*As winners emerge at The Jungle Search 4, Epic Film Edition

By Moses Nosike

Twins Concept, an organisation dedicated to empowering young Nigerians has said 10,000 youths have so far benefitted from its youth programme. This was disclosed at the unveiling of the winners of The Jungle Search 4 Epic Film Edition sponsored by the organisation.

According to the organisation the passion to promote youth talents and promote economy growth was behind everything we are doing.

Winner, of The Jungle Search 4, Epic Film Edition, Genevieve Duru, speaking to journalists at the prize presentation held in Lagos said, she saw the advert on social media and applied for it. Later she was contacted by the organisers that she had been selected to contest.

“I’m an entrepreneur, skin therapist, I produce my skincare products”, she said.

When asked about her experience during the competition, Duru said, “this is my first experience in contesting in reality show. My experience was one of a kind. Just like the name implies, Jungle Search, it was a combination of everything. We were in the jungle, living by ourselves, learning how to survive during hard times. That experience had equipped me to the extent that if there is war now, I can survive. We were 46 contestants, and contesting among 45 young, strong and talented, willed and focused Nigerians was challenging to me. At a point, I wanted to give up but something in me kept pushing, and now the rest is history”.

Continuing, she said, “eviction period was a time of tension. You wake up each day, you never knew whether it is the day you will leave the jungle. You just have to be strong and focused believing that your fans, friends and your family members are there for you pushing for you to get to the next level”.

On what stood her out to carry the day as a winner, she said, “humility, tolerant, charisma and teachings I got from the general in the jungle. He is a father to us. If you can’t pick anything from his teaching, you can’t learn from anywhere else. That made me stronger and stood me out because I applied his teaching. Again, I learnt not to give up, but to persevere and always remain truthful. I went there, I saw and I conquered. I encourage my friends and fans not to be discouraged, they should go for what they want. I won N5m worth of deals, out of which I have been given N700,000.00 while the other deals are on the form which I signed”.

1st Runner Up, Uchechukwu Ezekiel Obi aka Easy Boy, from Enugu state, is a Cinematographer, Editor who works in a club where he does cinematography.

In a chat with media men, he said, “This is my first time of participating in this kind of youth empowering programme. I saw the advert on Instagram, applied and was selected. We were 46 that went for the jungle search to win, one person must become a winner and I became the 1st Runner-Up.

Narrating his experience, he said, “The experience is huge. First, I started by observing some of my fellow contestants, knowing that in a competition like this you must be very careful before choosing those you will work with. It was not easy being my first time. We had mosquito bites, sometimes we went to a river to take our bath. We also had the experience of using bamboo to prepare basket and other tasks”. According to him, “One major thing I experienced was ‘creativity has a voice’. Sometimes you will be given a task to come up with a story, cast, rehearse and present it. As a theatre stage person who had performed at theatre stage, it was not too difficult. With such task, we were able to come up with a story within that stipulated time and created admiring story.

Within myself, I said if we can do this, that means creativity speaks to people but sometimes we are not listening to it. It has a voice and action and those actions come when you listen to the voice of creativity. For instance, there was a time we were given phones to shoot a film which I had never done before. I asked myself, how can we do this? But we summed up courage and started, and finished it. I was surprised we could do it. This is a task that with camera it is difficult and sometimes it could take camera men two days to finish. I also discovered that ones you are determined to achieve something, you can do it”.