A recently released World Bank report says no fewer than 4 out of 10 Nigerians are living below the poverty line. Since depression is known to be a travelling partner of poverty and as telecom service providers make cheaper data subscription options available, many Nigerians are taking to watching online comedy skits and stalking their favourite social media influencers online to take their minds off their own gloomy financial situation.

These, among other factors, is fuelling a steady growth in the numbers of online content creators (social media influencers and comedy skit makers) in the country. Some popular online content creators are Lasisi Elenu, Mr Macaroni, Mark Angel Comedy, Sir Balo, Brain Jotter, Sidney Talker, Nasty Blaq, Twinz Love, Amarachi (Ashmusy), Jane Mena, Josh 2 Funny, Ajiianje, Lord Lamba, Twyse, Taaoma, Zfancy, Sabinus or Mr Funny, MC Lively, among others.

As their target market continues to grow, these content creators appear to be swimming in cash and many of them regularly flaunt flashy lifestyles – buying expensive automobiles, migrating into posh neighborhoods (Lekki, Lagos being the preferred choice), spending lavishly at chic nightclubs, and going on vacations to eye-popping destinations.

However, many eyebrows have been raised over the source of their “sudden” wealth, especially as many of their compatriots are in a never-ending battle with poverty.

In fact, so suspicious have people become of content creators’ wealth that the males are routinely derisively tagged ‘Yahoo boys’ (internet fraudsters) and hard drug peddlers and the females ‘oloshos’ (prostitutes), among other uncomplimentary sobriquets.

Recently, a popular Twitter commentator, ‘Daniel Regha’ placed question marks on the grass-to-grace trend of these content creators.

Controversial Nollywood actor and social critic, Uche Maduagwu also took to Instagram to air his opinion on the source of wealth of his colleagues in the entertainment industry.

Although not in the same line as those in the skit making business, it is indeed a noteworthy mention.

He wrote, “700 million Naira House for Ikoyi? Na big Lie! I go comot for this industry If dem talk say na dem buy am.

“God bless our wealthy Naija men. They have been donating luxury mansions to our actresses since 1901. U are more spiritual than physical if u understand this post.”

Similarly, Nigerian sports journalist and broadcaster, Bolarinwa Olajide questioned the financial capability of skit-makers to purchase the mansions they show off online.

He took to Twitter to ask whether property owners and estate developers in Lekki, Lagos have started selling houses as cheap as N1 million.

His comment was made around the time three comediennes and skit makers Amarachi, Sir Balo and Twinz Love flaunted their newly acquired mansions online.

He said: “But seriously, skitmakers and buying houses. Because ko ye mi o (I don’t understand). Shey na N1m dem dey sell house for Lekki ni? Abi another Lekki dey wey I no know?”

Recall this was the same energy and public opprobrium Linda Ikeji received almost a decade ago when she purchased her Banana Island mansion, followed by a Bentley.

The Herald has once again investigated the allegations being levelled against social media influencers and skit makers, and it seems many of these Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter savvy social media professionals are simply laughing to the bank based on their work ethic, large following and ability to command some of the highest advertisement rates in the internet marketing game.

For instance, we gathered the rate cards of 4 popular social media influencers and skit makers, and our calculations give these allegations zero potency.

Take a look:

Lasisi Elenu
Lasisi Elenu, whose real name is Nosa Afolabi, is one of the most recognised faces in the comedy skit space. He commands nearly 9 million followers across four social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. For clarity, the comedian has 1.74 million followers on Facebook, 4 million on Instagram, 1.2 million on Twitter, 145,000 on YouTube and 308,000 on TikTok. One revenue stream for a creator of his standing is Instagram. According to Search Engine Journal, a content creator with 1 million followers in America generates an average of $670 for an Instagram post. As a result of the obvious differences between the American and Nigerian online markets, a creator in Nigeria would generate a third of this sum per post, amounting to $223 (approximately N127,000 at N570/$1). If the creator manages to average a post every two days, he is assured of N1.9 million monthly revenue and N22.8 million annually. While this may not be enough to buy a Lekki home, things become interesting when other revenue streams are taken into consideration. The major revenue stream for a Nigerian online content creator is sponsored posts. Lasisi Elenu charges N1.5 million for one creative video for products and brands, N500,000 for a flyer post, and N500,000 for a video creative repost on Instagram. As Lasisi is one of the most engaged creators in Nigeria, we estimated his earning from these cluster to be in excess of N5 million a month, taking into account an average of two creative videos for products/brands, 2 flyer posts and 2 creative reposts across the social media platforms. In a year, that is a cool N60 million. Lasisi is equally one of the most sought after creatives in the country who gets regularly event invites, which justifies his N2.5 million rate for MC/Compere duties and N1.5 million for event appearance. With one apiece every month, that’s collectively N4 million monthly and N48 million annually.

Without prejudice to other revenue streams which this newspaper may not be privy to, we conservatively estimate that Lasisi Elenu rakes in N130 million annually.

Mr Macaroni
Another balling personality in the online content creation space in Nigeria is Debo Adedayo, aka Mr Macaroni. This notable philanthropist recently revealed that he is a Lekki landlord, although he is known to reside in the highbrow Magodo area of the Lagos mainland. How did Mr Macaroni make the money to acquire a Lekki property and embark on his constant giveaways running into millions on social media, you might ask? We’ll attempt to provide an insight in this piece. Mr Macaroni charges a daily fee of N1 million to feature a client’s photo or video post on his Instagram timeline boasting 2.6 million followers, N1.5 million for a week and N2 million for permanent placement. A featured post on his Instagram story costs a client N300,000 and N500,000 when Facebook is thrown into the mix. To conceptualise and execute content for a client costs N2 million, or N2.5 million, if posting on his YouTube only is involved. It rises to N2.7 million if he is posting on Facebook alone and N2.8 million if he is posting on Instagram alone. Posting such content on these three major channels together costs N3 million. After perusal of Mr Macaroni’s social media handles, we conservatively estimated a revenue inflow of between N100 million to N150 million annually.

Ajiianje
Ikekhua Anthonia, better known as Ajiianje, is a popular influencer on TikTok with 816,000 followers on the video sharing platform. Although not as influential as the previous two, she still commands above average fees for her services. For instance, the popular TikToker charges clients $800 (approximately N350,000) for one video post, $1,700 (N800,000) for two weeks promotion, and $2,700 (N1.5 million) for one-month promotion. Her Instagram rates are a tad lower though, as she charges N200,000 per page post, N20,000 per story post with an option of three story posts for N50,000. Furthermore, Ajiianje charges N200,000 per IG TV post, and N100,000 for a 30-min Instagram Live session. The influencer, who has 177,000 followers on Instagram, charges N500,000 for a two-week promotion and double for a one-month gig. After careful check of her TikTok and Instagram pages, Ajiianje;s yearly earnings from social media influencing could range from N40 million to N60 million.

Josh 2 Funny
Josh 2 Funny, whose real name is Josh Alfred, is a comedian who shot to limelight when he created the #DontLeaveMe challenge that went viral across the globe. Since finding fame, the actor and stand-up comic has consistently improved on his craft to become one of the most versatile in the industry. And his rates reflect the popular saying that ‘hardwork pays’. When working with international brands, Josh 2 Funny, who has 2 million followers on Instagram, charges $6,000 (N3,000,000) for a video skit on his IG timeline, and $8,000 (N4,000,000) if the same skits his posted across his social media platforms. If a client is submitting a photo of video to be shared on the content creator’s IG timeline, they must be willing to cough out $2,000 (N1,000,000) and $3,000 (N1,500,000) for cross-platform posting. When working with SMEs, Josh 2 Funny’s rates range from N750,000 to N2 million, depending on the type of content and platform. For music promotion, the content creator’s rates range from N750,000 to N3 million. A cursory look at the comedian’s social media handles shows he easily rakes in between N50 million and N90 million annually.

So, next time you notice influx of your favourite online content creators into Lekki neighborhoods and Mercedes Benz dealerships, remember that these guys are ‘chopping money!’

Donald A. Latella is the CEO of North Park Commodities, LLC, a commodities trading firm based in Easton, Connecticut, United States of America.

In this interview, Latella narrated to The Herald how he was allegedly defrauded of approximately $16 million by one Umar Bida, a Nigerian business associate who is currently being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

EFCC first arraigned Bida alongside seven others – Truth Igogori, Ifenyinwa Nwankwesiri and Ogechukwu Obaji, Universal Contractors, Lambda Energy Services Limited, Double Wonder Concept Limited, and ICS Energy Services Limited – for crude oil scam before Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court sitting in Maitama, Abuja in February 2017.

Since then, not much has been heard about the case.

Latella spoke about his long wait for justice. Excerpt…

Could you give a brief background into North Park Commodities, LLC’s operations especially as it relates to business dealings in Nigeria? And how did your company, North Park Commodities LLC, come to be associated with Umar Audu Bida?

I have been in business since 1998. I started with miscellaneous brokers selling BLCO and refined fuels. I started with the refined fuels with Rosneft affiliates and other refineries selling and purchasing Jet fuel and Diesel.

North Park, LLC is the parent company and North Park Commodities, LLC is a subsidiary of North Park, LLC. We also have an Aviation division, and we have an Energy Company.

I have been working heavily in Nigeria since 2014 when a Nigerian Broker living in the US by the name of OBI introduced me to Umar Bida. Now this broker was an Attorney but was disbarred for doing something unethical, but he did remain functioning like a Mandate for Mr. Bida. I would prefer not to disclose his name because he lives now in the US and has five children. He is a very nice person and honestly, he was just as frustrated at Mr. Bida as we were so I would prefer to keep him out of the limelight as they say.

You said that your company was defrauded in a business dealing with Bida and some other accused persons currently being prosecuted by the EFCC. Could you shed more light on this claim?

