VOL VO OL 1 NO.15 NO O.1 .15 5 • MA M MAYY 23 3–M MAY AYY 2 29, 9, 2 9, 2021 02 21
THERE IS ONLY ONE FESTUS KEYAMO!
Downtown Exclusive
VOL 1 NO.15 • MAY 23 – MAY 29, 2021
FASHION
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VOL 1 NO.15 • MAY 23 – MAY 29, 2021
EDITOR’S NOTE
Photo: @HairByUgo
CONTENTS
love it when things come together, much I(more like this unintentional all-men’s issue on that shortly), sometimes you
8-11
COVER STORY:
Downtown Exclusive
THERE IS ONLY ONE FESTUS KEYAMO!
have to let things play out for themselves. However, there are times when you have to question everything because real life is often a product of small intentional actions that lead to the big game. This week’s cover story is a DOWNTOWN exclusive interview with the Honorable Minister of State for Labour and Employment, the inimitable Festus Keyamo (SAN) who takes us on a journey of his actions that have led him to where he is now. His impressive career trajectory and track record from the human rights activism space to a federal appointment has been nothing short of meteoric but not without some colourful situations. Keyamo’s current position within President Buhari’s cabinet has opened a litany of criticism which he not only welcomes but encourages considering the kind of adversity he has experienced and endured in his journey. Like him or hate him, you cannot ignore him and proof of his presence is in the reading of this passionate and powerful exchange. The rest of this testosterone-driven issue is a treasure trove for the modern man with a cheeky article on how society judges you by what you drive and a fresh take on the Gemini male. City boy rappers Teeto and Raeslick let us know how hip hop music in Nigeria is doing these days and there’s a review worth checking out from one of Lagos’ newest spots! As usual, have a great read, and you’ll see us next week! Latasha Ngwube @latashalagos
D O W N TO W N H OT S POT
Review: The Ox Restaurant T H E R E V I EW:
Mortal Kombat
D O W N TO W N ZO D I AC A Tale Of The Gemini L I V I NG What These Cars Say About You (Men’s Edition)
AUSTYN OGANNAH
PUBLISHER/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Editor: Latasha Ngwube Editor-at-Large: Chalya Shagaya Beauty Editor: Onah Nwachukwu @onahgram Contributing Editor: Odun Ogunbiyi @oddbodandthecity Senior Writer: Chisom Njoku @inchisomwetrust Contributing Writer: Boluwatife Adesina @bolugram Uzo Orimalade @uzosfoodlabs House Photographer: Rachel Seidu @rachelseidu Graphics/Layout: Olatunji Samson Digital Media: Oladimeji Balogun Interns: Kehinde Fagbule, Tilewa Kazeem Guest Art Director: Sunny Hughes ‘ SunZA’ www.thewilldowntown.com thewilldowntown thewilldowntown
W E B S I G H T S D O W N TOW N
“D” is for Donnybrook Dangote & Dr Anu
T H E S C E N E D O W N TO W N
Ashluxury Unveils New Avant - Garde Space T H E S C E N E D O W N TO W N
The Orient of Africa by LovefromJulez
S Ó R Ó S O K E D O W N TO WN
Teeto & Rae Slick
04-05 06 07 12 13 14 15 16 PAGE 3
VOL 1 NO.15 • MAY 23 – MAY 29, 2021
DOWNTOWN HOTSPOT BY TILEWA KAZEEM
Review:
The Ox Restaurant V
ictoria Island is home to a plethora of restaurant chains that focus on fine dining, in a hushed and serene environment. A ton of these establishments have a lot to prove considering that they are proposing an international and luxurious approach to the basic meaning of eating out in Nigeria. An example of this is the Ox Restaurant and Grill. I had the opportunity to see first hand how this fast-rising business venture is thriving in Nigeria with my colleagues, and the reactions are muddled. The only thing a majority of us agreed on was how slow the service was. Pulling up into the parking lot through one of the two main gates, I was particularly satisfied with the impressive decor. The added attention to the Ox theme of the eatery was a nice touch. Situated at my table, I was wonderstruck at the scenery and wonderful ambience. The hanging lights, wooden touch and an outdoor area separated by a clear glass helped the overall lighting of the spacious atrium. The huge mural painted on the wall and the ceiling of the DJ booth was a fantastically pleasant touch. I started with the African Platter as an appetiser and a main course of Spaghetti Bolognese paired with two glasses of Chapman- ordered at different times. The taste of the first meal has eluded my tastebuds right now because I was just happy to have finally gotten my food after aeons! As for the latter meal, it wasn’t a good first experience but that was me not just liking the food as opposed to it not being properly prepared. I’d like to think that having waiters that cater to the needs of customers should be as important as the service rendered but for the Ox restaurant, it was the other way around. Lack of staff coordination and sluggish service dampened what was to be a fun afternoon celebrating our editors birthday- which is surprising considering that they have a lot of staff and the restaurant was not close to half capacity. Here are a few thoughts of my colleagues on their time at the restaurant.
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VOL 1 NO.15 • MAY 23 – MAY 29, 2021
DOWNTOWN HOTSPOT
Kehinde Fagbule
Latasha Ngwube
Boluwatife Adesina
Editor Decor: The decor was on point. Loads of Instagram worthy picture spots with a cool colour palette that I found very pleasing Food: I ordered my favourite cocktailMojito. It was terrible. The colour was wrong, the taste was wrong, one sip and I sent it back never to be ordered again because there’s no fix to that fundamentally flawed drink. My order of the seafood salad & fish & chips took so long to arrive that I had small bites of everyone’s food out of hunger. Incidentally I made the booking and was sure to inform them that it was my birthday lunch and we would be a party of 12 to which I was told there was a minimum spend of 25k per head. I laughed out loud in igbo. I was peeved to get to the end of our meal and not receive (the typically complimentary) birthday dessert one experiences at most upmarket places like this, especially after the money we had spent. By the way, I took my food home and it was just okay. Nothing special. Service: Service was ridiculously slow. After the fiasco of a Mojito, I respectfully asked for a glass of house white which took almost 30 minutes to arrive! I guess those wine presses in the back were working overtime.
Onah Nwachukwu Beauty Editor Decor: The decor was pretty basic. I hated the mural - it could have been painted better. Food: For a starter, I had the African Platter(I think that’s what it was called), the snail was soft, succulent and delicious, as was the gizzard. The suya needed a little bit more of the suya spice but it was ok. My main course was Prawn Linguine. The food took forever and a day to arrive, but when it eventually did, it was worth the wait. The Lagos Cosmopolitan I ordered ended up tasting like syrup; it was downright awful, then I ordered a Strawberry Daiquiri (shaken, I don’t like my Daiquiri frozen), thankfully that was nicely mixed. Service: Although the waiters were very polite, they didn’t seem to understand the essence of waiting on a table. I was constantly telling him what to do- bring the food menu, go to each person and ask what they want, simple things like that. They have a thing or two to learn about the art of hospitality.
