“If there were no sugar babies in this world, destinies would not be fulfilled”, Small girl, big god on #ChudeExplains. 

Efe Lucky-Fiapa, Bolanle Oseni, Doyinsola David, Maris Aondoakaa, Frederick Okonji sit with Chude Jideonwo, on a special episode of #ChudeExplains: Small Girl, Big God – an episode on transactional sex, sex workers, sugar daddies and different sides to the discourse. #ChudeExplains is a special series that tackles and gives indepth insights on issues from criminal justice reform to Gen Z coming of age. 

Efe Lucky-Fiapa shares her thoughts on the debate on modern day feminism and the social construct.  Don’t wait for anybody. Make your money, so that nobody would use you for ‘shakara’. I don’t think I can date someone that does not have a job right now because the problem is from the men, their ego gets in the way. If I want to buy something, you will tell me to give you the money so that you will pay in public so that people won’t say that your girlfriend is paying in public. Everyone should have their money, but it is important that you take care of your woman. You can take care of your man; it is a vice versa kind of thing. My own view of feminism is not about who pays when you go on dates, my feminism is for people who fought for girls to go to school, people stopping child marriage – this is my own idea of feminism.  

Skincare Influencer and model, Frederick Okonji shared that “Small girl big God will be someone who does ‘runs’ but she doesn’t come out to say so. A sex worker is someone who provides a service, because sex is actually work. A sex worker is lower class while a runs girl is higher class. A sugar baby is totally different, as a sugar baby, sex can be part of the things you provide for the older partner, sometimes you might not be sexually involved, it might be just someone who is interested in you or who is just there for you emotionally. People have demonized being with someone who is older than you and is willing to provide for your needs.” 

“When it is more than one person, it is a personal morality thing. As a sugar baby, you don’t need several sugar daddies, if the man has sugar, he can take care of all your needs. They can also end up falling in love with each other. If there were no sugar babies in this world, destinies would not be fulfilled, house rent would not be paid, school fees will not be paid because some of these girls are breadwinners. I am not saying that women should be objectified but my point is that it is totally fine for you to have a need, and for me to want to take care of that need that you have, and you tell me you want to do the same, he added. 

Sexual Health personnel, Maris Aondoakaa, said, “Instead of calling, ‘small girl big god’, I feel like we just call influencers. Influencers are people who have someone by their side and lie that it is the ‘cream’ that they are selling or boutique they have that is bringing the money, and they will come and be pressuring us. I feel like you will see those who make their own money, but how can you buy two range rovers in one month, who are you influencing?” 

Chude Jideonwo shared why he started #ChudeExplains on his Instagram page. “Even though I don’t read the news and I’m not personally on social media, I am extremely curious about both. So, I always want to understand: who’s that? Why is that happening? What’s behind all of that? It’s that curiosity that has birthed #ChudeExplains. This sub brand waits until the trend has crystallised – whether it’s silly or it’s significant – and then tries to tie a zoom-out view of what it really means, and what it says about who we are.” 

Watch the excerpt here


“I don’t endorse sex for money”, Doyin shares on transactional sex, grief, and Big Brother Naija on #WithChude. 

Reality TV Star, Oyindamola ‘Doyin’ David sits with Chude Jideonwo, host of #WithChude on a recent episode of the show. On the show, she speaks about losing her father, and how it toughened her up, leaving the church and the controversy about transactional sex.   

Speaking on the month-long debate about the controversy of transactional sex, Doyin shared, “I am supporting every adult that have a right to decide of how they want to live their lives. I don’t think it is a bad thing. If the sugar daddy is married, then I think it is a bad thing because you are hurting someone else’s marriage. But if he is single, divorced, widower, who is slightly older and you have met him and he just happens to have more money and he is willing to take care of you, I don’t see anything wrong with it”.  

“We all have ways we express our love. If I have met a man and the way he wants to express his love to me is by sending me money and giving me gifts, I don’t think that is bad thing, if he is not married. I am not endorsing sex for money, because I wouldn’t have sex with someone just because of money alone. But I will have sex with someone who can take care of me financially and emotionally among other things. I think a lot of people are being hypocritical. Transactional sex is bad, but I don’t think that is what people have a problem with. I think what they have a problem with is a woman saying that financial stability is one of the things she requires to be with a man. But the thing is everyone has a right to their standards and what they want. I wouldn’t be with a broke man, because I am not a broke woman myself. If I say I want a man that has money, it is not because I am materialistic. It is because I want financial security”, she added. 

Doyin shared about losing her dad and navigating grief as a family. “I lost my dad before turning 12. My mum was working also, and she has a very good job. My dad was also doing well and there’s money in the house coming from both parents. But they were very busy. My mum was always in and out of Germany and my dad was always in and out of Abuja and Lagos. So, we were with nannies and at some point, my mum was like ‘you know what, I need to focus on my children. At least when they grow to an extent then I can stop.’ So, she quit her job. So, it was now daddy’s money. And daddy’s money was sufficient at the time till daddy was no longer available. My mum was a bit emotional about it. I didn’t blame her at the time. She wanted to keep up that same pace. She didn’t want us to feel the absence. She kept us in the same school with the ridiculous amount of school fees at the time. We will travel at the same rate that we did before. The money went down fast. I mean if it’s not coming in as much as it’s going out, it will come down at some point.”  

Speaking further on life after her dad’s death, she shared, “I had to give her a wake-up call. My dad used to say that none of his kids will school in Nigeria when he was alive. So, even though my dad had died, my mum wanted to fulfill that. So, my sister studied in a private university. When it was my turn, she wanted me to study medicine in Babcock. I was like, ‘Can you wake up? If you tell me to go and read medicine, what money will my younger brothers use to go to school’. I told her that I will go to the University of Lagos and be fine. She was reluctant at first, but that was it.” 

Doyin also shared her perception of the Big Brother Naija show. “BBN is both good and bad. Depending on the aspects you want to focus on, it comes with the good perks and the bad perks. It introduces you to more opportunities which gives you more exposure. More people know you and what you can do. And they offer you those opportunities. The bad side is the criticism and the scrutiny of your life. Everything you say is misinterpreted, and the pressure that comes with it. People expect that, since they have seen you on TV, you should come out rich, and you shouldn’t repeat outfits. Before I left Big Brother, I had just gotten a license to practice in the UK, and I got a job there. My mum was like, ‘I think you should try this (Big Brother); your work will always be there. You already have your license, no one can take that away from you, but this is like a once in a lifetime opportunity. Just take your chance and let’s see how it goes.” 

Watch the excerpt here 


“My parents thought I had I lost my mind, when I moved back to Nigeria”, Nadayar Enegesi sits #WithChude on Code Black. 

Founder of Eden Life and cofounder of Andela, Nadayar Enegesi sits with host of #WithChude, Chude Jideonwo on the first episode of the #WithChude special series- Code Black.

On the show, he shared about returning to Nigeria to start Andela and starting Eden Life on his path of finding his reason for existence. 

I moved to Lagos to start a company called Andela. I was living in Toronto at that time. I like to say that it is like a spiritual experience for me because I left Nigeria to study on May 21st Canada in 2007, and exactly 7 years later I was on a one-way flight back to Nigeria to start Andela. And I have lived in Lagos ever since.  

Speaking on the reason he took the big leap to move to Lagos, he said, I think everyone has a vision of what they want their world to look like. So, when an opportunity presents itself to make those things a reality, the only response is, ‘Why not’. By 2050, Africa is going to have 25% of the world’s population. That also means, that the number of talents we have is ridiculous. We could power the whole world with our talent, if we wanted to. Prior to that, my friends and I were working on an Edtech platform, Fora. We were going to host North American course content for Africans. We were doing that in Canada. Tech wasn’t really popping up in those times; the internet wasn’t that great. People were paying for online learning. People still do not pay for online learning, because at the end of the day, what they want is the real outcome. Then, we thought, ‘what if we could create direct outcomes? At that time, for every engineer in the US, there were 5 open software engineering jobs, and we had brilliant people. We decided that we were going to close that gap by training an army of software engineers here. And we had that realization, and we thought that if we could train more 100,000 software engineers the impact will be great 

My parents thought I had I lost my mind. For things that are a drastic change, but you really think that this is what you should be doing, the last place to go for advice is to friends and family. Because they will respond out of love and care, and all they can see is the downside. But only you really know the thing that is in your mind that needs to exist in the world”, he added. 

