Former Big Brother Naija housemate Tochi Okechukwu has told ex-contestants having a hard time after the show to stop leaning on fame and go back to work.

The Lockdown season star said not everyone who walks out of the house is meant to build a life from that one appearance. In a post on Friday he told struggling former housemates to pack the “I am a celebrity” talk into a box and hustle, or they would cry harder than a newborn.

Tochi said he stopped seeing himself mainly as a reality-TV face in 2024 and now calls himself a businessman. Destiny differs, he wrote. Keep your head up and live your truth.

He also warned against friends who only remind you that you are a “celeb.” Surround yourself with people who push you, he said, so that when others look they see a hustler with values, not only an ex-housemate. Favour, he added, meets a person already in motion.

The advice lands in a familiar afterlife of BBNaija: a few alumni turn the house into brands, brand deals and long careers. Many more discover that votes and highlights do not pay rent once the season ends. Tochi’s point is blunt. The show is a platform. It is not a pension.