Contributing Writer Decor: I thought it was great. The lighting and general aesthetic was cool. There was clearly a conscious effort to model the decor of the restaurant after an Ox. The main colours of the main atrium are deep brown and gold, the lighting fixtures are shaped like an Ox head, and I was a big big fan of the artwork on the walls.
Intern
Efua Oyofo
Decor: It was just there to be honest.
Contributing Writer
Food: The food I didn’t like obviously. Maybe it’s my taste buds but the food was a no for me Service: Poor
Food: Good appetizers. I didn’t have all, but I enjoyed those that I did have. Some of the dishes seemed great, but mine - a Prawn Pasta dish - could have done with some love.
Outside looked superb as well. There’s a sheen to almost everything in the restaurant, which is to be expected as a new restaurant.
I’ll give it another chance, though. Drinks were fine. They accommodated my requests for a specific type of cocktail.
Food: No complaints about the food. I ordered the Penne Risotto with Bacon. The pasta was creamy and delicious. I had a glass of Baileys, then a Strawberry Daiquiri. Both were quite good, if not strong enough. Service: I ordered and was served within 20 minutes. I understand I was lucky as the rest of the party I came with didn’t receive their orders until nearly an hour later. But on my part, I was pleasantly satisfied with the service.
Decor: Decor was interesting. The outside was a cheerful red brick colour that should weather well over time. If you’re into that Instagram aesthetic then this might be a place for that. I didn’t understand the alfresco style mural they had watching over us. I thought they could have gone in a different direction with that.
Uzo Orimalade Contributing Writer Decor: Really nice decor and ambiance. Food: Food was good and the drinks were really good. Service: Service was a little slow but the waiters were attentive.
Service: Point of entry procedure was a bit awkward. They make everyone stand outside the main restaurant, waiting to be let in. That energy could be better applied. It took an hour to receive my drink. They did initially forget my order. We seemed to be at the table they kept overlooking.
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VOL 1 NO.15 • MAY 23 – MAY 29, 2021
FASHION Movie Review:
Mortal Kombat
BY BOLUWATIFE ADESINA
M
ovie adaptations of video games have a tenacious reputation for disappointing both gamers and movie-goers alike, so much so that the genre is dogged by the idea of the “video game curse”.
Director: Simon McQuoid Screenplay: Greg Russo and Dave Callaham, story by Oren Uziel and Greg Russo, based on the video game created by Ed Boon and John Tobias Cinematography: Germain McMicking Music: Benjamin Wallfisch Main Cast: Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Tadanobu Asano, Mehcad Brooks, Ludi Lin, Chin Han, Joe Taslim, Hiroyuki Sanada
Since the iconic game’s release in 1992 and its evolution in various instalments over the years, Mortal Kombat has retained its simple premise – two characters duel on a two-dimensional stage against a range of exotic backdrops. Counter-intuitively, it’s this lack of narrative complexity that makes adaptation to the silver screen so challenging. Fans of the game demand loyalty to the source material. Movie-goers looking for a solid martial arts film expect a little more storytelling – narrative depth and character development as well as great action sequences and fight choreography. It’s a difficult line to tread. The original 1995 film version of Mortal Kombat stands out as being one of the better examples of this genre (while the mediocrity of the 1997 sequel Mortal Kombat: Annihilation has achieved legendary status). Directed by Simon McQuoid in his feature film debut, with the screenplay written by Greg Russo, this movie is a reboot rather than a continuation of the earlier Mortal Kombat movies. The synopsis is quite straightforward: Lewis Tan plays Cole Young, a MMA fighter rescued by Jax (Mehcad Brooks), a virtuous warrior who protects him from an attack by Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim), a mystical assassin sent to kill him. Cole is informed he is destined to be part of a team that will represent Earth in an interstellar competition known as Mortal Kombat — and that he must gather the other team members, including Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee). If they are defeated in Mortal Kombat, Earth will be invaded by the denizens of Outworld, led by the malicious sorcerer Shang Tsung (Chin Han). For those who love the video game, which consists of two combatants duking it out to the death, this new Mortal Kombat features the familiar catchphrases and popular characters. (However, novices will be puzzled why certain seemingly unimportant lines, such as “flawless victory”, are spoken with such gravitas.) But unlike the 1995 Mortal Kombat and its sequel, the reboot isn’t worried about catering to the widest audience possible, instead amplifying the bloodshed and vulgarity to earn a more restrictive rating. This edgier approach is reflected early on in the new film: during a fight scene in 17th-century Japan, the body count is high as blood spurts across the screen. The action sequences, edited by Dan Lebental and Scott Gray, are relatively compelling, with McQuoid emphasising their visceral brutality without sacrificing visual coherence. Especially after the tame battles of the 1990s films, it can be fun to experience a Mortal Kombat that is as unapologetically gruesome as the game. But any attempt to make these characters more nuanced or realistic is a losing proposition. To be fair, Tan and his co-stars stay away from the knowing cheesiness exhibited by the actors in the previous pictures, but even so, there’s not much that can be done with the generic heroes they were given to work with. Greg Russo and Dave Callaham’s screenplay tells a very predictable story of a humble everyman who is actually the Chosen One meant to save the universe, but Cole is so ordinary that his saga never feels very special. Of course, Mortal Kombat was never about its story — the violence is the main attraction — and the fight choreography is several steps up from the earlier films. In addition, the effects are more impressive, particularly the rendering of the CG creation Goro, a four-armed beast who wants to destroy the Kombat-ants but it’s nearly impossible to care about what transpires. Among the supporting cast, Josh Lawson is briefly entertaining as the wisecracking mercenary Kano, although his effectiveness as comic relief is hampered by a screenplay with an adolescent sense of humour. What’s worse, Kano’s clunky one-liners are juxtaposed with the overly solemn proclamations made elsewhere. As the wise elder Lord Raiden, who looks after the Earthlings, Tadanobu Asano must utter pseudo-profound dialogue with severe sincerity. If the 1990s films were too goofy and lightweight, the reboot’s stab at dramatic grandeur robs the proceedings of some of the giddy mindlessness that made the video game such a guilty pleasure. Even Benjamin Wallfisch’s self-important score strains for an epic sweep that McQuoid never comes close to achieving. The more serious this new Mortal Kombat tries to be, the sillier it seems. Score: 6/10
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VOL 1 NO.15 • MAY 23 – MAY 29, 2021
DOWNTOWN ZODIAC
A Tale Of
The Gemini MAY 21 - JUNE 20 ELEMENT: AIR COLOUR: YELLOW
BY TILEWA KAZEEM
S
Denrele Edun: The Unconventional Gemini Finding out this long-haired entertainment maverick was a Gemini helped me wrap my head around what it meant to belong to this air sign. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying all Geminis are as flamboyant and colourful as Denrele is but I’d like to think that one must have these properties and then some to be successful and stand out in the entertainment industry, in Nigeria and the world at large.