Nadayar shared on how Eden Life started, After I had the period where I was searching for my own reason for existence. At that same time, my sister (the only family I had in Lagos) decided she was relocating to the UK. Some of my friends and colleagues were also on the japa wave. What I decided was that I wanted Lagos to be a place people wanted to stay instead of wanting to leave. Andela had unlocked that resolve because it has shown me that it is possible to create some sort of access. It is possible to create access to the good life – that is what Eden Life is, like the garden of Eden. When I had that realization, I went to our team, I was like, ‘Guys, I really have to do this, because without this, I don’t think my life can function’. They were super supportive. In fact, our first backers at Eden life were the cofounders at Andela. 

Watch the excerpt here

 


“There were times I wanted to leave my marriage, but I stayed because of my wife,” ID Cabasa shares on #WithChude. 

Music Producer, Olumide Ogunade, popularly known as ID Cabasa sits Chude Jideonwo, host of #WithChude to discuss, his marriage, his relationship with 9ce and Toni Payne, and taking criticism 

Speaking about his marriage, he shared, I am definitely enjoying my marriage, but it is a scam if I tell you that it is perfect. There are a lot of times when I wake up and I just want to leave. But in all those curiosities and disbelief, I have enjoyed marriage because think I married a friend and someone that even when the chips are down, I realldon’t want to leave. The morning I was going to face this thing was the day realised that ‘I can’t leave this babe’ and I had a flashback. It was the day realised that if there is problem in marriage ‘it is see finish’. It was then I said, rather than creating a vision of the woman in front of me, why not create the woman I want to see in her’. That helps me to work more on helping her and helping me too. People will say they stay because of children but think I stayed because of my wife”. 

ID Cabasa also shared about the time he didn’t want to be in the spotlight. “I had opportunities. I was hiding because I didn’t want to be seen and I was losing moneyThere were endorsements that was coming, and I will say, ‘God forbid, I can’t do it because it is not Christian. There was stuff that was coming to me; People that I was supposed to enter into a room with and be bold to just get business done, and I was showing too much respect and they took advantage of me. This was why I told Olamide, 9ice and all of them – when they were startingthat they should never prostrate for me outside. I was losing business and respect. When my eyes got open, I was scarce again but this time to reach me you have to go through a particular process, I changed my location. I left Akoka, to create scarcity. Now I have fewer people I am dealing with, and I am doing way better. Unlike those days when everyone will enter the studio, ‘Baba come and help me. I go out of my way to help people; I went broke at some point trying to help the whole world. All those experiences, especially my failures, have shaped me.  

Speaking on the separation between 9ice and Toni Payne, and how it broke his heart, he said, I think that’s the way the devil works, he will isolate you. I think a lot of things happened that till date I can tell you 9ice cannot sit down and say, ‘this was what happened between Cabasa and I. Because if I was in the whole picture, what happened wouldn’t have happened. It’s one of the most painful episodes in all of this. Because Seun was 9ice and 9ice was Seun. Both of them were good together. By the way, both of them are still very fine now. Ah! They’re padis’ now. And thank God 9ice is married to a very beautiful soul again, and Seun is doing fine, and Zion too is doing very well. But that particular episode, I’ll give some insights today which probably I’ve never shared with anyone. When I heard that all of that stuff happened, I was angry, majorly with 9ice. Because I felt in my head that, ‘look, guy, you’re one of the luckiest that I see around here, this babe is your friend’. When they told me the things that happened, none of these things had the potential of even causing (the problem). It was not infidelity. Although, some mischief makers came up with the song, ‘Once bitten, twice shy. The day we were making that song, Seun was in the house with us. She was the one that made food for us. That song had nothing to do with Toni Payne. I was angry all of those times, I wanted to talk but my guys were like, Cabasa, it is none of your business”. 

Watch the excerpt here. 


