Hyundai Motor Global Brand Value Continues to Grow

                      

Hyundai Motor is the world’s 35^th biggest brand according to the latest rankings published by global brand specialists Interbrand, overtaking four other renowned brands in the past year.

 

Despite yet another challenging year for the automotive industry, Hyundai Motor’s global brand value increased 11.1% to reach $12.55bn, securing its place among the biggest brands on the planet. The Korean company also moved up one place to 6^th in the global automotive industry top 10 brands and is the 4^th most valuable high-volume automotive brand.

 

Hyundai Motor maintained global sales at five million units, helped by successful launches of its Creta, Sonata and Tucson models, while reinforcing its Modern Premium brand philosophy through increased differentiation between the Hyundai and Genesis brand identities. The Hyundai Motor brand is set to achieve even greater heights with electrified IONIQ models, high-performance Hyundai N cars and future-mobility focused Project IONIQ moving the brand into new automotive spaces.

 

Wonhong Cho, Executive Vice President of Hyundai Motor Company, said: “The car-ownership model may become obsolete within a matter of years, therefore we simply can’t limit our vision to eco-friendly vehicles. To maintain our rate of growth as a global brand we must rethink the traditional business model and not just see ourselves as a transportation company, but also a mobility service provider. With Project IONIQ we will address this new paradigm and further Hyundai Motor’s standing as one of the world’s most valuable brands.” 

 

Acknowledging the achievement, Mike Rocha, Global Director of Brand Valuation at Interbrand said: “Over the past year, Hyundai has once again redefined its limits by introducing IONIQ to gain leadership in future mobility, by spinning off the Genesis brand to enhance clarity for each brand’s identity and by providing innovative experiences such as Hyundai Motorstudio Digital. We look forward to another year of growth for Hyundai as one of the forerunners of future mobility.”

 

Expanding the brand’s reach further, Hyundai Motor’s high performance sub-brand ‘N’ was launched in September 2015, with an aim to bring intuitive, high-performance, fun to drive vehicles to a broad range of customers. The RM16, Hyundai N 2025 Vision Gran Turismo, and RN30 concepts revealed in 2016 are inspired by the brand’s passion for performance and will evolve into the first Hyundai N model.

 

“The latest Interbrand ranking shows Hyundai’s enormous success in the past decade, consistently rising both in the value of the brand and in our ranking against other major companies across many sectors,” said Mike Song, Hyundai’s Head of Operations for Africa and the Middle East. “The value that Interbrand places on the Hyundai name reflects the fundamental strength and stability of Hyundai as a company, and the high levels of trust placed in us by consumers worldwide.”

Interbrand’s rankings are calculated using companies’ financial balance sheets combined with marketing activities, while also reflecting each brand’s potential profit.

Senator Akpabio not Involved in Alleged Bribery of Supreme Court Justices.

                    
The attention of the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio has been drawn to a sensational story making the rounds in the social media and circulated by the Akwa Ibom State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with a screaming headline: “Breaking News! 2015 A’Ibom polls: Fear grips Akpabio over arrest of Supreme Court Justices.”
The story in its entirety is spurious, baseless, false and the figment of the imagination of mischief makers who concocted it. Their frantic and desperate attempt to link Senator Akpabio with the saga is to tarnish his image in their continuing pull-him-down syndrome, which has increased in intensity since the party lost Akwa Ibom State.
For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state most emphatically that Senator Akpabio is in no way involved in the alleged bribery of Supreme Court judges and so has no reason whatsoever to be scared over the arrest of the Judges. He has had no contact with any Judge with the intention of bribing them.
In the last few years, Senator Akpabio’s only contact with Supreme Court Justices was on December 13, 2015 when as the Vice-Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters the members, led by the Chairman of the Committee, Senator David Umaru paid a courtesy visit to the Chief Justice of the Federation and other Supreme Court Justices. After the event which was widely reported the Supreme Court Justices and members of the committee took group photographs.
Senator Akpabio as a democrat believes in the sanctity of the electoral process and so has not been involved in bribing any Judge as it is not in his character to do so. His election as a Senator which was seen as a no contest after a sterling performance as Governor of Akwa Ibom State was widely held as free and fair.
Senator Akpabio like many other Nigerians learnt of the news of the arrest of the Judges/ Justices on Saturday while he was in Irrua, Edo State when he along with the Senate President and other Senators attended the wedding of the daughter of their colleague, Senator Clifford Ordia.
It is most disingenuous and reprehensible for Akwa Ibom State APC to attempt to link Senator Akpabio to something he has no knowledge of and impute he was gripped with fear when he was busy celebrating with his colleague on the marriage of his daughter in Irrua, Esan Central Local Government of Edo State.
We condemn it in very strong terms and advice those whose stock in trade and preoccupation is to link Senator Akpabio to every ignominious scheme to desist from such pull-him-down syndrome. It is however sad that Akwa Ibom State APC, rather than wait for the investigation to take its course, have already condemned their son, Justice Inyang Okoro and celebrate his present ordeal.
Senator Akpabio will explore available legal remedies to protect his hard earned reputation from being dragged into the mud by political mischief makers. Distinguished Senator Akpabio however cautions all political players to take actions that will sustain democracy and not actions that imperil our hard earned democracy.

