Made in Lagos (1): Star Boy, State Boy, Street Boy and Tinubu’s other Lifebuoys
Wizkid’s 2020 album, Made in Lagos, could be his most successful collection yet. The 14 track album produced by Star Boy Entertainment, his flagship record label, hit the top of the charts in many countries on many counts.
Within a year of its release, the album hit 1 billion streams - 322 million streams on Apple Music, 229 million streams on Spotify, 227 million streams on YouTube, over 140 million streams on Audiomack, and over 40 million streams on Boomplay and 20.1 million streams on Pandora.”
Made in Lagos, his fourth triennial, got him 2 Grammy nominations and facilitated a sold-out concert at the 02 Arena in London. Of equal essence are the sumptuous monetary rewards that have transformed the quintessential Wizkid into a Big Wiz.
The Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has been nicknamed Star Boy and Wizkid by many admirers. And like the musical Wiz, his star appears to shine too with dazzling lights.
The Oba of Benin, Omo N’Oba Ewuare II, while receiving the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, expressed his views on his guest’s shining credentials among other 2023 presidential aspirants:
“No doubt, your credentials, since you have come out to run for this great office, I think you are going to give a lot of problems to all the other contestants.
“There is no gainsaying that they all probably are shivering where they are because your credentials, calmness, humility and great respect for culture and being a true man of God, are frightening.”
Like Wizkid, many shining stars in Nigeria’s national politics today were made in Lagos. And a good number of them apprenticed under Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT), the erstwhile governor of Lagos State.
But in Ojuelegba, his 2014 single, Wizkid muses on his humble beginnings with Mo’ Dogg’s Studio, and his charmed “can’t explain” journey to fortune and fame.
The challenge, however, is that some of the Made in Lagos politicians want to move on to bigger things than what the Tinubu fortune machinery could offer. They crave the freedom to fly as high as their unclipped wings could reach.
These ambitious lot just want to be like Star Boy, whose emancipation to international stardom came after he left Banky W’s Empire Mates Entertainment (EME), where he had recorded his first two hit albums, ‘Superstar’ in 2009, and ‘Ayo (Joy)’ in 2014.
Sadly, they are being told that is not the way it is in politics, especially in South-Western Nigeria, where you were not allowed to rise to greater prominence or to command a higher influence in the same terrain than your political godfather.
From Raji Fashola to Akinnwunmi Ambode, from Yemi Osinbajo to Rauf Aregbesola, and from Jide Sanwoolu to Musiliu Akinsanya, many of these Old Boys from the Foremost Political Academy of Lagos have been labelled and mislabeled as daring and disloyal, traitors and ingrates, or lickspittle and loyal to their Godfather, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the State Man of Lagos politics.
Of course, these ambitious politicians have their different stage names too - Star Boy, Stray Boy, State Boy, and the notable Street Boy, who could be the godfather’s lifebuoy through the uncertain currents of Nigeria’s political waters.
How then do these Made in Lagos politicians fare on their own political charts? Have they also evolved bigger than the State Man of Lagos politics who discovered them?
Assuming each of these ‘Made in Lagos’ politicians got their next private, public or political positions based on some form of merit in their previous position(s), who among them has a track record that’s typical of the Made in Lagos Wizkid?
And who can bring so much goodwill to Nigeria from all over the world as the musical Star Boy has done?
Again, just as Wiz outgrew the space in the mother nests of the likes of Mo Dogg and the nurturing shadows of EME, which among these Made in Lagos politicians ought to move on beyond the Tinubu nest to more challenging heights?
Osinbajo on the Charts
If competitive prizes and recognitions from credible institutions speak of merit and sterling character at all, among the 5 Made in Lagos Politicians in this sample, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has the most prizes in his kitty.
Like Wiz, Yemi Osinbanjo’s own musical career too was made in Lagos. He started his lyrical journey in the gospel genre with hits like Your name is Yahweh, among others. But he has since shifted to R&B.
The Vice President made a comeback in his music career with a big wiz R&B performance at the 2022 UBA's Group Chairman's Forum, with an acapella cover of Ruger’s “Dior”. Nigeria’s hip hop Vice President wove the lyric into the mic, voicing “Badman looking good in Dior.”
However, the artistic criticism of his last R&B outing hinted that the professor could do better with a studio album, gifted backup vocals, and musical accompaniments, than going acapella and solo live on stage.
Besides, his extra-musical career in academia was also made in Lagos. He attended primary, secondary, and tertiary schools in the coastal city. He went on to teach Law at the age of 24 at the University of Lagos, rising through the ranks to become a Professor of Law at the prestigious institution.
Likewise, his political career was made in Lagos. He was appointed the Attorney General of Lagos State and Commissioner for Justice in 1999 by the former Governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Though he’s still struggling to record a hit song or album, the multi-talented Star Boy has made hits in other sectors. Below is one of Professor Yemi Osinbajo’s other sterling performances on the charts.
A similar review of Osinbajo-led judiciary reforms while he served as the Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of Lagos State, contained in a report by the Centre for Public Impact reads:
“Immediately after his election in late 1999, the state governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, created a justice policy committee to review the entire legal system.
“The head of this committee, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, commissioned a widely publicised study that showed the judicial system to be suffering from rampant corruption and severe backlogs … As soon as he was appointed attorney general of Lagos in June 1999, Osinbajo started reforming the entire judiciary.”
The objectives of the reforms, as they related to commercial cases, were to:
Reduce the backlog of cases in the High Court.
Extend the accessibility of the legal system to the wider population.
Reduce the average delays and duration of commercial cases before the civil courts.
Almost all the reforms were carried out between 1999 and 2005. The principal reforms were:
In 2000, as part of the Access to Justice Programme, five free Citizen Mediation Centres were opened in Lagos “as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism”.
“On 22 May 2001, the Lagos Judicial Services Commission appointed 26 judges from diverse backgrounds to the High Court, bringing the number of judges to 50 and reducing the average age of judges from 55 to 44.”
A rules committee was formed to oversee the court rules. From April 2002 to early 2003, the committee met at least weekly to review the existing rules.
In January 2005, the Court Automation Information System (CAIS) went live and began to assign cases randomly to judges, and to calculate court fees automatically. This system helped to reduce the case backlog and the court delays.”
Considering Osinbajo’s impactful and widely reported tenure as Lagos State’s Attorney General, it seems that his life-long experience as a public servant, both at national and international institutions, may have contributed to his relative successes while serving as a political appointee within the country’s state and federal bureaucracies.
However, it is interesting to note that none of the other 4 ‘Made in Lagos’ Politicians in this sample has a civil service experience, except the Vice President.
Many see the 2023 Presidential elections as the bout to either upturn or maintain Professor Yemi Osinbanjo’s lead among his colleagues from Senator Bola Tinubu’s political dynasty in Lagos.
Yet, while Mr Osinbajo, popularly known as Star Boy, leads the current crop of Made in Lagos politicians, in terms of his attainment to the office of the Vice President, it is worthy of note that there’s another kid on the block in the person of Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo.