Farewell, Professor Kola Oyewo
Farewell, Oba Lapite
I am deeply saddened by the passing of Professor Kola Oyewo—scholar, actor, teacher, cultural ambassador, and dear colleague.
I had the privilege of working with him on Koseegbe, Oleku and Saworoide where he gave a memorable performance as Oba Lapite. His portrayal brought depth, dignity, and humanity to the role, making the character one of the film’s most enduring figures.
Ironically, Lapite’s death in the story created a challenge for me as a filmmaker. Once he was publicly executed by Lagata, I could not bring Kola Oyewo back into the narrative. I missed him then.
Today, I miss him again.
Kola Oyewo belonged to a rare generation that successfully bridged scholarship and performance. He inspired countless students, actors, and audiences through his talent, humility, and lifelong commitment to learning, culture, theatre and film.
Nigeria has lost a remarkable artist.
Farewell, Professor Kola Oyewo.
Farewell, Oba Lapite.
Your legacy will endure in the stories you told and the lives you touched.
Ire ni o.
TK
Farewell, Professor Kola Oyewo
Farewell, Oba Lapite
I am deeply saddened by the passing of Professor Kola Oyewo—scholar, actor, teacher, cultural ambassador, and dear colleague.
I had the privilege of working with him on Koseegbe, Oleku and Saworoide where he gave a memorable performance as Oba Lapite. His portrayal brought depth, dignity, and humanity to the role, making the character one of the film’s most enduring figures.
Ironically, Lapite’s death in the story created a challenge for me as a filmmaker. Once he was publicly executed by Lagata, I could not bring Kola Oyewo back into the narrative. I missed him then.
Today, I miss him again.
Kola Oyewo belonged to a rare generation that successfully bridged scholarship and performance. He inspired countless students, actors, and audiences through his talent, humility, and lifelong commitment to learning, culture, theatre and film.
Nigeria has lost a remarkable artist.
Farewell, Professor Kola Oyewo.
Farewell, Oba Lapite.
Your legacy will endure in the stories you told and the lives you touched.
Ire ni o.
TK
Applications are still open for the Ventures Platform AI Foundry — a 9-week technical programme built for startups that are serious about shipping production-ready AI products.
There are only 50 spots and they are filling up fast. If you are a CTO, VP of Engineering, or Head of Product at a startup operating across Africa, this is a programme you want to be in.
The ecosystem is maturing. But the data infrastructure has not kept pace. The conversation about exits in African VC has remained, until now, more anecdote than evidence.
Together with Stears, we spent months building the most comprehensive picture of VC exits and liquidity ever assembled for this market. 181 verified exits. A decade of data. And a story that the ecosystem has needed to tell for a long time.
Now we want to talk about it.
Registration link here: https://t.co/XamcIxlA71
On Friday, May 15, we are bringing together the researchers who wrote the report, LPs, GPs, DFIs, Founders and Operators who have lived these findings firsthand, for an honest, evidence-led conversation about where African VC exit and liquidity stands today, and what it will take to deepen it.
Each powerhouse on this panel has built this data, lived it, and made decisions because of it. These are the people closest to the data, the deals, and the decisions.
Seats are limited. If you are interested in joining the conversation, please click the link above.
See you soon.
#VCLiquidityReport #SVLExitIndex #Stears #VenturesPlatform
Yaa Amponsah is one of the songs that helped shape West African music, especially Ghanaian highlife. Its sound and rhythm became part of the foundation for a lot of modern African music. Legends like E.K. Nyame, Koo Nimo and Pat Thomas have all given the song their own flavor.
I blended it with Ferrari by @yemialadee and it fits like a glove. Enjoy 💜🦅
My dad had a similar experience. He owned three FMCG stores in Yaba, Tejuosho to be precise. After the war he didn't even come back to Lagos immediately because he felt he might not be welcome.
Instead he moved to PH then to Sapele and started doing imports of sewing machines (many Igbo people started itinerant sewing which led them to Okrika).
He couldn't crack the business however so his friend who had moved to Cotonou asked him to come join him. On his way there he passed through Lagos and decided to stop by his former area (two full years after the war ended) and found out that his long term neighbor a Yoruba man had kept his 3 shops running, restocking it and keeping all the records.
When he saw my dad he told him he'd been looking for a way to reach him since the war ended, even sending messages but post war craziness meant no way to find him. He totaled the money he'd managed plus the cost of buying the stores and everything added up to £9,000.
That's what my dad took plus the £6,000 he made from selling off his old business and started doing shoe and textile imports in Lome from 1973 onwards.
Many such cases.
At our corporate retreat last year in Lakowe Lakes, I invited @Babajiide to speak to the team and he graciously agreed.
He delivered an excellent presentation but something else happened. As we chatted after his speech, he mentioned that he had a KPI dashboard that he tracked weekly with his own team. He showed me on his laptop and I begged him to share with me. He laughed and said a very frank no.
So I got to work. By January 5th, I’d built my own dashboard tracking 150 KPIs across the business. I shared with my management team and ask them to remove the ones they thought were not relevant to track weekly.
So in Q1, we sat down every Tuesday for one hour to go over 98 KPIs across finance, ops, HR, product, sales, marketing and CX.
In the first 3 weeks, I won’t lie, it was very daunting. A little bit of fatigue set in, but I begged them not to get tired.
Now the benefit is that, very quickly, everyone becomes ridiculously smart about the business. You can immediately see what is working and what is failing and you have time to course correct where necessary.
And it was very rewarding because together we were able to deliver nearly 46% QoQ growth. A lesson in leveraging community, humility and applying what you learn.
So thank you again, @Babajiide, even though you no share your dashboard with me 😅