ymbolized by the celestial twins, there’s a belief that Geminis have dual personalities or are perceived as two-faced. Well, I am going to put the record straight by saying they have at least more than two identities. It’s not them being shady or crooked, they just have a very flexible mind that requires them to show different sides of themselves when they are with different people, which is why they make awesome friends. This air sign doesn’t shy away from intelligent conversations rather they bask in it. Their versatility, intelligence and wicked sense of humour will get them into any room. Boring? That’s not a Gemini. Buzzing with energy and excitement, this Zodiac is constantly juggling between an assortment of passions, careers, hobbies and social circles and is never afraid to take that daring dive into something new. Their ability to think on their feet and having a unique and creative idea is a bonus. Geminis love to be independent and keep their emotions under lock and key but are always open to dissect, explain and untangle the emotions of others but be careful, they are fiercely blunt and honest and aren’t scared or ashamed to call a spade a spade which allows them to spot the fakes from a mile away. Embarrassment and criticism is water off a duck’s back to them as they are good at ignoring things that affect their well=being and mental health but don’t think they didn’t notice. You don’t want to be on the other end of a disagreement when all hell breaks loose because they will hurl a lot of hurtful things at you so tread lightly. Some examples of Geminis to help explain are; Kanye West (no surprise), Timini Egbuson, Jennifer Obayuwana, Mark Angel, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Tonto Dikeh and Denrele Edun.
Timini Egbuson: The Gemini That Wanted More I’d imagine playing over a thousand characters during one’s lifetime isn’t an easy feat but it might come easy for a Gemini considering that they have to deal with multiple identities in their heads.
One of the traits of this zodiac is their inability to handle boredom and stagnation. It’s literally a weakness of theirs and that fuels their quest for fun, entertainment and excitement and that was what struck the match of Denrele’s career.
The pretty-boy actor you see on your screen wasn’t always an actor. He used to work 9-5 as a marketing executive at an e-commerce company but he wanted more. The whole routine was boring and like a Gemini, he quit and pursued his passion for acting.
The fusion of his eccentric personality and the intrinsic multiple personality traits of a Gemini is what has made him one of the most accomplished male androgynous models in Nigeria. His bravado and confidence never let tongue lashing and criticism stop him from becoming successful.
Kanye West
Although he had a sibling who is an established actress, he wanted to earn every bit of the thrill and experience. That daring leap into the unknown birthed the award-winning Timini Egbuson. His meteoric rise has seen him pursue other things such as modelling and vlogging amongst other things.
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VOL 1 NO.15 • MAY 23 – MAY 29, 2021
COVER
I’
m glad we are opening on this note Honorable Minister because with all due respect, the word being used on the street is “sell-out”. A lot of people feel like you have sold out. What is your response to that?
I’ll ask you in return, “what is a sell-out?”. Who was I politically betrothed to? Who did I pledge allegiance to? I think the people felt like your allegiance was to the people as a human rights lawyer… So you cannot serve the people in government? What is the ultimate platform to deliver service to people in the world? It is the government, that’s power. I’m not serving a military regime, neither am I serving a regime that shot its way into power. I’m serving a government that was democratically elected to serve. So if 20 people gather somewhere and criticise me for joining a government that they perceive is a bad government, are those 20 people more intelligent or powerful than the 15 million Nigerians who voted for the president twice?
DOWNTOWN EXCLUSIVE
THERE IS ONLY ONE FESTUS KEYAMO!
Say what you will about Festus Keyamo (SAN) but the man does not back down. Brilliant, funny, energetic and passionate he is not a man to do things by halves; it’s all the way or no way with the Honorable Minister of State for Labor and Employment. Born January 21st 1970 to a humble Jehovah’s Witness household he received his primary and secondary education in Delta state before proceeding to Ambrose Alli University Ekpoma in Edo State where he bagged his law degree and was later called to bar in 1993. He truly needs no introduction as his work within the human rights activism space very early defined a great portion of his career, however for those who may not know he is a Nigerian lawyer, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, critic and columnist who is now currently serving as Minister of State for Labour and Employment. In this exclusive interview with the DOWNTOWN trio of Austyn Ogannah, Publisher & Editor-In-Chief, Latasha Ngwube, Editor and Kehinde Fagbule, intern, we toughed out this conversation on where his allegiances truly lie, the failings and successes of his Ministry, his stance on activism as practiced by youths today as well as his early days before fame and success found him. Keyamo opens the conversation with a remark that immediately dispels the mood of joviality and is quickly replaced with all seriousness: “Whatever is being said about me outside are some of the things I’d like to confront squarely. The kind of question you’re asking relate to how people see me now, how they perceive me, and the fact that they think that I may have deviated from my original calling”. PAGE 8
I guess that speaks to the subject of being a sell-out; for now… I’ll continue. The problem we face with a lot of people is that they are myopic to the extent that they think that their views are superior to the views of the majority. The ultimate test of people’s power and what the people want or think is the ballot paper, unfortunately, it is not Twitter or Facebook. Social media platforms allow the minority to have their say and that is good for democracy. However, when you want to hear the voice of the majority, the medium isn’t social media as there’s a body called the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) that is constitutionally empowered to aggregate the majority opinion. That is the body we all go to; and when that body declares that somebody has the majority of YES in his favour, there is no other body that can say otherwise. You can hate the process, sit down in your house, cross your legs, chew chewing gum and press your phone from morning till evening, it will not answer the question that there are constitutionally approved institutions that are allowed to sort out the process of who has the majority of yes in his favour and that is the INEC, court of appeal and the supreme court. We have gone through all of these processes and these processes told us that the majority of Nigerians are in our favour. Unfortunately, if one professor with all the learnings in the world is together with 30 illiterates in the same room, in democracy, they defeat the professor. That’s how democracy works. Democracy is not a government for the literates alone; it is a government of the people, for the people and by the people. Therefore, I cannot sit down here because of my high learning and exposure and my position as a Senior Advocate to say “Oh well, I’m superior to the 15 million Nigerians who voted for the president and who were happy with me that I campaigned for the president,” and the president made me a minister thereafter. I’m prepared to sell-out against the minority and be with the majority because I’m serving a government popularly elected. That’s the end of the point I’m making; I’m with the majority as of today as I’ve always been. If the minority feel I’ve sold out, it is better to sell out against them than against the majority who are the average Nigerian people. One more addition to this, I also wasn’t sitting docile in my house and a government came
VOL 1 NO.15 • MAY 23 – MAY 29, 2021
COVER into power and they wanted to silence me and invited me to government. That is the picture in the head of many folks as they push the “They have silenced Keyamo” narrative. That is very false. I was part of an opposition movement to an order. I joined the APC at its formation; so people should give me that credit. I was not a longerthroat who saw a juicy government and latched onto it. I was part of a gruelling campaign against a system and order that I could’ve easily joined. Nobody ever thought a ruling party could lose: a ruling party had never lost since 1960. I took the hard way into government. I didn’t sell-out, I took the hard road. The person whom I campaigned against (former President Goodluck Jonathan) is my kinsman. He’s South-South like me. All his supporters were my friends and colleagues back in my primary school days. Don’t forget all the separatist movements, the Niger Delta and the likes, supported Jonathan. I wouldn’t mention names but those I represented in court, the militants, they’re all my brothers, yet I parted ways with them. I saw an idiotic post recently that someone said I tried to get access to Jonathan and I was just laughing; I didn’t bother to respond. What did I need access to Jonathan for? If I needed it, I’d have gotten it; everyone around him were my friends. So for me to have abandoned the easy way and teamed up with the opposition and chosen the hard way, people didn’t acknowledge that. The sell-out they talk about really is that they want me to support the PDP. They think the PDP is a southern party. It is of vogue these days for the Southern vocals to be in the PDP. If I were in the PDP today, this accusation of sell-out wouldn’t be there, I can assure you. So why did you join the APC? Would you deny me that right? Would you deny me the fundamental right to join a political party of my choice? Let me tell you this and I’ll say it for the hundredth time and I know posterity will record what I’m saying now; in the next hundred years, they would play it back: Buhari will be the last of the Mohicans that we’re going to get in government. Forget all the media hype and nonsense, you will know, 10, 20 years after he leaves power that we have lost a president who aggregates most of the things we struggle for. If I did not support Buhari, that is when I would have been a sell-out. Why? The person who trained me and brought me up by hand; who everyone sees as one of the best as well as the definition of what is right and wrong today in the country, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, supported Buhari till he died and told everyone who cared to listen that Buhari was the only person he could vote for. Do you think that if Chief Gani Fawehinmi were still alive, he would have turned his back on Buhari? You are talking of what would have happened. I am talking about what happened. There are a lot of people who supported Buhari years back and have now turned their backs on him… Those are people who wanted something out of the government and they did not get and we have proved this over and over again. You don’t know the nature of Nigerians; I will tell you. Most of those elites who turned their backs against him are people who aimed to benefit from the government and saw that it wasn’t business as usual. As for the people on the streets, I mentioned earlier, we tested it at the polls again in 2019 when everyone thought Buhari was finished; they voted for him again. The voting conversation can only be had by those three bodies I had mentioned (INEC, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court), not you and me. The human beings who voted and we saw on the TV, are they goats? Are they from Cameroon? It seems like the violation of human rights is getting worse by the day in the country. You have clashed with activists who have accused you of turning a blind eye to cases of human rights violations especially in the wake of the #endSARS protests; a sharp contrast from when you used to take up human rights cases pro-bono as an activist lawyer… My position on the #endSARS protest is clear. It’s all over the internet. Google it, when I came out to say Nigerians have the right to protest peacefully. I was the only person sitting in government in the cabinet, and the only minister, that came out to say the youths have the right to peaceful protest. What
else do they want from me? They want you to take up the mantle as you used to. How do I take it up? First off, I am no longer the Keyamo of old as you have to resign from the chambers as soon as you get appointed minister in Nigeria. So I could no longer use that platform. Secondly, let me ask you, what is the purpose of shouting on the streets as an activist? To create awareness… Exactly! To get the authorities to hear you. Now, I am in government with access to the highest decision making body in the country weekly. I’m part of the Federal Executive Council right now. They hear my voice every week…what you read about my #endSARS opinion is a snippet of more things I said within the cabinet to government and that is the highest form of fighting for the people you can think of. Would it not be stupid on my part that I have the ears of everyone who could make a decision and I still come out on the streets and be shouting at them to hear me? That is what they call playing to the gallery. It would be idiotic for me to do that. People on the streets always like people playing to the gallery. I am not for that, I am too old for all of that. I’m in government now and what people want me to do is antagonise my boss openly. People who label me sell-out are the sell-outs. They are myopic and, I apologize to use the word, idiotic. They don’t know the definition of a sell-out. I’m selling out against nobody. If at all they should be extremely happy that someone who has walked the streets with them, fought on the streets with them, fought in and out of court with them, is in government right now; because what they are even complaining about perceived or not, could’ve been worse. Now back to endSARS. Do you know those who advice the government? No government in the history of Nigeria has responded to the demands of protesters as instantly as this government did. This indomie generation doesn’t know what it meant to be part of Ali Must Go or the Anti-SAR protests. Within three days, the government said “Alright,
we’ve heard you, we will disband SARS;” a government mercenary, a crime-fighting unit of the police force, the government responded immediately. What about the shootout in Lekki? There was no shootout. Did you not hear the US government report? Can you give me the name of a family member? People cannot die without the family members reacting. You are probably part of those who were swept away by the hoopla. Did you hear about the people sponsored to hype these issues? The issues are coming out now all over the press, I hope you are seeing as they unfold. What they’re saying about who stole money and who didn’t; money that they pumped into that protest at the time. I just want to let you know that what you call human rights violations at times, from your point of view, is one of the softest approaches the government has ever taken to dealing with the citizens of this country. As I speak with you today, those who evaded Capitol Hill are on the wanted list. The government knows them but left them because they wanted peace. Anybody that provides a platform for anything to fester without knowing how to control that platform, will take responsibilities for any consequence that comes out of what you have provided. Then you provide a platform for people to come out of their homes and you cannot control them or have a body to call them to order? You can’t ignore the havoc they wrecked on this country and the public institutions burnt. I’ve just decided to keep quiet all this while. At my age, my level of learning and constitutional law, who will come and stand in front of me in this country and argue or tell me what I know about constitutional law? There are all kinds of ignorance going on on social media but we kept quiet. If we wanted to go by the full extent of the law, blocking public roads and hindering people from movement alone is a criminal offence. The protest went on for days and no teargas was used; could you do that before in this country? Yet people still call the president a dictator. Who advised the government to keep quiet? They will know years later. For two to three weeks consistently, a major access road to a major part of Lagos was not accessible and you tell me that the government did not have the right to clear the road for those who want to go about their businesses to go about it. The lie that people have told this generation is that misbehaviour is absolute and is in the advancement of human rights. They’ve not told them the limitations of human rights. If you stop other people’s right to movement, you’ve impeded
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VOL 1 NO.15 • MAY 23 – MAY 29, 2021
COVER
that and refused to use those pictures where I was also using those high tech machines. If you cut grass (which we did with a mower and not a cutlass as reported in the media) in a location that is not vehicle accessible, what machine do you use to transport them to the easily accessible road? Even for the most educated, it is the wheelbarrow.
their fundamental human rights. Would you say you have effected more change as a human rights lawyer or as a politician? Some things I used 10 years to advocate for as a human rights lawyer, I have achieved under 10 mins; that is the whole essence. Things like what? You know we are sworn as ministers, for now, not to divulge certain things when we’re in office. This is a constitutional provision. All you need to do is take collective responsibility when the cabinet takes a decision, you defend it. There are suggestions I’ve made in council that the government has approved. Those are suggestions that have improved people that I would never have in 10 years been able to pass to government, but it takes less than 5mins to achieve that when you are in power to achieve that and that is the beauty of people who are social activists seeking power to easily effect all they have been clamouring for. Every single social activist in this country has sought power, so I’m asking “Where is Keyamo different here?” Many of them did not succeed and maybe that’s the bitterness. Even the most vocal ones now who are abusing us are under PDP so it’s not like they’re going to form a Human Rights party; they sought for the tickets of PDP and lost. What is Keyamo’s offence? Because I won. Your time as the Minister of Labour and Employment has been plagued with a lot of strikes. What do you have to say to that? People think that it is the labour ministry that is at fault when there is a strike. That is incorrect. We are conciliators. When teachers are on strike, that is the fault of the Ministry of Education. When health workers are on strike, that is the fault of the Ministry of Health. When judicial workers are on strike, that is the fault of the Ministry of Justice. We are not involved at all. The Ministry of Labour is only established to come in and bring parties to the table and discuss. For me who is a trained international arbitrator from the UK, I bring all that wealth of experience into government for free. So I don’t have to learn on the job to help the government work on some of these issues. Even though there is a high turnout of strikes, you can see that the resolutions are also going on, they’re calling it off, they are going back. That is success on our part. The high volume of strikes isn’t our fault as the Ministry of Labour as we’re not the ones breaching contracts. Our job is quick resolutions to these strikes and we’re doing a good job at that. Can we talk about the 774,000 jobs? Did you really give out wheelbarrows and cutlasses? That is false. This is one of the challenges we face and I will call them out on Arise TV, anchored by PDP, people who lost out on the elections. Also, people would look at them as public commentators but people who we kicked out of power, they now give them a platform every day to pose as public commentators. People mustn’t see them as fair and objective commentators. Those people should be there to ask questions and not make their comments. I saw them on Arise TV saying that Keyamo is giving out cutlasses and that was our empowerment. This is despite the explanation I gave on social media stating that we’re not empowering people with cutlasses; those are our properties. We’re not giving them that to empower them to
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As a lawyer who has practiced constitutional law for many years, I cannot in any way curtail free speech. However, if you tell deliberate lies you cannot defend, be prepared to pay for it. If you deliberately spread the falsehood that can lead to conflagration, don’t come and cry free speech once you’re arrested, I will not defend you.” go and work, we’re taking it back from them. We’re only maintaining public infrastructures with that equipment and we’re paying them separately. Moreover, there were videos of me circulating showing that we also bought some high tech equipment: engine grass cuter. I just want to show you how wicked that people can go to this age to disparage you in government. What we did was that first of all we wanted to save government money; it is a 3-month job. We couldn’t spend all that money buying pieces of equipment that are too expensive and later people would still criticise me as minister to say we did all that and bought high tech equipment for a 3-month job and then still need time to train them on how to use the machines; these are traditional village people who still don’t know how to use these machines whether we like it or not. The jobs are not for graduates, they’re for local poor people who are still using manual tools and so we bought some manual tools for them, we also bought some high tech equipment and I will show them to you so you see how the press conveniently ignored
Is it true that you think social media should be regulated? First of all, free speech must be guaranteed. As a lawyer who has practised constitutional law for many years, I cannot in any way curtail free speech. However, and listen very carefully, if you tell deliberate lies that you cannot defend, be prepared to pay for it. If you deliberately spread the falsehood that can lead to conflagration or tear the country apart, don’t come and cry free speech once you’re arrested, I will not defend you. When you say social media regulation, it is too blank, so I’m filling the blank spaces to be clear as to what exactly I want to be done. You have to know the content and the context of that regulation; and I have just limited it to two things:, spreading deliberate falsehood to cause conflagration and hate speech. Hate speech isn’t abuses against the government, I allow that. Abuse me from morning till evening, I am a public officer, that is not hate to me. As a public officer, you must be ready to receive all kinds of jabs from the public for what you are doing. Now, what can you not say against the public officer? For example, you can’t say you caught me at the airport trying to smuggle a million dollars when I wasn’t even at the airport. To which I asked you to retract it and offer a public apology but you refused because you want to stand on your story or you want to draw me out and blackmail me; that is what I will not take as a public officer. That is a deliberate lie. The hate speech we’re talking about like the aforementioned are not abuses against a public officer like “He’s mad, he’s stupid, get out!” How many will you fight against every day? People express their emotions like that. However, hate speech in a clear definition is for example to say that Yorubas must attack the Igbos. In other parts of the world, hate speech is usually seen within the racial contexts, black and white. In our context here, it is one tribe against the other. So if America takes it seriously that hate speech (turning whites against blacks and blacks against whites) is a criminal offence,, why can’t we take it here as a crime? Here, you know what we do? We take it as a right to defend ourselves that we are first of all ethnic warlords here. People support it here and give their platforms for people to say such things and heat the politics. You will not see CNN or BBC give up their platforms for people to come and quote white supremacy, they will shut them down because they know that at that point they’re inciting and planting a seed of discord in society. For so many years they have tried to downplay those people who are white supremacists or people promoting one race over another because, all they do is give their platforms to people who promote
VOL 1 NO.15 • MAY 23 – MAY 29, 2021
COVER equality of race. However, in this part of the world, somebody is calling every day “Yorubas this, Fulanis that” and they give them free airtime. That is hate speech and we should not encourage that in our clime. ...but I think that’s a different thing from regulating social media. No, regulating is that you must make laws to stop those kinds of things; that is the regulation we are talking about. People are saying that no law should be made at all. Recently, the British proposed a law to regulate theirs. “UK unveils law to fine social media firms which fail to remove online abuses.” I posted that on my social media and didn’t even comment on it; Nigerians bashed me still. These are online abuses in the form of cyberbullying. That is a more developed country. There’s a popular blogger I sued and because of my friendship with the bloggers, we refused to publish the judgement. We were able to prove that as a blogger, you have a right to also review comments before you approve them as there’s a provision to review the comments but they left theirs open to attract readership and traffic and it was in the comments section that they made disparaging comments against this person that came to brief us to take them to court. For them, traffic is more important than the image of our client. We got a heavy judgement and it would have been a lesson for all the other bloggers in the country but we decided for some reasons because of my friendship to keep it away from the public. That’s why I say we must teach this indomie generation that rights are not absolute. Why do you keep calling them indomie generation? It’s just a word that people use to describe the much younger generation beacause the noodles take about 2 minutes to be done, it’s not cooked deeply. They are too surface-based and I say this with all respect. I saw this recently, a guy who had a million followers on Twitter and he thrives off of abusing people on Twitter. This person now made a snide comment to say “Who is Gani after all?” I nearly deactivated my account that day. He then replied to a comment saying “How can you compare Gani to me? Who was Gani?” In other words, for him, the only yardstick and barometer to test activism are your followers on Twitter and what you do on the app. The first question they