Akeem Oyalowo

A poet. an Arsenal fan. A muslim. A Yoruba-Nigerian. Regional Trade Marketing Manager covering West Africa. worked on brands you've used or currently using.

[Akeem Oyalowo @keemside]

@therealone_kay Ghana's 2010 team was it's best ever team. So many leaders and performers in one squad.

[Akeem Oyalowo @keemside]

Biggest mistake was leaving Galatasaray the first time. He was a shining star in that team and they won league with him scoring double figures from the wing. He should have done everything to stay in a club where he had stability.

It also didn't help that Rohr didn't use him throughout the time his club form was so good.

[Akeem Oyalowo @keemside]

@toluogunlesi 'fearlessly associated with Obasanjo and IBB' can be questioned on the platform that Obasanjo was in prison for most of Abacha's time in office. Unless it's documented that he visited Obasanjo in prison while Abacha held sway?

[Akeem Oyalowo @keemside]

I am married to a Ghanaian. Stepdad to 2 wonderful Ghanaian kids, all living in Lagos. In Fola-agoro where i grew up, the hospital my family used was owned by a Ghanaian. Even when the hospital location moved, we still continued to patronize them for their services. The owner, Dr Mensah, was a well loved guy within in Fola-Agoro in 80s and 90s, when i was growing up. I know i got treatment there many times.
Ghanaians in Nigeria assimilate and blend into Nigeria very quickly. I have a lot of Half Ghanaian friends here in Nigeria but i will give 2 interesting examples:
i have a friend whose grandma was the (Iyaloja) women's market leader in Iseyin, Oyo state. She was a Ghanaian who moved to Nigeria after she got married. she established her business inside the market in Iseyin where her husband lived and eventually was chosen to be the market leader by her peers inside the market.
I have another friend whose dad did his masters as Legon, met his mum and moved with her to Ogbomosho after graduation. Despite my friend's dad becoming a lecturer (and eventually, a professor) at university of Ibadan, which is 2 hours away, his mum chose to stay back in Ogbomosho and has been living there for the past 40 years or more.
Ogbomosho town is 4 and half hours drive from Lagos but the people of that town had a reputation for having a large communiy from there, who lived and worked in Ghana. They are proud of the Ghanaian influence they brought back and they created an association for it. Up till today, in Ogbomosho, there are local restaurants which serve Ghanaian dishes like Waakye, Banku and Light soup.

[Akeem Oyalowo @keemside]

I think what the government of Ghana has done is very good and it should be applauded but it is by no means the first time a government will react to xenophobic attacks of their citizens on South Africa, therefore, saying that when Ghana acted is when other African governments woke up is untrue.

The last time South African mobs went on rampage like this, Nigeria sent a planes to airlift willing returnees from South Africa and some people took the opportunity to return. Same opportunity has been provided here also for Nigerians willing to return. The only difference has been that Nigeria is not making its actions on this as public as Ghana has done.

The government of Botswana has also been vocal about the current situation in South Africa, so nobody is taking any lessons from whatever Ghana is doing to protect her citizens.

Above all, South Africa should not be singled out for the current action of some of her citizens. Both Nigeria and Ghana have history of doing this to each other. As recently as last year, there were Ghanaians who publicly marched and some took physical actions to lockdown Nigerian shops in Accra and this is separate from the ones which happened against Nigerians in Kumasi 4 or 5 years ago. In one of the particular cases, Nigeria had to send the speaker of the national assembly to engage with Ghanaian authorities.

It is important that citizens who seek to live in other people's lands to respect the law and be there legally. It is important that those who may want to break the laws in one country be exposed by their own compatriots to ensure that as a foreign community, they can vouch that they do not knowingly harbor criminal elements. To that extent, one can understand South Africans who view foreigners in that light.

However, actions against foreigners should always be government led. There have been multiple raids of Nigerian prostitutes who are rounded up and deported from Ghana in the recent past. This can easily be done by South Africa. Drug dealers can be sentenced to death as the Arab countries do. However when mobs take action both the innocent and the guilty will be rounded up together and punished, as we continue to see from the images from South Africa. This is what needs to happen. Actions against foreigners should be done by the government, not mobs.

[Akeem Oyalowo @keemside]

The challenge is that we have not honored our track and field athletes, the way we have honored the footballers.

Chidi Imoh, Ezenwa brothers, Kayode Oluyemi, Olapade Adeniken, Demi Aliu etc to mention the men.

Mary Onyali, Charity Opara, Christy Opara-Thompson, Fatima Yusuf, Faliliat Ogunkoya, to mention the women

These are all heroes still waiting to be celebrated for the amazing service they rendered for Nigeria. They dominated Africa and kept our name on the medals table at the Olympics, especially in relays.

Our refusal to honor them has also played a part in not being able to hand down our heritage of domination of the sprint events in athletics. If Jamaica can dominate as they have been doing for 20 years now and Botswana can come from nowhere 3 years ago, to now dominate some sprint events in the world, we can still get it right and our past heroes can help us along that path.

I read somewhere recently that Endurance Ojokolo was appointed a national athletics coach in one Arab country. That's a legend of Nigerian athletics, unheralded at home, acknowledged abroad.

[Akeem Oyalowo @keemside]

The challenge is that we have not honored our track and field athletes, the way we have honored the footballers.

Chidi Imoh, Ezenwa brothers, Kayode Oluyemi, Olapade Adeniken, Demi Aliu etc to mention the men.

