When I first stumbled upon Love is Blind, I didn’t expect to love it. I was just intrigued by the concept of falling in love with someone without ever seeing them. While I do believe it’s possible, I couldn’t then wrap my head around the fact that it was only about two months, and they were expected to get married at the end of the experience. I had to see it to its end. Six seasons later, I am up to date and have watched several international adaptations, including the most recent one, Love is Blind: UK.
Love Is Blind is a reality television series on Netflix created by Chris Coelen and produced by Kinetic Content that premiered on February 13, 2020. The show promotes itself as a social experiment where single men and women look for love and get engaged, all before meeting in person. The series has gained a large viewership and received mostly positive reviews from critics. Love Is Blind has aired for six seasons and has been adapted to eight additional international versions: Love Is Blind: Brazil, Love Is Blind: Japan, Love Is Blind: Sweden, Love Is Blind: UK, Love Is Blind: Germany, Love Is Blind: Argentina, Love Is Blind: Mexico and Love Is Blind: Habibi. —Wikipedia.
When the third instalment of Love is Blind finally ended after three weeks, I shook my head. That season brought a lot of cringeworthy and awkward moments to watchers of the show. I have never been more shocked to see men boldly display their audacity. The season also had its first Nigerian cast member, Sikiru “Sk” Alagbada, who made waves in the news shortly after the show concluded airing.
In a not-so-shocking turn of events, it was revealed by several women on Tiktok that SK had been dating them whilst also dating his fiancé from the show. In true Yoruba demon fashion, SK claimed that these allegations were untrue, but if we’re being real, the evidence was pretty damning. The drama and chaos surrounding that season made me wonder what it would be like if there was a Nigerian version of the show.
Here are some issues you might encounter as a contestant on Love Is Blind: Nigeria;
1—Generational Curses
While generational curses are not strictly a Nigerian thing, I believe we are more spiritually inclined as a people. We tend to fight demons more often than your average foreigner. Imagine getting to know someone in the pods, hitting it off and actually getting engaged. Then, shortly after, you move into the next stage, which is living together and meeting each other’s families (as they do on the show.) And when you finally meet their family and friends, you start to hear rumours about how the first child your marriage may potentially bear is destined to die at six months old or how your spouse is set to run mad at the ripe age of 45 like his father did many years ago.
2—Scammers
Whenever fame and wealth are near, it is most likely that a scammer is lurking nearby. And he could come to you in the form of a contestant on Love is Blind: Nigeria. I can easily picture a man on the prowl for a naïve trust-fund baby, disguising himself as the perfect gentleman. Mind you, men already do this without real incentive, but a smart scammer trying to play the long game will be strategic. If he successfully traps you in a marriage, it will definitely come as a shock when all the trips he promised to take you on while you were dating, sight unseen in the pods, don’t happen. Additionally, the confusion when he starts buying property in his name with your money will be unmatched.
3—Colourism
The show’s American franchise definitely has undertones of race and colourism. The third season showed an odd dynamic filled with micro-aggressions between Zanab and Cole, which was caused by Cole, the white guy, not being used to dating non-white women. In Nigeria, I would expect colourism to be a more prevalent issue. The whole point of Love is Blind is to fall in love with people regardless of their appearance, but Nigerians are a set of particularly picky and judgemental people. We also have a lot of biases and prejudices, and sometimes, that reflects in our preferences for our partners’ appearance.
4—Tribalism
Following right behind colourism is tribalism. In an ideal world, the tribe you’re from shouldn’t even matter. However, these issues usually pose serious problems in reality. Sometimes, it’s as shallow as your spouse’s family wants them to marry from the same tribe they’re from and other times, it’s as deep as the customs attached to death when your spouse dies.
5—Secretly Married Men
Just like the scammers, secretly married men are another epidemic. The craziest part is that they act like their marriage is some sort of random occurrence in their lives. I see this being such an issue on a Nigerian version of LIB because Nigerian men are so good at hiding their wives. The post-season drama that started after the third season only proved that background searches only go so far, but that is not enough to hold a married man back.