ask you is “How many followers do you have?” If Gani was alive, he would be well over 20 million followers today. When I saw that I couldn’t deal. It is indomie because they have not sat down to know where we are coming from as a nation. I want to take you back a bit to educate ourselves. Look at the average supporters of #endSARS; they’re under 30s. Those in their 50s never supported #endSARS because they know where we were coming from before SARS was established. There was a time armed robbers would write to neighbourhoods that they were coming to so and so street at so and so time. Apart from the mindless nonsense that these SARS people are doing at times, shooting innocent people like the police do in America- which they still do it everywhere, once someone holds a gun, there will be excesses, after #endSARS, it continued so it won’t stop, it’s just to bring them to book and that’s what we’re saying. However, before then Lagos was peaceful for over 10 years. From the time Akpoyinbo became CP, to when #endSARS became a thing, there were no cases of robbery in Lagos again. Now the resurgence is coming up. It was at the peak of this kind of insecurity that the crime-fighting machine called SARS was established at that time because the regular police could no longer confront armed robbers. When you were in your 20s, you were considered to be a radical, a pain in the ass of the government at the time. Is there nothing about this generation now that you admire at all? Can you not draw any line between how they feel now and how you felt back then when you felt like we were not being heard as a people? The advantage we had that time was that we listened to our icons. Don’t forget that all the movements we had were guided by Wole Soyinka, Gani Fawehinmi, Ransom-Kuti and so on. We were all under their tutelage because it was either CDHR, CLO, Jakon, etc. All of these groups were guided strictly by these top icons at that time so they could bring us under control and say “This is how we ought to do things” and that is why none of those protests at all of those times degenerated the way #endSARS did. What happened? Don’t forget Gani and co were invited to the Villa to negotiate and tell them what to do when the protest grounded the whole country then. Afterwards, they gave their conditions: form an interim government, go back to democracy and all that. Remember at that point during the #endSARS protest, the government said “We’re ready for dialogue, bring your leaders forward, tell us your demands” so they could then monitor the implementation of those demands. That’s why I said you cannot start a process without having the capacity to control that process to a logical conclusion. However, because of the evolution and the way they went about it, nobody could come out. They were even threatening the lives of everyone who dared to come out to say they were representing the youths, so even the well meaning ones ran away. Some musicians who were looking to represent the youths had to run away because they were being threatened.That is anarchy. If you don’t have anybody to speak for you then it wasn’t well thought out as all wars end on the table. In other words, if you don’t want it to end on the table then what you want is a regime change. At a point, it was the regime change they wanted because they were not willing to talk even after the demands were met. They
demanded they wanted panels; panels were formed immediately. They wanted SARS disbanded, SARS was disbanded immediately; and they continued to pour out on the streets. People were frustrated… Yes, but in our own time, we could channel those frustrations because we had very experienced activists leading us all. Do you not believe that a protest can start as one thing but morph into something else which is the general frustration beyond endSARS. So endSARS was the catalyst, but there were so many other issues that were on the table. So after meeting 5 demands, they now changed it to 7. After 7, we saw 20 demands which included demands like “Disband the national assembly, cut down salaries of public officers, etc” and you think that could be done overnight? At that point, it became political. Those demands were political. At a point #endBuhari trended for 3 days. We now said the only way to do that is to form a political party. If you want to end Buhari, go and form a political party as we did (and removed PDP) and campaign against the sitting government. To come out and say “End Buhari” is treasonable. Anything you see that time, take am. Let’s talk about unemployment amongst the employable, the educated. There are millions of young people on the streets. The unemployment situation is very bad and we make no excuses for it. We should improve on that. It’s 33 percent now and that is atrocious. Even for those who are employed, most of them are underpaid and in the world of work, those who are underpaid are also seen as unemployed and the ratio is high. COVID has complicated issues. We must deal with our issues not to harp on the fact so much that even the most reliable countries in the world are facing challenges now. Some people were even using Ghana as a yardstick to judge Nigeria but they’re about to pour out on the streets in Ghana now. They’re doing their own #endSARS there called #FixGhana and they’ve rolled out tanks everywhere. Ghana did not allow it degenerate to that point as they rolled out tanks before they came out. Here, however, we allowed it for people to be dancing and eating as they blocked the roads and we refused to roll out any tank, not even in Lekki. Unemployment is bad, so now what are we doing about it? We’ve sat down and looked at it. We think the way out of the unemployment situation is not to create regular jobs in organisations both in the public and private sector to give out letters of employment, that is the kind of employment that many people think about. We think that the way out is to skill up the population and to make the environment conducive for small, micro-entrepreneurs to thrive because that is actually the bull work of the economy. If you can do that, then you’d have created so many jobs and taken so many people off the streets. Selfemployment is still the key to progress in life. If you can create a situation where you can employ yourself and then even employ one or two more hands to help you.
Not only the ministry of Labour now, but it is also the agencies under us. Agencies like the National Directory of Employment and all that. We still have the Ministry of Trade and Investment, Trade and Industry, they have SMEDAN, and more agencies. If you look at their yearly budget, a lot of skill acquisition programmes have gone up in the last few years; we deliberately promoted them to train people and skill them up. The only problem and downside we have are that if we train them and give them starter packs, they go on to sell the starter packs. These are challenges we still face as a government. You train someone in sewing for 3 months, we do crash programmes like that under the NDE and SMEDAN and we also give the persons sewing machines and all that, the next thing the person takes the sewing machine back into the market and sells the sewing machine for 50,000 Naira, then comes back to say “I still have nothing to do” whilst waiting for free cash or free employment when it’s clear the person doesn’t want to work. However, those who have started and taken advantage of the programmes, have made some progress and we have testimonies on the streets. The problem we have in Nigeria is that the output is far more than the opportunities that are being created, this is why the unemployment rate is going up. It is not that opportunities are not being created but over the years, the number of people we’re churning out, graduating institutions for instance (not only universities, but polytechnics too and even at vocational institutions for people learning a skill) are far more than the opportunities the society is creating. This is a pandemic that we must address and I’ve told you as the president said in the next 10 years we will like to lift a hundred million people out of poverty. All policies of government now are geared towards that. Any memo that comes to the council, the first thing that we ask alongside the president is “How many jobs are coming out of this memo?” before we approve it. If you’re not creating jobs for Nigerians, we will turn down the memo. So that’s what we’re trying to do as a government and we can only do our best for the next government to take off from there but we will put all those policies and framework... The cover story is continued on the Downtown website: www.thewilldowntown.com
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VOL 1 NO.15 • MAY 23 – MAY 29, 2021
FASHION LIVING
What These
Cars Say(Men’s About You Edition) BY TILEWA KAZEEM
Toyota Sienna Nothing screams I’m married with 2 or 3 kids than this. You are a family man and all you care about is getting you and your family from point A to point B safely. If you aren’t married then you are into transportation services. Moving people and goods from point A to point B. This car is the vehicular equivalent of lady repellent.
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very item you’ve ever bought or owned is an extension of who you are and that plants a subconscious message- one open for interpretation in the mind of anyone who sees you in or with it. That custom Rolex says alot about your personality and so does your car. A lot can be pieced together about a person’s societal status by the type of car they drive. Things like how many kids, how much they make and what kind of lifestyle they live. I guess you are what you drive after all! igh time you So, if you own any of these cars, it’s high u when you discover what people think about you drive by.
