For example, the instructor advised that if one was going to use the ‘ask the audience’ lifeline, one should not give away one’s preferred option even when pressed by the vivacious host, Frank Edoho. The logic being that the audience tends to confirm your bias, especially for questions that are quite tough.

Thus, if you already have an option B in mind and you reveal it, and then go on to ask the audience to vote for the most likely answer, best be certain that the majority will vote option B.

Other things were said, some I don't recall now. But I was raring to go. Sometime around noon, Frank Edoho arrived.

Now viewers at home got to see the show at night, but it was recorded during the day in a very dark studio. We were to keep this in mind to avoid the awkwardness of saying ‘Good afternoon Frank’ on live TV.

There were three groups of contestants and I was placed in the last group. Eight contestants per group but only two or three ever got to make it, depending on how long the previous contestant spent.

There were no time limits in principle which is why you never heard Frank hurry a contestant. It all added to the suspense of the show which was what made it a hit.

By the time it got to my set it was evening already. My mum was in the audience but placed beyond sight, perhaps to avoid a repetition of the infamous Charles Ingram scandal.

On to the fastest fingers. The question that popped up on the screen was about measurements. We were asked to arrange units from smallest to largest. As I was trying to get my answer in time, I made a mistake and entered the wrong unit. In the split second when I realised my mistake, I let out a hiss.

I don’t think I bothered to send my answer to the server as it was pointless. I was too slow. Someone else got it right and got on the hot seat.

Time seemed to go by slowly but eventually the contestant left the seat after winning a decent sum though clearly far from their expectation. Then it was another round of fastest fingers and the last for the day.

It was now or never. I did not leave the University of Benin to become an also-ran. I had to get on that seat. The next question was on a proverb I had never heard before:

“Arrange the words of this popular saying in order”, Frank’s voice reverberated.

“A. in haste B. leisure C. marry D. repent at”

I had no time to waste. CADB, send.

At somewhere between six and seven seconds, I was the fastest, booya!

I unfortunately cannot find a link to the episode on the internet but if you had seen me on TV, I was pumped! As if struck by lightning, I rose from my seat, fists clenched, walked up to Frank while screaming YES!

Mainga Bhima / Daily Mail

It was a sonic boom that came with such force, the bandage from my surgery fell off my abdomen. I felt no pain in that instant, just the ineffable ecstasy of a boy who had struck gold.

I got on the seat, surrounded by a spectrum of light. For the first time in my life, I was the cynosure.

We got around to small chatter, introducing myself and my mum. Frank asked me the usual questions. What my target was, what I planned to do with the money if I won and so on. I couldn’t wait. I wanted the show to begin!

Question one was a breeze, all the way through to the first guaranteed level at question five. There was a break and Frank used that opportunity to lighten the mood. He asked me if I had seen the movie Immortals which was released the previous year—I had. We got talking about it and it was relieving.

For a moment I forgot I was on the hot seat. It is beyond doubt that Frank was the best host on Nigerian TV at the time. A master in the art of suspense, both at alleviating and escalating it.

The next questions that followed were at an elevated degree of difficulty. One of the questions was on the nationality of Sean Connery. When I saw it, I smiled. I had read about it in the papers when I was much younger and I knew he was Scottish.

When I delivered the answer without batting an eyelid, the crowd sensed that I was on to something. I felt like the Slumdog Millionaire, they felt like I was the next Aroma Ufodike.

I breezed through the remaining questions up till the next guaranteed level at N250,000. I was not too far off my two million naira target and most importantly, my three lifelines were intact.

Then question 11 came and I began to unravel. I had a simple tactic at the time, which in retrospect wasn’t much of a tactic. When a question appeared on my screen, my mind instantly picked an answer. Ten times in ten my first choice was the right choice. Surely I had to stick with this plan.

“Question 11 for N500,000”, Frank bellowed. “Before 1959, which institution issued Nigeria its currency”?

There were four options. I only recall two of them. One was the West African Currency Board and the other was the Bank of England.

The celebrated English poet Alexander Pope in a timeless poem once said, “A little learning is a dangerous thing”. This sadly proved true for me.

I knew that the Central Bank of Nigeria was formed in 1958. I also knew that prior to its formation, Nigeria used the British Pound. Who better to issue the British Pound than, well, the Bank of England?

So of course, the first answer in my head was the Bank of England. Frank—noticing my hesitation after having blitzed through the first ten questions—asked me what option I had in mind. I completely forgot the instructor’s warning: if you are going to ask the audience for help, do not intimate them with your answer.

I told him. He encouraged me to try a lifeline. I had nothing to lose really. I was in a safe spot, win or lose N250,000 was certain.

I used the 50:50 lifeline. The computer left the two options listed above, one of which already contained the answer I had blurted out. The computer was ‘clearly’ on my side. 1-0.

Still, I had two lifelines. So I phoned a friend. I had four friends on standby. A group of friends were on the ground, one of whom was studying banking and finance at the time, which led me to think they would be helpful. I had another friend who studied business administration but I felt he might not have the scope for the answer.

Frank rang the former and someone picked. I had 30 seconds and didn’t want to waste precious time so I had Frank read out the question with the two options. Sure enough, they confirmed my bias. The Bank of England was winning 2-0.

Just to cover my bases, I used the last lifeline, I asked the audience. They voted somewhere along 55:45 in favour of the Bank of England. A convincing win. 3-0.

Right before Frank asked me if that was my final answer, I muttered ‘Murphy’s Law’ to him. The law takes many variants but the generality of it is that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Then I locked my answer in.

The rest as they say is history. The correct answer was the West African Currency Board. I had never heard of it before but as you can be sure, I will never forget it either.

Subconsciously that may have been the fillip to pursue a degree in economics. For months after I would wonder to myself, “What was question 12”? The answer to that I will never know.

The crowd cheered me up but I was down. I did not believe my misfortune, that I could squander all my lifelines on one question and still come up short. To add salt to injury, I would later find out that the other friend who studied business administration actually knew the answer to the question. But life happens as I have now come to accept.

I was at the studio in May, but the show did not air till sometime in October. I was interning in Ikeja at the time. The Monday after the show aired, I was on my way to the office, dressed fortuitously in the same shirt I donned on the show some months back.

I got a lot of stares, people even walked up to me to ask, “That was you on the TV yesterday yes”? Well, it wasn’t quite yesterday but I had no range for explaining so I just nodded. I got lots of applause from the office too.

Sadly, the show ended in 2017. I miss it, alongside Zain's Africa Challenge that pitted undergraduate students from African universities against each other in a battle of intellectual supremacy.

Although I didn’t turn out to be a millionaire (which might have been a different story had I invested all my winnings in bitcoin), I still look back on my 45 minutes of fame with a sense of longing and its accompanying nostalgia which altogether made for an unforgettable adventure of a lifetime.