Why we swept on judges – DSS

                          
The Department of State Services has given reasons why its operatives swept on the home of some serving judges on Friday night.
It said the action was a follow up to what it described as an outcome of special sting operation which it said involved some judges of the Supreme, Appeal and High Courts.
A senior officer of the security agency, Mr. Abdullahi Garba, who spoke with journalists in Abuja on Saturday, insisted that the action would be sustained.

 He said that the operations were based on allegations of corruptions and other acts of professional misconduct by a few of the suspected judges.

Garba said, “The action is in line with its core mandate, as we have been monitoring the expensive and luxurious lifestyle of some of the judges as well as complaints from the concerned public over judgment obtained fraudulently and on the basis amounts of money paid.
“The judges involved were invited, upon which due diligence was exhibited and their premises searched. The searches have uncovered huge raw cash of various denominations, local and foreign currencies, with real estate worth several millions of naira and documents affirming unholy acts by these judges
While saying that some of the judges had made useful statements on the allegations against them, he added that a few of them declined “even with the glaring evidence that were found against them in terms of material cash, documents and property recovered pointing to their compromise.”
He said in one of the states where the operations were conducted, intelligence report indicated that a judge was having the sum of $2m in his house.
He, however, regretted that a governor bungled the operation by obstructing the operatives of the service from carrying out their job.
Garba said, “In one of the states where the operations were conducted, credible intelligence revealed that the Judge had Two Million United States Dollars ($2,000,000 USD) stashed in his house.
“When he was approached for due search to be conducted, he in concert with the state governor, mobilised thugs against the Service team.
“The team restrained itself in the face of unbridled provocative activities by those brought in by the governor. Unfortunately, the judge and the governor also engaged the tacit support of a sister security agency.
“The Service surveillance team noticed that upon frustrating the operation, the judge with the active support of the governor craftily moved the money to an unknown location which the Service is currently making effort to unravel.”
Meanwhile, he said large amount including foreign/local currencies had been recovered.
He gave the summaries of these to include:
N93,558,000.00, $530,087, £25,970 and €5,680 (euro).
He said other foreign currencies were also recovered, but didn’t give details.
Garba said the currencies were recovered from just three of the judges.
He refused to give their names and the total number of judges involved.
The cash, he added, were different from other banking documents, including real estate documents which he said were also recovered.
He said preparations were ongoing to arraign the suspects in a competent court of jurisdiction in line with the laws of the nation.
He said the Service had never invited Justice Walter Nkanu Onnoghen for investigation as being speculated in some quarters.
Apart from this, he said the judge was also neither being investigated by the Service
Despite this action, he said the Service has tremendous respect for the judiciary and would not do anything to undermine it or its activities.
“The Service will also join hands with this noble institution in its fight to rid it of few corrupt Judges whose actions is undermining not only the Judiciary but the common bond of our national life,” he added.

Current operation to be sustained

Garba announced that the current operation will be sustained and followed “till sanity and sanctity were restored to the esteemed third arm of government and public confidence is regained.”
He called on members of the public to avail the Service of any information which could assist in its drive to rid the nation of corrupt practices and tendencies.
Garba refused to take questions after the briefing.
-The Punch

Court orders Glo to vacate base station, pay N32Million to land owner

                     
Bayelsa High Court sitting in Sagbama on Tuesday ordered Globacom Nig. Ltd. to vacate a piece of land belonging to the Agbereowei family of Bolou-Orua in Sagbama local government. The family had leased a portion of their land to the telecommunications firm to host its cell site. The court ordered the defendant to pay N32.5 million representing N24 million unpaid rents at N3 million per annum from 2008 to 2016 and N8.5 million as damages for distress and hardship caused the claimants.
The family in a suit, SHC/02/2015, filed by Miss Justina Agbereowei and Mr Wednesday Agbereowei, had sued the telecom company for failure to pay rents on the land housing its base station since 2008. The claimants prayed the court, presided over by Justice E.G. Umukoro, to declare that they were the persons entitled to the right of occupancy in the land measuring approximately 40 feet by 40.5 feet. The judge ordered that the declaration of entitlement sought and the right of occupancy over the land in issue was merited and granted. Umukoro said the continued occupation of the claimants’ land by the defendant had become unjustifiable and that the prayers of the claimants for possession and removal of all structures on the land was granted. The judge also awarded N500,000 against the defendant in favour of the claimants.
-http://www.saharaweeklyng.com/

APC to Tinubu: we will investigates your anit-party moves

                       

It appears the All Progressives Congress may have initiated moves to investigate allegations of anti-party activities against the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and some of the party members believed to be loyal to him.

This is happening as the party appears to be in a dilemma over how to deal with the party leader over suspicion that he is backing the Alliance for Democracy in the forthcoming Ondo State governorship election.

Tinubu is believed to be supporting Chief Olusola Oke, one of the governorship aspirants in the party’s primary in Ondo State who had recently defected to the Alliance for Democracy, along with his supporters.

The leadership of the APC, according to impeccable sources who spoke to Saturday PUNCH, considered the purported support for an opposition party by a leader of the APC ahead of the coming Ondo governorship election as constituting anti-party infractions that should not be overlooked.

Tinubu’s godson, Dr. Olusegun Abraham, was edged out in the primary won by Chief Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), who is believed t

The delegates’ list for the Ondo APC primary was said to have been doctored to favour Akeredolu and this allegedly infuriated Tinubu.

As such, Tinubu asked the APC’s National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, to resign over his alleged role in the primary in which his (Tinubu’s) candidate had come second.

In the statement in which the party’s national leader made the allegations, Tinubu said Odigie-Oyegun had “dealt a heavy blow to the very party he professes to lead” by derailing from the path of progressives.

The post-primary election crisis of the Ondo APC took a different dimension when Oke defected to AD in a move believed to have been instructed by Tinubu.

Party sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Saturday PUNCH that they had proofs that Tinubu was backing the AD governorship candidate. They added that the party leader had released funds for Oke’s campaign.

The Ondo State chapter of the APC confirmed that some members of the party were under investigation over alleged anti-party activitieso have enjoyed the backing of the party’s national leadership.

The Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Abayomi Adesanya, said specifically that some members loyal to Tinubu had been found to be involved in some activities against the party in the recent time.

Abayomi, who said expulsion from the party was the penalty for any anti-party activity, said the national body of the party would investigate and later come out with an action against any national leader involved in such activity.

He said, “We have yet to confirm if our National Leader is involved in anti-party activities but we will investigate; we are very sure that some of his boys here are involved in anti-party activities but when it is time, appropriate action would be meted to them.”

“Anti-party action is a serious offence in any political party and in our own party, total expulsion is the penalty.”

But a chieftain of the APC loyal to Tinubu, Mr. Bola Ilori,  said APC members who supported Rotimi Akeredolu’s emergence as the party’s candidate were those involved in anti-party activities.

Ilori, who is a loyalist to Dr. Segun Abraham, alleged that the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, was also involved in anti-party activities by allegedly using veto power to over-rule the recommendation of the Electoral Appeal Committee and submitted Akeredolu’s name to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

He said, “ Whoever is promoting or supporting Akeredolu to be the candidate of the APC is involving in anti-party (activities) because the NWC voted five to six not to submit the name of Akeredolu, and the National Chairman went ahead and submitted his (Akeredolu) name. So, what they have done is anti-party (action) itself.

“What they have done is anti-party (action) that has never happened in the history of the party.”

Saturday PUNCH also learnt that the APC national leadership is aware of Tinubu’s alleged anti-party moves in Ondo State but is very reluctant to sanction him.

This, according to party sources, has to do with Tinubu’s influence in the party and his tight grip on the party structure in the South-West.

Meanwhile, APC members, who spoke to Saturday PUNCH, have explained that the ruling party’s constitution prescribes sanctions against anyone found to be engaged in anti-party misdemeanor.

The Publicity Secretary of the Kwara State chapter of the APC, Mr. Sulaiman Buhari, said “A panel will be set up to investigate the matter. After the investigation, it is the panel that will recommend the punishment but it is stipulated in the Constitution. The person can be suspended or expelled from the party, given the (nature of the) offence. The situation also applies to chieftains of the party.”

The Cross River State Chairman of the APC, Mr. John Ochala, simply said, “Suspension,” when asked the specific sanction the party had reserved for those engaged in anti-party activities.

In Rivers State, the Publicity Sectary of the APC, Mr. Chris Finebone, said any political party that is worth its salt must sanction any action by any member that is detrimental to it.

The Edo State chairman of the APC, Anselm Ojezua, said, “It (anti-party activity) can range from suspension to expulsion, depending on the circumstances of the case. There are no party chieftains; in the APC, everybody is a member.”

Meanwhile, Oke has said that he defected from the APC to the AD because he failed to get justice after he challenged the result of the primary of the party held on September 3. 2016 and the national leadership refused to act on the recommendation of the appeal committee.

The former National Legal Adviser of the Peoples Democratic Party, who spoke through his media aide, Mr. Rotimi Ogunleye, said he made a wide consultation with people across the 18 local government areas of the state before taking the decision to leave the APC, stressing that it was on the advice of the people that he took the decision.

He also declared that since he had the support of the people, many members of the APC, PDP and many other political parties in the state would soon join him in the AD.

On whether he had the support of Tinubu,  Oke said he had sold his credentials to Tinubu and national leaders of other political parties.

“Because of the status and personality  of  Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, we are duty bound as politicians to sell the dossier and credentials of capacity and experience to him  and all the leaders of political parties and hope that they would give support to progressive ideas that can develop the people and lead to the growth of our state when they see these ideas,”  Oke added.

Repeated calls to the mobile telephone of the party’s National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun were neither picked nor returned.

A response to a text message sent to him was still being awaited as of the time of filing this report.

Similar efforts made to get a reaction from Tinubu were equally unsuccessful. Calls to the mobile telephone number of his spokesman, Mr. Tunde Rahman, were neither picked nor returned.

 A response to a text message sent to him was still being awaited as of the time of filing this report.

-PUNCH.      

Why women live longer than men

                     

From time immemorial, women have always been regarded as the weaker sex, when compared to men. But that seems to be nothing more than a cliché now as women appear to be increasingly outshining men in several things.

For example, scientists have proved that women are smarter, more intelligent, emotionally stronger and they make better leaders. But beyond these remarkable comparative advantages, it has also been shown that women live longer than men and the difference could be as high as 10 years.

Interestingly, according to a list of verified 100 oldest people in the world, compiled between February 1985 and May 2016, there are 94 females and only six males on the list.

And until August 2016 when a 145-year-old man, Mbah Gotho, was discovered in Indonesia, a French woman, Jeanne Calment had been on record as the oldest verified person of all time, as she lived for 122 years, 164 days, outliving both her daughter and grandson by several decades, before she died on August 4, 1997.