Toyota Corolla 2005 This is the “I’m tired of flying bus up and down” car. Owners of this car just want something simple but rugged. It is also the unofficial car for Uber and Bolt in Nigeria. So if you own this car and you park at the side of the road to pick a call don’t take offence if someone gets in and starts giving you directions.
Camry ‘Mozu’ Mozu or Mosul whatever you call it you are correct! Unlike the Toyota Corolla, this car is for the upwardly mobile men in Lagos. Owners of this car have their mechanic’s number on speed dial because of its numerous issues yet it’s still one of the most driven cars in Lagos. Those who find themselves in this section are living their lives one step at a time and this car is a testament to that.
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Range Rover or G-Wagon
Mercedes C-Class Convertible Mr Young and getting money gang. This group is divided into two. The ones who wear kaftan to bed and the young creatives or tech bros. Men in this category probably made their first million at 23 and have no plan to settle down. The letsjust-go-with-flow men. Certified heartbreakers.
CEO of a prosperous company. Either married but your family is abroad or you are divorced either way you are what the ladies call zaddy. Men want to be you and women want to be with you. If you fall under this category don’t be surprised if people are asking you to cut soap for them.
VOL 1 NO.15 • MAY 23 – MAY 29, 2021
WEBSIGHTS DOWNTOWN
“D” is for Donnybrook,
BY KEHINDÉ FAGBULE
Dangote & Dr Anu
As Aliko Dangote and Dr Anu become subjects of controversy online Dangote, “D” Oligarch? World’s richest black man, Aliko Dangote, came under public scrutiny when documents were leaked of his alleged malpractices which helped propel his business to unimaginable heights. In an exposé that has circulated the Internet over the past couple of weeks, it was reported that the ousted Managing Director of the Nigeria Ports Authority, Hadiza Bala Usman, not only gave Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, an edge above his competitors using devious means, but also exempted him of sacrosanct charges. According to details of a letter Nigeria’s Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, sent to President Muhammadu Buhari, the yearly remittance of operating surpluses by the NPA from 2016 to 2020 was “far short of the amount due for actual remittance.” Mr Amaechi said within the stipulated years, the NPA recorded an outstanding unremitted balance of N165 billion (N165, 320, 962, 697). He would go on to suggest that the NPA boss stepped aside for the investigation and audit of the financial account of the agency. Ms Usman, who had been the head of the lucrative agency since 2016, was recently suspended for alleged financial impropriety bordering on low remittance, misuse of office and bullying of operators. Here’s what allegedly happened in layman’s terms: Ms. Bala-Usman ordered port operators to not only give preferential rates to Dangote for shipping all of the raw materials that his industries use, she also ensured that only he paid his charges in Naira whilst his competitors and every other business owners paid their port
Dr Anu, “D” Butcher...
charges in dollars. This is a violation of the NPA’s tariff plan. While bank documents have shown her previous monetary transactions with the multi-billionaire, previous reports have exposed how Ms. Usman hijacked terminals and suspended other’s contracts in favour of Mr. Dangote. It gets worse; it was further reported by sources within the NPA that Dangote Industries still owed about USD38million to the coffers of the NPA. The Dangote industries which already enjoy several concessions from the Federal Government, CBN and Lagos State Government by virtue of its proposed refinery, add these exclusive benefits from the NPA to tell a story of an oligarch. Here are some of the reactions from social media.
Mr. Dangote has not come out to deny claims of foul play.
Body image has been one of human’s biggest internal conflicts. Regardless of what we look like, society suggests that we could always use an improvement. For women it is different; the number of improvements that our environment subjects the average woman to is usually more in comparison with her male counterparts with two of the most common physical features being the breasts and buttocks. In turn, people have dedicated their whole life to research on how to enhance these body features. However, the most effective and quickest option is through a butt implant. An arm of plastic surgery that has become increasingly popular over the years, butt enlargement surgeries are carried out all over the world; by actual professional surgeons and quack doctors alike.
in Nigeria till further notice which took effect from November 5, 2020. Fast forward to May 2021, fresh allegations of a botched surgery surfaced online again; this time in Abuja. Turned out Dr. Anu had moved her practice to the nation’s capital, away from the public eye. As expected, Twitter NG in its expected fashion, served the banter. Here are some of the funny reactions.
The story of Medcontour’s founder, Dr. Adepoju Anuoluwapo has been a recurring fixture in our everyday life on social media as we’ve come to know it. Accused of killing a beauty queen, Nneka Miriam Onwuzuligbo, in February 2019, Dr. Anu, also known as Sisi Anu on social media, has been making the headlines ever since for all the wrong reasons. She would become a lot more popular a year later when she was called out by a Twitter influencer, Omohtee, for performing a failed surgery on her. Omohtee claimed to have complications after getting her butt implant and liposuction procedure done by the surgeon to the tune of 1.2 million Naira. Her clinic was shut down days after by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) after public outcry after which she was arrested and arraigned at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi in July 2020 by FCCPC over her failed procedure which led to Nneka’s death. This ultimately led to her suspension from practising medicine
In an interview that surfaced on YouTube after the Omohtee incident, Dr. Anu claimed to have performed well over 300 surgeries and some of the procedures that went bad were as a result of the patients defaulting on their postoperative care. Still no explanation on how she evaded the suspension to practise again, Dr. Anu is yet to comment on this latest round of controversy.
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VOL 1 NO.15 • MAY 23 – MAY 29, 2021
THE SCENE DOWNTOWN
Yinka Ash and his team
Ashluxury Unveils New Avant - Garde Space BY CHISOM NJOKU
Burna Boy
F
ashion retail store, Ashluxury recently unveiled a new ultramodern space and invited some of the industry’s finest to have an early look. Founder, Yinka Ash tastefully designed the space with an aim to step up the luxury shopping experience in Nigeria. The two-story, 500 square-foot building located in Lekki, Lagos houses a number of high-end luxury designer items from global brands which include Christian Dior, Gucci, Prada and Fendi to name a few.
Davido, Vannessa Amadi-Ogbonna & Bobo Ajudua Dr. Peju Olowu Layiwola
Rahman Jago Naira Marley & Dara
Mercedes Benson
TG Omori Soliat Bada & Michael Abegunde
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Adebayo Oke-Lawal
Denola Grey
Daniel Obasi
VOL 1 NO.15 • MAY 23 – MAY 29, 2021
THE SCENE DOWNTOWN
Juliet Olanipekun
The Orient of Africa by
LovefromJulez BY TILEWA KAZEEM
M
onarch Centre, Lagos, Nigeria housed an abundance of notable personalities and celebrities for the “The Orient of Africa” capsule collection. The muchawaited fashion event saw the World’s oldest Cognac house, Martell team up with award-winning style influencer and fashion designer Juliet Olanipekun popularly known as LovefromJulez.
Alex Ikemefuna
Bolanle Olukanni
Ilona Pinka & Megha Joshi
Fifi Dilly
Enado Odigie, Tola Odunsi & Joselyn Dumas
Joan K. Vincent- Otiono
Susan Peters
Hauwa Mukan
Model
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VOL 1 NO.15 • MAY 23 – MAY 29, 2021
SÓRÓSOKE DOWNTOWN BY KEHINDÉ )$*%8/ɖ
TEETO & RAE SLICK
When it comes to music in Nigeria, Afrobeat has been pushed to the shores of the world; marketed as one of Nigeria’s biggest exports. However, an equally strong genre is hip-hop. To discuss the state of rap in the nation, their joint album, Lataaro, and a longtime bromance between two of the industry’s leading voices, DOWNTOWN’S Kehindé Fagbule sat with Teeto and Rae Slick.
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hat is your story? How did it all start? Rae: I had a ghostwriter when I first started as I didn’t think I was good enough. I started writing my own stuff in 2006/07 after I left high school and I recorded my first track. That same year, I heard a lot about a dope battle rapper, Teeto. I met him and we battled back and forth before he eventually put me on and introduced me to the game. He had gone for the MC Africa competition at the time and he pretty much taught me how to put verses together. I remember he put me in a booth with Terry Tha Rapman and I screwed it up. That was the first time I was in a proper recording studio *laughs* Teeto: To start, I’m just surprised Rae once used a ghostwriter, to be honest. This is hip-hop you have to come with real bars. Anyway, let’s thank God you’ve grown up *laughs*. I got into rap in the late 90s; I’m from the Bad Boy/Ruff Rider (The Notorious B.I.G/DMX) era. I started rapping in secondary school. I went to Federal Government College Lagos, Ijanikin, and we would form little hip-hop groups. I then went to the University of Lagos and that was where I met T-rex who ripped me a new one. At the time I knew I had to learn how to freestyle and battle. The battle culture in Unilag was alive at the time and we would stay at the car park sometimes; surrounded by 200 to 300 people watching us as we traded bars. We used to do this every day. I knew I was in trouble when a friend came to me whilst I was in class and told me a battle rapper had just come from abroad and was looking for a challenge. It felt as though someone had just insulted my parents, I skipped that class to meet up with him and we battled for the next couple of hours. A few years later, I heard about MC Africa and was very reluctant to go. The idea of someone judging me got me disinterested; I was pompous for no reason *laughs*. I eventually went and won in Nigeria. After which I had to go up against the best rappers from across the continent. I was named the second runner-up. What is your creative process like? Rae: For me, it is early in the morning when I’m in the bathroom or when I’m driving, that’s when I write my best bars. I remember Teeto’s Verses After Dark album when he sent me a track to jump on. It was the perfect timing as he sent it in whilst I was just getting in the car to drive from the island to the mainland for a quick meeting. I sent him a voice note of the hook before I got to my destination. That was the fastest I’ve ever laid a hook to a record. Sometimes I just get in my car at night and drive around my estate just to write. Teeto: I think of myself as a crazy ninja. Every day, I write at least 4 to 8 bars. I scribble them down on the note app on my phone or record a voice note if I’m driving. I used to have an app that feeds
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me “Word of the day” and I’d rhyme around each word daily. I find ways to write every single day so by the time I have to lay verses, I can just dig into my pool of words and come up with something almost immediately. What made you decide to make a joint album? Teeto: Our friendship sort of blossomed into one where we learn a lot from each other. I’d show him how to write better and he’d show me how to flow better. I’d say one of the reasons why we hadn’t dropped an album sooner than we did was due to the stress of distribution as independent artists because we had recorded a handful of songs; even when Rae wasn’t in the country. Before the streaming services came to Nigeria, artists were having to go down to Alaba to promote their new projects. Soon as streaming became popular in Nigeria, I called him up and we decided to make it happen. If you were not doing music right now, what would you be doing? Rae: We would probably have been male strippers *laughs* Teeto: My initial childhood dream was to become a sprinter for Nigeria. I could run. Rae: For me, if I wasn’t rapping, I would either be acting or playing football. Rae, you were in Dubai for so long. Why did you decide to come back? Dubai is the place you go to chill so it was pretty much like a 12-year holiday. Even when I was working, it still felt like a vacation. You always want to come back home and start something. You want something you can fall back on. I left young so I had nothing going on in Nigeria. However, my friend and I talked about starting something which we’ve done - and hopefully, you guys will see me in silicon valley soon. South Africans are leading hip-hop voices in the continent. What would you say the differentials are in comparison to the Nigerian rap scene? Teeto: Based on what I experienced of South African culture and how they embrace hip-hop firsthand thanks to the competition, I could say that the level of reverence, acceptance and the systems were put in place as far back as 2008, we still don’t have those in Nigeria today. The community is more open to rap music. Over here, we put all our weight behind pop music. I’m glad to see things changing slowly with brands like Hennessey getting behind the rap agenda. I think we just need more people to focus on the craft and sharpen their skills. Then a little more corporate get behind it to give it a little more visibility, I think we can turn that tide. I’ll beat my chest and say Nigeria
Teeto & Rae Slick has the best rappers in Africa. Rae: That’s very true. I was discussing with friends the other day how Burna Boy is a better rapper than at least 20 African rappers that we know and he doesn’t even identify as a rapper. We’re about it out here. Everybody’s family has one rapper *laughs*. Teeto: Yeah, talent-wise. Also, I think more rappers need to put out more content… this is me throwing shades at Rae by the way. He has a whole album he’s sitting on. What would you say is the best track on your Lataaro album individually? Teeto: It’s very hard to pick. However, if I had to pick, I’d go with Everything Blessed. Rae: For me, it’s either that (Everything Blessed) or Genesis. The storytelling on Genesis is out of this world. I feel like if it had a video, it’d just be picture reels. Teeto killed that. Speaking of rappers we love, who would you like to have on your upcoming project? Rae: I would like to have Ozone, Ghost and Tec (of Show Dem Camp), Santi and Tomi Thomas. We might have to pick one of Tems or Amaarae. Teeto: Amaarae, I love that babe so much. Teeto, how would you describe the kind of music you make? I’d say I make urban rap and I try to create music for every mood. On Vibes After Dark, I started with an introspective record then a nightlife record followed by another thought-provoking record and a politically charged record. After which I followed it with a love song and a laid back/chilled vibe one. Rae: Teeto has a bag where he dips his hand and brings out gems. Even Santa Claus’s bag isn’t big enough. …how about your own bag, Rae? Rae: I’m a big hoarder; I keep hoarding my songs. I feel like at this stage, I need therapy *laughs*. On a more serious note, I have things planned. I’m dropping a single in June and I’ll follow it up with an EP. We’ll see how that goes. What’s the advice you’ll give to this new generation of rappers? Rae: trust your guts and do you. Never try to be like anybody else or jump in someone else’s bag. Teeto: it is rap we’re doing, not Afropop; so skill matters. You have to be dope. The 10,000 rule states that if you practice a skill for that long, you’ll become a genius at it. You just have to keep going at it. Lastly, you can’t do more than yourself, so be unapologetically you.
