Every other week, a new Nigerian celebrity steps out with a fuller figure. Soon after, they present themselves as a “gym baddie”, implying that they built the body in the gym. But now and then, someone actually tells the truth, and Queen Asoka bared it all recently.
‘I Did A BBL’
Reality TV star and aspiring model Queen Asoka sat down with Chude Jideonwo and dropped one of the most honest BBL confessions we’ve heard in a long time.
She didn’t just get the procedure on a whim; she had a dream of becoming a commercial and fashion model and felt she didn’t quite have the height or the body type the industry demanded, so she decided to give herself what she called a “selling point”, especially as she had her eyes set on a modelling career abroad. 
“I lacked the qualities to be a model, so I got my BBL done because I needed it to stand out,” she told Chude plainly.
But then it went wrong.
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“My BBL Started Smelling”
Credit: Favebook/Elora’s Blog
After the surgery, Queen suffered fat necrosis. According to her account, she locked herself in her room, barely eating, until her sister forced her door open on the second day and immediately noticed a foul smell and leakage from the surgery site.
That was how her parents found out.
When surgeons perform a BBL, they take fat from one part of your body (usually your stomach or thighs) and inject it into your bum. The injected fat then needs to build a new blood supply in its new location to survive.
When that blood supply gets disrupted, large areas of fat cells die off, and that’s fat necrosis.
Most of the time, the dying fat cells form scar tissue and turn into firm lumps under the skin. Other times, they degenerate and release their contents, forming soft, oily lumps called oil cysts.
It can make the skin change colour or texture and may result in dimpling. Areas of necrosis may feel like oily lumps, or they may feel hard.
In Queen Asoka’s case, the complication was severe enough to cause visible leakage and a smell that her family noticed before she could hide it.
Queen Asoka is not the first Nigerian celebrity to come clean about going under the knife. Here are the others who kept it real:
Nigerian Celebrities Who’ve Done BBL
1. Toke Makinwa
Toke was one of the first Nigerian women to openly admit to body enhancement. She confirmed the procedure during a Q&A on her vlog Toke Moments, saying she got her body enhanced after a fibroid removal because she simply wanted to feel better in her clothes.
Just recently, in a now-deleted post on her Snapchat page, she shared photos of her backside and wrote:
“Can’t believe I actually loved having a big bum. Over it ”.
2. Mercy Eke
Nigeria’s first female BBNaija winner publicly acknowledged getting a BBL and was candid about what pushed her to do it. She cited societal pressure and the wave of body enhancement trending among women in her space at the time. She also admitted that the recovery was painful.
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3. Khloe (Victoria Abiri)
Khloe initially denied having any work done until a video of her liposuction procedure surfaced online. Many say she has the most perfect BBL in the Nigerian entertainment industry.
4. Tonto Dikeh
Tonto has never been shy about her body transformation journey. She has openly discussed undergoing multiple cosmetic procedures, including a BBL, framing it as a personal choice she made for herself.
5. Blessing CEO
Blessing Okoro didn’t just admit to her BBL; she documented the entire journey on social media, sharing videos and photos throughout, and made it her whole brand at the time.
6. Uche Ogbodo
Uche Ogbodo shared that her decision wasn’t about outside pressure; it was personal. She wanted to reclaim her confidence after having children and was open about the process, even posting recovery content on Instagram. She called it challenging but said it was worth it for how she felt afterwards.
7. BamBam
BamBam made a whole documentary about her BBL procedure. The former BBNaija star shared a series on what she called “the darker side of plastic surgery”, posting a video of herself in the surgical room and being candid about the vomiting, the pain, and the healing phase that nobody on social media ever talks about.
Her reason was one many women relate to. Pregnancy had taken her body from a dress size 8 to a size 16, and she wanted her confidence back.
1 in 3,000 People Die From a BBL
According to a survey of 4,843 plastic surgeons worldwide, conducted by the Aesthetic Surgery Education and Research Foundation, the BBL death rate falls between 1 in 2,351 and 1 in 6,214 cases. One in 3,000 is the most widely accepted average.
For the “why it’s deadly” explanation, Boston-based plastic surgeon Dr Daniel Del Vecchio, who has personally studied BBL autopsies, put it plainly:
“The gluteal veins are very big and very thin and only one branch away from the vena cava, the major vein in the body running from the pelvis to the heart.
If a surgeon nicks one of these gluteal veins, it’ll act like a syphon, sucking in fat around it and sending it straight to the heart and lungs. Death, in many cases, follows within minutes.”
The pressure to look a certain way on social media is very real, and it’s pushing people into operating theatres without always fully understanding what they’re signing up for.
If you’re thinking about it, do your research and find a qualified surgeon.
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