Several reasons have been adduced for women’s greater longevity. From general knowledge, it can easily be assumed that women tend to live longer because men engage in more risky jobs; women tend to be more careful in terms of habits and lifestyle, like smoking and drinking and they are care-givers (mothers) which could make them to be more careful with their lives. And out of these factors, lifestyle is said to be very important, especially when it comes to smoking and drinking, but there is more.

According to a study by Professors Waldron Ingrid and Sebastian Johnston, they found that women tend to secrete less of the stress hormones, which would be advantageous for their longevity on the long run. They argued further that women are more likely to live longer due to their differing environment, roles and lifestyles compared with men.

They said, “Generally, males are engaged in the more stressful, physically demanding and hazardous occupations. Also, cigarette smoking, one of many factors that have distinguished the typical lifestyle and personal habits of men and women in past years, has been identified as a major contributor to the difference.

“Beyond that, women are more likely to secure earlier diagnosis and appropriate treatment for health conditions, including particularly the serious illnesses and women are less likely to be self-destructive, be it through suicide or alcoholism, they are also less likely to engage in acts of violence or to be aggressive and excessive risk takers.”

But, the founder of the New England Centenarian Study at Boston University, United States, Dr. Tom Perls, in his post on time.com said women are more likely to live longer because they usually have some delay when it comes to having some cardiovascular diseases, like heart attack and stroke. Whereas, he said men tend to develop such diseases earlier in life, like in their 50s and 60s while for the women, it could be in their 80s.

He said, “One reason for that delay in onset of cardiovascular disease could be that women are relatively iron-deficient compared to men — especially younger women, those in their late teens and early 20s — because of menstruation.

“Also, iron plays a very important part in the reactions in our cells that produce damaging free radicals, which glom onto cell membranes and DNA, and may translate into aging the cell.”

And in the view of Prof. Thomas Kirkwood, a biologist and the director of the Institute for Ageing and Health at Newcastle University in England, there are other reasons women live longer than men.

He said with the kind of hardship and stressful work men do, they tend to drive themselves to an early grave, unlike women who do less stressful jobs and develop healthier habits than men, as most women abstain from smoking and drinking.

He said, “As an experimental gerontologist, I approach this issue from a wider biological perspective, by looking at other animals. It turns out that the females of most species live longer than the males. This phenomenon suggests that the explanation for the difference within humans might lie deep in our biology.

“Many scientists believe that the aging process is caused by the gradual buildup of a huge number of individually tiny faults. This degenerative buildup means that the length of our lives is regulated by the balance between how fast new damage strikes our cells and how efficiently this damage is corrected.

“However, there is evidence from studies in rodents that cells in a female body do repair damage better than in the body of a male and that surgical removal of the ovaries eliminates this difference.”

He said even though women strive for equality with men, they should be consoled by the fact that they are less disposable, in relation to the vital role they play in reproduction and their system is so designed to withstand the stress of carrying a foetus for such a long time and then breastfeed afterwards.

He added, “Could it be that women live longer because they are less disposable in terms of genetic materials than men? This notion, in fact, makes excellent biological sense. In humans, as in most animal species, the state of the female body is very important for the success of reproduction. So, to be less disposable, however, is a blessing that offers some compensation.”

Beyond these, some researchers from Imperial College School of Medicine in London, found that women live longer than men because they have stronger immune system, which helps them to guard against certain ailments even when they are old.

In the research, led by Dr. Richard Aspinall and Dr. Jeffery Pido-Lopez, they monitored the volume of white cells in 46 men and women. They were all aged between 20 and 62 and were all healthy.

At the end of the study, they found that women produce more white blood cells, which are the cells of the immune system that are involved in protecting the body against both infectious disease and foreign invaders, than men.

According to the report, published on Mail Online, even though the thymus gland producing T-lymphocytes for the immune system produced fewer cells as the age increased, women still had higher levels of new T-cells than men of same age with them.

One of the researchers, Pido-Lopez said, “Men are exposed to more hazardous substances at work and take part in activities that are more damaging to health, and risk can explain anything from number of car crash deaths to deaths from colon cancer, but there are probably other factors such as thymic output that contribute to the difference in longevity.”

Commenting on the different reasons, a sociologist, Monday Ahibogwu, also said there are different reasons women live longer than men, including the fact that men are engaged in stressful jobs than women.