Mary Onyali, Charity Opara, Christy Opara-Thompson, Fatima Yusuf, Faliliat Ogunkoya, to mention the women

These are all heroes still waiting to be celebrated for the amazing service they rendered for Nigeria. They dominated Africa and kept our name on the medals table at the Olympics, especially in relays.

Our refusal to honor them has also played a part in not being able to hand down our heritage of domination of the sprint events in athletics. If Jamaica can dominate as they have been doing for 20 years now and Botswana can come from nowhere 3 years ago, to now dominate some sprint events in the world, we can still get it right and our past heroes can help us along that path.

I read somewhere recently that Endurance Ojokolo was appointed a national athletics coach in one Arab country. That's a legend of Nigerian athletics, unheralded at home, acknowledged abroad.

[Akeem Oyalowo @keemside]

The challenge is that we have not honored our track and field athletes, the way we have honored the footballers.

Chidi Imoh, Ezenwa brothers, Kayode Oluyemi, Olapade Adeniken, Demi Aliu etc to mention the men.

Mary Onyali, Charity Opara, Christy Opara-Thompson, Fatima Yusuf, Faliliat Ogunkoya, to mention the women

These are all heroes still waiting to be celebrated for the amazing service they rendered for Nigeria. They dominated Africa and kept our name on the medals table at the Olympics, especially in relays.

Our refusal to honor them has also played a part in not being able to hand down our heritage of domination of the sprint events in athletics. If Jamaica can dominate as they have been doing for 20 years now and Botswana can come from nowhere 3 years ago, to now dominate some sprint events in the world, we can still get it right and our past heroes can help us along that path.

I read somewhere recently that Endurance Ojokolo was appointed a national athletics coach in one Arab country. That's a legend of Nigerian athletics, unheralded at home, acknowledged abroad.

[Akeem Oyalowo @keemside]

@Ogidan_Akinola @atolubee Now following you sir. Please do not relent in your efforts and always keep us updated.

[Akeem Oyalowo @keemside]

@DOlusegun the govt can arrest him for spreading fake news and send him to jail without option of fine. This way, others will learn better.

Perhaps the govt has not seen it yet that the reaction of the opposition is to cause mayhem through viral fake news, sponsorship of subversive elements to cause chaos and commotion and perhaps violence.

People like this stupid clown will then be their amplifiers of their content, whether real or fake. At least the fair is illegal and they should not go unpunished.

[Akeem Oyalowo @keemside]

@Olaogun_ @PSG_English And when you find those agents and scouts, don't message them publicly like this. Do it through DMs or send your clips to their emails.

[Akeem Oyalowo @keemside]

Instead of sending messages direct to clubs, you should be sending messages direct to agents and scouts who can get you direct access to clubs, if the clips you are sharing actually shows you have potential.

You are more likely to get responses from agents and scouts than clubs themselves.

[Akeem Oyalowo @keemside]

It seems you've forgotten so soon the west ham game in which Odegaard came in literally laid the goal on a plate for Trossard to score.

If you've forgotten so soon, a game played 3 weeks ago, hoe many others played before then, can't you remember, especially since you are smarting from a defeat and are looking for a scapegoat?

[Akeem Oyalowo @keemside]

Agree with everything except the captain part. Yes, Rice has leadership qualities, so does many of the players and that includes Gabriel and Saliba, Timber and Saka. All of them have played with such pride and leadership despite being under the captaincy of Odegaard.

Odegaard has endured a lot snide remarks such as this and has had niggling injuries limiting his stay in the team, but grabbing the game by the neck like he did, won us the game at West Ham. And there are countless other examples of him driving the team to wins over the past 4 seasons of closely fighting for titles.

Arsenal will not be a team of one leader, which the move to make Rice the captain will signify, especially since the team has other leaders who have been in the team for longer and have done superbly well also.

[Akeem Oyalowo @keemside]

It's not strange. Referees know who the organisers favor before every final/knockout match and when the margins become as tight as this, they know how to tip the scales. What the referee did today exemplifies this.

The refusal to allow Arsenal play the corner kick he blew at the end of the first half for time wasting is very cynical and is an example of a red showing clear disgust at one of the teams he's officiating.

The Saka Yellow card was an attempt at intimidation, given how close he was to the action and how late he blew his whistle, after which he gave a card.

His over protection of Joao Neves as if he's his son and he must not be touched.

His immediate flashing of a yellow card at Rice, after he complained about the foul on Madueke which going by the standards deployed to give PSG a penalty, should have been an obvious penalty.

The refusal of VAR to check the Madueke foul reeks of bias beyond the pay grade of the ref himself.

The idea that a ref who was always quick to back his calls against Arsenal with follow-up scolding, whilst he remained oblivious of the rotational fouling of Neves, Doué, Mendes throughout the match suggests that he's been asked to look away by the powers that be.

[Akeem Oyalowo @keemside]

@Omojuwa The referee from the first half did not allow us to play a corner kick he himself gave. He would never have done that to PSG, given what he has done afterwards.

[Akeem Oyalowo @keemside]

Qatar is the one funding European referees. This referee has not hidden his bias from the beginning.

#UEFA #Arsenal

[Akeem Oyalowo @keemside]

@fkeyamo But Mosquera over Timber is an issue. Mosquera had big issues against Burnley, playing in that position. Let's hope for better today.

[Kadali. @ZuntuAbdulfatah]

Congratulations to those who boldly and confidently share the Glorious Qur’an🤍.

[Akeem Oyalowo @keemside]

@SirJarus My house at Freeman Street Ebute Metta East.