“Becoming an Actor was the most fulfilling part of my life” Keppy Ekpenyong-Bassey sits #WithChude.

Actor and Producer, Keppy Ekpenyong-Bassey sits with Chude Jideonwo host of #WithChude to discuss his career in acting, and how his relationship with his parents formed the kind of father he is. 

“As a little boy, I wanted to be a soldier, a doctor (just like my father). When I became an actor, I realized that I have accomplished everything. I have been a doctor, soldier and everything. Becoming an actor has been a fulfilling part of my life. And because I find so much joy, I seem to be ever there. There are no regrets, even when there were down times, I am still up there because it is always what I wanted to do. Acting has taken me through real-time. Everything culminates in that career, everything we have ever done culminates when we are transitioning from one character to another.”  

Speaking further on how his career in acting kicked off, he shared, “Tade Ogidan and I were from the same hood. He has always been a big brother in my life. He just saw me and said, ‘come and play armed robber for me’. What polished me was acting in Ripple (Zeb’s Ejiro’s film). It ran for 5 years on the network from 1987. It ran at a time when NTA was the only TV on the continent of Africa. So, all over Africa, you had to watch us. We all became part and parcel of it because we all invested our life in our character, and we also sowed a lot into the production. That was Kenneth Okonkwo’s first acting experience, he came in as my co-pilot. The time he came in, he was shaking, but by the time we built him through, his first excitement was when Kenneth Nnebue called him to play the role he played on ‘Living in Bondage’. He was paid 500 naira for that role. On his way back from the east, he said everyone on the night bus recognized him on Ripples. He couldn’t believe the power of the media.” 

Keppy also shares on his time in theatre, “When I got into NTA for my youth service, I met Fred Amata, Dede Mabiaku, Patrick Oke, Olisa Adibua, RMD, quite the same kind of people. The misconception is that the theatre offers a kind of release from incubation. The training for most people helps them to be more comfortable with people. In being more comfortable, a lot of traditional postures were broken, you were not conscious or pretentious. Then we could dare to wear clothes that show parts of our body because they were costumes, and we were not the characters. But the audience didn’t know this, if they did, that conception wouldn’t have come up at all. We need to be able to help people redefine their perception”.  

Keppy also shared his relationship with his parents and how it influences him in life and parenting, “I remember my mum and dad in everything I do. They were and are still present in everything we do. In my formative years, we had a very cordial relationship. My father was someone who would scold you and cry as he’s spanking you; ‘why did you do that, you shouldn’t do this’ and then he was a military officer. We had guards at the gate and everything, and then when he spanks his kids, he’s the one crying, but we had that kind of interactive relationship. My mum was a rascal, everybody knew, even my friends knew till tomorrow. When I was in the University and she’ll come visit, she’ll come with bottles of brandy, rolls of cigarettes. She’ll sit down with us. Because I lived off campus, she’ll light a stick of cigarette and call everybody, ‘come let’s drink’. So, it was easy to speak with my parents, it was fun. On many of those occasions I have had discussions that have formed my life. Now I’m grown, I have children of my own and then we have some of their friends stay over and they think it’s easier to speak with us than their folks and I don’t understand how it works in other homes. Because with my kids, my son can walk up to me and pull my ears and say, ‘old man with your big ears’ and I wouldn’t think anything about it. But there are some people who see it and they cringe, and they are afraid because they can’t and wouldn’t dare relate with their folks that way. We also have come to find out that if you close doors of communication between you and your children, you’ll be really shocked at who you think your children are because they would hide behind those closed doors, and you don’t want to know when you get in. There is no book for parenting, you have to form your path as you go.  

Watch the excerpt here 


‘I could not further my education because of the issue my father had’, Ronke Oshodi-Oke shared on #WithChude

Nigerian Actor Ronke Ojo Anthony, popularly known as Ronke Oshodi-Oke, sits with Chude Jideonwo, host of #WithChude on a new episode of the show. On this episode, she speak about her acting journey, the role that got her the name Oshodi-Oke, breast enhancement surgery rumors, and all the weight she lost. 

Ronke shared about her passion for acting, “I have never regretted acting. It is my calling and I love it so much.  I am so passionate about it.  I didn’t know I was going to be an actor. My late father wanted me to be a newscaster or an air hostess. In the long run, I went to Fadeyi, and I saw the likes of Jide Kosoko, Baba Alaran, and others. They were so happy. I knew that they did not really have money, but I would see them gathered in one place laughing all the time. I liked to laugh a lot, so I approached one of them and I told them what I wanted to do. Before I went to acting, I used to work in Tincan Island. Then, my father had problems with Customs (where he used to work). Because I’m the firstborn of my family, I had to support my family, so I started working early. I grew up so early. I started working, I started doing some certain things and to God be the glory, here we are today. It wasn’t easy at all. There’s a Yoruba proverb that says, ‘Oshi o ni kan baba, ko kan Iya, ko ma dara omo” (a problem cannot affect the father, affect the mother and not affect the child). Being the firstborn of the family, you have to support your family, you have to support your siblings and stuff like that, so it wasn’t easy. (My father never came out of the issue) before he died. That was why I could not further my education”.  

Speaking on how she landed the role in the film that gave her the name, ‘Ronke Oshodi-oke’, she shared, “That beautiful day, I was at the National Theatre. We normally go to the National Theatre, so that people will see us. Producers come there to cast. I was there one day when my friend wanted to introduce me to Korede films. I met with him, and he said he wants to shoot a movie and I will be a sub-leader in the film. I said, ‘Okay’, I didn’t even know what he meant by sub lead, I just wanted to work. When I got to the set, I met Late Iyabo Yoyo, and we were working on it together. But at some point, she left the set. I think she had a fight with the producer. They will just tell me to go and come back. They were doing chroma, but I didn’t know what it was until the film came out. It was when the film came out, I knew that they changed the script. I was supposed to play the sub-lead while Aunty Iyabo was supposed to play the lead role. But when she left, they changed the script and rewrote the film to make me the lead. The entire film was shot at Oshodi-oke.”  

Ronke denied the rumors that she had breast reduction surgery, she shared that she was counselled to lose weight by her doctor in the United Kingdom. “I did a weight loss program but I’m not sick. I’m very strong and healthy. I went to the UK sometime; I have a doctor there. It was my doctor who said I should lose weight. I was 110 then, and he said I should lose weight to about 75. I was like ‘eleyi po ke’ (this is a lot). But he said I should try. Later, I was just doing my thing, but I started having some small small sickness, high blood pressure and stuff like that. So, I just said, ok, let me start doing this thing.” 

Watch the excerpt here


‘My wife encouraged me to start acting, after I lost my job’, Pete Edochie shares on #WithChude.

Nollywood legend, Pete Edochie, sits with the host of the viral TV show #WithChude, Chude Jideonwo, to discuss

Nollywood legend, Pete Edochie, sits with the host of the viral TV show #WithChude, Chude Jideonwo, to discuss Mary and Yul Edochie’s seperation, his thoughts on polygamy, how he got into acting and why he has given up on Nigerian politics.

Speaking about his traditional perspective on the dynamics of the roles of men and women, Pete Edochie shared, “When you get married, your wife drops her father’s name and assumes yours. You can’t have two people as captains in a ship. Women transform houses into homes, and if you don’t have a woman in the house, your house can never be a home. My wife is a lawyer. I have lived with this woman for the past 53 years, and nobody has ever come in here to say, ‘Pete, please stop beating her; you will kill her.’ No. I never saw my father beat my mother, so I cannot say I learned from my father how to beat Mama. I want to think on things that should help us progress, not influences that should drag us backward. Why are men wearing earrings? What was the inspiration behind that? Most of these influences come from outside the country, and they don’t help us. In our culture, a man does not kneel to offer a ring to a woman. Men and women are not equals; in the home, there has to be a leader. 

 “If you come to our industry today, most of our women who got married two to three years ago have all left their husbands from beginning to end. I am even shocked to hear that Chioma Chukwuka and Ireti Doyle have also left their husbands. You take a vow when you want to get married, ‘for better or for worse, not for better for us.’ You will always think it’s greener on the other side, but that’s the mistake that we all make. Try to find satisfaction with what you have within you; it goes a long way. If I didn’t have children, you could say, ‘aha, I don’t like youth,’ but what am I disliking youth for? If I tell you not to do this and you decide to do it, you can go ahead. I always like to engage in things that will provide me with inspiration, things I can defend. I have a great deal of love and respect for women. If I see any young man harming a woman, I just think that he doesn’t qualify to be a mature man. God has given women their voices; what makes you a mature person is your ability to handle what they tell you without resorting to violence,” he added. 

Pete Edochie also commented on the separation between his first son, Yul, and his wife. He said, “I really don’t interfere in his affairs. Suddenly, we heard that he had taken a second wife. I don’t lie, because it’s not necessary. God created me so well that if I tell you this thing is black, it is black. When he wanted to run for governor, and I saw his photograph, I thought it was from the production they were working on. It was somebody who called me and said, ‘Do you know Yul is running for governor?’ We just heard it, and that’s it. There’s something we say in Igbo, which means, ‘If you go and pick up ant-infested firewood, it’s a direct invitation for lizards to come roost.’ So, here I am, and that’s all.” 

Speaking further about his relationship with Mary Edochie, his son’s first wife, he said, “Mary is not just a daughter-in-law. I don’t want to say that I love Mary more than the other wives of my sons. But the love I have for Mary is so strong. Her father and I were very close. When we went for the traditional marriage rights in their place, the reception their people gave me is something I will never forget. Mary is a wonderful person, and she is very brilliant. To a large extent, the success of that home is credited to Mary. She is a wonderful woman, but many people have been advising her wrongly, trying to sunder the link between herself and her husband. Most of those women who are advising her that way don’t have good homes.” 

On his view of polygamy, he shared, “The people who take a second wife know best why they take second wives. I don’t have any need for a second wife. I have a wife who has given me five sons. What am I going to look for in a second wife? No, it’s not necessary. I will not condemn polygamy because people have their reasons for what they do.”

He also shared his experience of how he got into acting, spurred on by his wife’s encouragement. He recounted how he lost his broadcasting job due to religious differences and internal issues and how his wife suggested he pursue his interest in acting. “I told my wife my work was over. She hugged me, bought me a bottle of beer, and said, ‘Pete, you’ve always wanted to be an actor; the time has come.’ I was sitting there with her in the parlor when somebody from Lagos came to give me a check for fifty thousand to make a film. At that time, my salary as the director was 9000 naira per month.” 

Watch the excerpt, here.   


Asa Asika, Bizzle Osikoya, and Tobi Mohammed sit #WithChude for World Music Day. 

Asa Asika, Bizzle Osikoya, and Tobi Mohammed, the showrunners of The Plug, sit with Chude Jideonwo for a World Music Day special where they discussed the global interest in Nigerian music, pulling their companies together to form a strong force and how to be a star. 

On the merger and the reason for it which is against the trend the industry. Bizzle shared, “Asa and I did it first, and we’ve been doing business with Tobi from when we started. Plug and Block Party are age mate sort of. We have been working together, so it was a no brainer. In the industry where everyone is trying to do their own thing and be their own boss, let’s show people something different, let’s come together and form a force and that was how it is.”  

On why there was an era of a few labels and then splitters, Asa Asika, shared, “I feel that everyone is just trying to complete they don’t realize that we are actually stronger together. I used to tell people that there is a demand for afrobeat and Afro-culture right now, and where we are going to mess up is if we don’t come together to work as one.” 

Tobi Mohammed speaks to the trend of merging when businesses in the creative industry would only merge when there are not on top of their game and why theirs was different, and he shared how their business is built on a strong relationship, ‘We are brothers, because I feel that on the ladder of success as you start to grow, your circle becomes smaller, because you start to see people whose vision aligns with yours. I don’t think there was ever any naysaying. We find comfort in our strengths and weaknesses. When Asa and I started Plug in 2016, we just wanted to manage producers and Djs, we didn’t want to work with actual artiste.”  

On how they are able to make the partnership work, Asa shared, “we are three different people, and that is why we ‘work’. For example, we worked with Oxlade for like two to three years. Bizzle believed in Oxlade from day one. I am the person that is the hardest to convince. I told Bizzle to go and make the music, when the music is ready, send me a link.”  

“And that is how we do things, Bizzle is the guy who goes to the studio and makes the music, I will sit down and plan on how to make the person a superstar and Tobi ensures that business side of things is running. That why it works for us.”, he added. 

When asked if the spotlight on Afrobeat is short-lived, Asa shared, “there are 54 countries in Africa. How many countries are there in Europe? If nobody in the world cares about Afrobeats again, we’re fine. There are artistes in the US that are only popping in Texas. They don’t leave certain areas and they’re good. So, yes, it’s all nice. That I go to New York, and I see Olamide’s face in Times Square, I go to London tomorrow, Tiwa is selling out, it’s amazing but if it doesn’t happen, we are fine. At the end of the day, Latin America is big in America. What’s the second most spoken language in America? It’s Spanish. Yoruba is not top 10 languages there. The thing that helps us is that Africans are all over the world, Nigerians particularly are everywhere”. Bizzle Osikoya also shared, “Afrobeat can never die. The reason why I’d say it can never die is because we Nigerians don’t give up. We’re going to keep building and grinding so that those things don’t stop. So, what just needs to happen is that we just need to find a way to educate our industry because [failing to do this will] kill us.” 

They also shared that there is no rule book to success in the industry. “Contrary to public opinion, when David blew, we had no support. I always say it, for the Dami Duro video, I spent 100,000 naira. I gave one person at one TV station 100,000 naira because I could not leverage on relationships. Dami Duro video came out and there was like a strike for like petrol or something. I gave one person at one TV station 100,000 naira, Asa Asika shared. Bizzle also added that, “at the end of the day, stars just align. People don’t understand it. People just think sometimes it’s about money. Sometimes, money works, but sometimes too, your star can just align. Everything will just be in your favor, and it will work out for you. People don’t understand, all of you may come out at the same time but if God says, it’s not your time to blow, then it’s not.”  

On being successful Tobi Mohammed said, “Positioning is also very important. Brain work will always go farther than money. To create your own luck, you have to position yourself. For example, with Victony, the song that we did marketing for and paid a lot of money didn’t get the global attention that Soweto did.” 

Watch the excerpt here

 

 


President Olusegun Obasanjo sits with Chude Jideonwo on #WithChude for a Democracy Day Special.  

Introducing the special on his Instagram page, Chude said, “We talked about the legacy of this man whom some have called the father of modern Nigeria, and the most consequential Nigerian alive. I asked him what he wanted to be remembered for and how some milestones of his life have defined that legacy. I asked frank questions, and he gave me frank answers, about vying for third term in office, allegations of being corrupt, statements about him trying to cripple Lagos economy under the current president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, why he stood so firm behind the candidacy of Peter Obi, about the many letters he has written and why it remains impossible for anyone to ignore him”. 

“President Obasanjo didn’t flinch at any point, and I am honored that he invited me to his office, and we had what will be an interview for the books with me on #WithChude”, he added.  

The full interview is currently up on withchude.com, and it airs on the following TV stations: Channels TV, 1pm on Saturday, June 17, 2023; Wazobia Max, 5pm on Sunday, June 18, 2023; AIT, 7pm on Sunday, June 18, 2023, and Rave TV, 5pm on Wednesday June 21, 2023. 

Watch the excerpt here 


‘Acting has never been my sole earner’, Zainab Balogun shares on #WithChude.

Actress and Entrepreneur Zainab Balogun sits with Chude Jideonwo on #WithChude. In this episode, she talks about her career in acting, getting diagnosed and healing from endometriosis and keeping her life private.   

On the longevity of her career and how she has been able to stay top of the mind for over a decade in the entertainment industry, she shared, “Back then, I never felt like I was part of the cool kids because being cool was sort of determined by the economics – do you come from a rich family, are you known? I didn’t come from that background, so I felt sort of like ‘a bull in a China shop’, when I came in. There are times when I don’t appreciate what I have done. I have done a decade in the Nigerian industry, and it’s been 10 years of going against the grain in terms of the choices that I have made. I appreciate being able to have longevity but there are conversations we, as actors, do not have with each other. There were times when I felt like, ‘This isn’t working for me anymore, because the income and visibility were not aesthetic’. There were times we were booking talents based on popularity, which hurts me a bit when I think about my industry because talent should matter. But commercially, I get why people make the choices that they do. I don’t knock people who have fallen through the cracks because it is not easy. Luckily for me, acting has never been my sole earner, and I realized that early enough because for me it is always quality over quality for me. I shoot a couple of times a year. Because it is important for my heart and my soul to be fed with whatever I am doing, I will make sure that I have my business coming together or if it’s my content work, my influencer work, and brand partnerships. Those are the things that are keeping me fed on a daily basis. I don’t blame people who have to make tough decisions of whether they will succumb to the ways the industry or people want to be versus what I need.”   

Zainab also spoke about how she is deliberate about the part of her life that is out there, which would have presented her with an opportunity to build a brand around her lifestyle. “It was a deliberate choice because I am very conscious of the separation of power between the industry and myself, and when you dabble into all this without the consciousness of what the consequences are, it is quite problematic. There are people who do not have issues with talking about how they spent a hundred thousand dollars on an outfit they wore to the AMVCAs. I wouldn’t be that person because there isn’t a lot of truth in that. I have to be conscious of my audience and the people I am setting the pace for. It is a lie that nobody needs.”   

On her choice of keeping her marriage very private and off social media, she shared, “My personal life is very personal. It’s not out for public consumption. That’s not my work, that’s my life. So, I’m okay with giving you that which I’m okay with you criticizing or having an opinion on, but I’m quite traditional, so my personal life is not for public consumption nor the opinions of others.”  

She shared about her struggle with endometriosis and her decision to share it with the public. She mentioned that her decision to talk about it came from her observations on the lack of information about the disease. She highlighted how she believes that people watching her talk about her journey wouldn’t have to go through the same struggle to find help.  Zainab also spoke about the cultural side of people dealing with reproductive health problems and dealing with it in silence, because they are worried about how they will be perceived. On how she found out, she shared, “My periods were irregular for about 2 months. I think I had about 4 periods in 2 months and for me, that was abnormal because they’re relatively on schedule and extremely painful. And when I say painful, I often describe it like somebody taking a barbed wire with little sharp cuts and putting it in my stomach and just turning it. I would pass out, wouldn’t be able to go to work, or school. My hormones were all over the place and I was like ‘this doesn’t feel normal, so let’s go find out what’s going on’. I went for a test. They did an ultrasound and TBS and they discovered that I had two cysts. The thing with Endometriosis is, it’s quite hard to diagnose when you’re outside of the body. You kind of need to be looking in because you need to look up for the adhesions. I was scheduled for surgery to take care of the cysts because one of the cysts was torsion. It was twisted, meaning if it grows bigger or the weight bursts, then we’re in trouble”. After the doctors checked, she was diagnosed with stage 3 endometriosis. She also shared how the cyst disappeared when she was preparing to have her second surgery. “I had gone to do my scan before heading to the church and the doctor says to me, ‘oh yeah, everything is okay.’ He said something about ‘reabsorbed’. So, I was like, ‘okay what’s the size of the cyst now? He said, ‘I can’t see it’. I was like ‘I don’t understand’ And he said, ‘it’s not there anymore’. So, I took that as a sign, and I called off the surgery. I was like well, ‘if he has done it on the right, let him finish the work on the left-hand side.’ So, I just continued to be on my holistic journey and continued the test. Then I went to another clinic where the doctor was like that, he can’t really see the cyst but maybe if I wanted to do an MRI just to confirm because he was seeing something else completely. So, I had an MRI. Took it back to him and he read it and said, ‘yeah there’s nothing there.’ This was September. I was like I don’t understand what you’re saying. You’re saying the MRI is the best picture for looking for any kind of masses in the body and it is telling me that I have no cyst in my body. That was my miracle moment, that was my relief. It was wonderful”.  

Watch the excerpt here

 


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