“You don’t get women driving trucks or doing some very stressful jobs, so there are a lot of things that women don’t do that put them in a more relaxed social environment,” which, combined with other factors, influence their longevity,” he added.

Most obscene messages I get are from small boys –Wofaifada

                          

With over 200,000 followers on Instagram, Wofai Ewa popularly known as Wofaifada, is one of the funny Nigerian ladies on the social media platform. She tells Ademola Olonilua about her journey to stardom via Instagram

Out of all the social media platforms, which do you use the most?

That would be my Instagram account. I am more vibrant on my Instagram account and I have about 295,000 followers.

How were you able to get such a large number of followers?

 I think it is because of my consistency. I keep producing skits every day and with the hashtag, people watch them, enjoy them and decide to follow my account for more skits.

Which of your skits shot you to internet fame?

I think it was the one I titled ‘My Jacuzzi party’ and it featured Don Jazzy. I invited Don Jazzy for my birthday party but he later called to tell me that he could not make it and his excuse was that he was with Rihanna. He later posted the skit we did together on his Instagram page and it went viral.

How did you feel when you saw your skit on Don Jazzy’s page?

I felt very good with myself and it inspired me to do more. After I did the skit with Don Jazzy, I started calling other A-list artistes telling them that I had a skit with Don Jazzy and I would also love to feature them. I have done skits with the likes of Iyanya, Ycee, Skuki, and virtually all the A-list celebrities in Nigeria. I think it is fun.

You have also been spotted in music videos of top celebrities, was it through your social media activities that you achieved such a feat?

Yes. The first music video I was featured in was Harrysong’s ‘Reggae blues.’ When I got to the set of the video shoot, I did not know I was going to be in the music video because I only accompanied Iyanya there. I gave the director a concept which impressed him and he asked if I could do it. I answered in the affirmative and he gave me a shot. That is how I appeared in my first video shoot.

Did you create your Instagram account to be famous?

I always heard people talk about Instagram, so I decided to join them in 2014 with the aim of uploading my pictures like everybody else because I love taking pictures. There was a day I kept a ladder somewhere and I was playing a funny song at the background; I was only clowning around in the video but when I posted it, the video went viral. As of then, I did not know what was going on because I was still new to the social media platform. Then I did another one which went viral as well and since that day, I have not relented.

What did you study in school?

I studied theatre arts in the University of Calabar.

How do you get ideas for your skits?

Sometimes it is from personal experience. Other times, when I am around people, there is this creative flow that comes to me. The beauty of my work is that everyone can relate with my skits because they are on the happenings around us as we face our everyday life. My environment inspires me. I also think this is a gift from God because sometimes I don’t know how I come up with these ideas.

People see you as a funny and crazy young lady on Instagram, are you like that in real life?

I am not crazy but I don’t like when someone steps on my toe. That is when you see the other side of me. But normally, I am not crazy.

Did you ever imagine you would be this popular when you created your account?

I did not know I was going to be popular through social media; I thought modelling would make me popular because I was a runway model. That’s what I leveraged on in school. Back then, there was nothing like social media. Immediately social media made me popular, I stopped modelling.

Does it mean that chapter of your life is over?

I am not doing runway modelling anymore but I can still do other kinds of modelling like billboards and other forms of advertisements.

Do you get romantic advances from men via your platform?

I do, in fact, I get them every day.

Some people say that they want to hang out with me so that I can talk and make them laugh. Some say they want to have sex with me. The funny thing is that when you look at the people that say these nasty things to me, they are small kids between the ages of 16-18. I call them ‘upcoming men’. They say obscene things about how they want to have sexual intercourse with me but you can never see a responsible person send such a message.

When they send me such nasty messages, I go through their Instagram pages and I see that they are small boys. I just laugh it off and wonder why someone responsible cannot send me a sensible message. It is really crazy. I made the worst mistake of my life when I put my number on my page but I have removed it. I could get a message on my whatsapp and when I check it, I would see inappropriate pictures these young boys sent to me. I can just wake up one morning and when I check my messages, the first thing I would see is an inappropriate and obscene picture on my phone. Some people are crazy.

When you see such messages, what do you do?

I decline to reply. Sometimes I block them or I just laugh it off. If someone wants to take me out on a date, I agree and accept their offer. But when we go out on a date, all we do is take pictures and that is it.

Have you ever got a marriage proposal via Instagram?

Can you share some weird messages you get?

Yes I have but I don’t know if they were actually serious. I normally get messages like, ‘I want to marry you’, or ‘you are a wife material, 100 yards.’ But I don’t know if they are actually serious or they are joking.

Have you ever felt like quitting social media?

Yes.

What happened?

I was depressed at that time. I get easily depressed. I think a lot. I don’t really know what happened that day but I was going through my page and I noticed people were laughing at my jokes and skits. For a moment, it irritated me because I was very upset yet people did not know, they were busy laughing and commenting on my skits. I was on the verge of deleting my account but I had a rethink. There are times I just want to be on my own and stop what I am doing but when I look at the positive feedbacks I get, I continue to forge ahead.

What message are you trying to pass across with your skits?

I try to preach to people that they should be original, they should stop pretending. Sometimes girls approach me and ask why I am exposing most of the ladies’ secrets. If you go through my post, you would understand the reason behind the way some girls act. For example, in my post where I told a guy that I didn’t want madam to come and break my head, that is girls ask guys they have just met if they have a girlfriend without being too direct. Even though some girls complain that I am exposing some trade secrets, it is real life and I am trying to preach to young ladies to be genuine.

Do you make money through your posts?

Sometimes, I wish Instagram was like YouTube where you can monetize your likes and views. I actually make money through gigs and it is courtesy of my social media account. I anchor events and I am also a presenter on EbonyLive TV. I make money from there as well.

Is it right to say that Instagram has opened doors for you?

Yes it has; no doubt about that. It was through Instagram that I got a job at EbonyLife TV. It was through Instagram that I started appearing in movies. I am approached by big brands, like Access Bank, to provide content for them. Nobody came to meet me at home for jobs, I put myself out there, I showed the people what I can offer and my audience found me.

Are you saying that Nigerian youths can make money through social media instead of browsing for fun?

Of course they can. If you check Instagram now, it is like ‘balogun market’. Everybody is a comedian now and it annoys me sometimes because some people are not funny. If you know that you cannot do comedy, try something else. There are so many things that can be done online, so why must everybody be a comedian? You will just see one boy wearing wig on his head, downloading and editing app and he begins to portray himself as a comedian. It annoys me when I see that someone is not funny but he is forcing himself. Try something else. If you want to be creative, you must not wear a wig, all the guys on social media are now wearing wigs.

Have you ever wished you were as popular in real life as you are online?

I think I am popular in real life as well because sometimes when I go out; people stop me to take pictures. I am not as popular in real life as I am on Instagram but I know whenever I step out, people stop me to take pictures and they make me feel as if I am popular in reality as well.

When they see me, they behave as if they have known me for a long time. I was at the beach one day eating, then a guy just came from nowhere and began chatting with me. He started talking about my skits and asked me to feed him from my food. I was shocked. It is very funny. When some people see me, they begin to mimic some of my mannerisms online.

How much does it cost you to post skits online?

If it is a sponsored post, I pay whoever is helping me out. They don’t ask for money but I feel it is fair to pay them. Sometimes, it could be really stressful. If it is not something that I have a passion for, I would have stopped a long time ago because it could be really stressful. I would be under the sun shooting for hours sweating and some of my friends usually to ask if I am being paid for all my stress. At night, I would be awake while everyone else is asleep editing my work. This is my work and I feel excited whenever I am doing it.

Sometimes I shoot for an hour straight. Comedy has to be precise and sharp and that is why people don’t really like going on YouTube. They would rather watch a minute skit and laugh than watch a comedy skit that lasts for an hour because it becomes boring. Sometimes I stay under the sun and shoot for about three hours only to extract a minute from the whole video. You also have to buy editing apps and songs from itunes. It is really stressful and that is why I said that if it was not something that I have a passion for, I would have stopped.