The requirement at the time was for us to supply Mr. Bida via his Banker an Instrument for $100,000,000 US dollars cash backed and confirmed. Mr. Bida presented lifting documents and an allocation holder letter that appeared legitimate to us at the time, so we proceeded with our first loaded fresh Vessel slated for Rotterdam. Mr. Bida was friends with his Banker and confirmed that his banker accepted our Instrument. The Vessel was presold to my exit buyer who had the Inspection team from SGS waiting at the dock in Rotterdam as the Vessel arrived.

The issue in this transaction started when Mr. Bida told me to ignore the captain’s notification that he was approaching Rotterdam Port for Inspection and discharge. Mr. Bida said he would respond and take care of everything. We waited for the Vessel to anchor which it did, but it did not communicate any message to us to board for Inspection. The next thing we know is the Vessel lifted anchor and discharged into someone else’s tanks while my exit buyer looked on from the dock in disbelief. I was selling the product with a $2.00 profit per barrel based on 2 million Barrels after commissions were paid and that would have netted me $4,000,000 US dollars net. I am not quite sure where the newspapers or the media and even the EFCC got information that we placed $1M down for the Vessel when it was a $100,000,000 US Dollar Documentary letter of credit.

This process was explained as an error and Mr. Bida claimed he would immediately obtain a new Vessel for us. This scenario repeated itself (4) times with four different Vessels. Each time Mr. Bida supplied cargo documents for each Vessel but what we did not know is that him and (7) other Companies conspired to sell the product to various sources in Rotterdam. Mr. Bida had duplicate documents drafted and now he had lifting documents in my Company name and the name of the company he sold the fuel to. Basically, using me for our Instrument to load the Vessels every time. Ammeh O. Ammeh representing 1st and 5th defendants and R. O. Attabo standing for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, and 8th defendants, through oral applications prayed the court to admit their clients to bail.

A point you have consistently made is that you did not lose $1 million as claimed by the EFCC in a case before the Federal High Court of Nigeria but $16 million. How is that?

To reiterate, the media and the EFCC somehow had misinformation on the loss. It was not a $1 million US Dollar upfront payment. We literally had a $100,000,000 US dollar DLC instrument placed with Mr. Bida’s banker. Now remember the Instrument was placed and his banker confirmed the Instrument and that is how Mr. Bida leveraged to load (4) vessels to Rotterdam carrying 2 million barrels each. The Banker when confronted after we stopped going along with this after four lost vessels claimed he was only the custodian of the Instrument. Now he was not the custodian when they loaded (4) Vessels and sailed them out to Rotterdam it was only afterwards that he became the “custodian”. In addition, one of the brokers in this conspiracy to defraud was a banker at Main Street Bank. From what I understand there are (2) bankers that were charged but that is all I know.

The 62-year-old suspect, who was picked up by EFCC operatives on Tuesday, September 15, at his residence on Gumel Road, Kaduna, was in possession of fake documents pertaining to the lifting of crude by the vessels, MT Antarctic, MT Sonangol Namibe and MT Caped Bowen.

You also have expressed reservations about EFCC’s handling of the case. What do you think the anti-graft agency can do better?

My issue with the EFCC is that this case has been ongoing since 2014. It took months just to get the EFCC to acknowledge our complaint. I think the EFCC should have someone dedicated to responding to formal complaints with a Petition and scanned documents with an acknowledgement letter and a case number. I also think they should make sure they know the exact numbers when it comes to dollar figures. I do not even know where the $ 1 Million dollar story came from. Each vessel would have netted us $4,000,000 US dollars in net profit based on the current market selling price to us and our exit buyer purchasing this fuel from us. Our exit spent many thousands of dollars with the Inspection company to reserve time for an inspection only to walk away empty handed.

What in your opinion would serve the interest of justice in the case?

I appreciate you asking me this last question because after almost (7) years nobody has ever had the courtesy of asking me this question. I believe justice would be for all ( Defendants to be forced to pay restitution to my company for my loss. I am 63 years old and semi-retired and placed my heart and soul into these four vessels only to be defrauded by a group of greedy CEOs. I even offered for Mr. Bida and others to settle with me out of respect for me placing the instrument that help lined their pockets. My Attorney at the time Mr. Patrick Etim offered a settlement to their Attorneys and they said they will fight this to the very end. Do I want to see anyone go to prison? No, but I do want restitution if that answers the question in a more direct way.

My question is why Companies want to defraud someone just to make a little extra profit. I have many friends and associates in Nigeria and in the US, and they have all encouraged me to keep this fight up. The EFCC has not once ever contacted me to advise me of the progress of the proceedings, not once. My Attorney went to several court hearings where the Defendants attempted to dismiss the case, but the Judge denied their request on all levels. Since then, the court docket has kicked this case down the road for almost (7) years. I do know in 2018 the prosecutor wanted the case transferred to another judge, there was some form of politics going on and accusations against the Judge, but I did not get involved and just waited for progress. It is going to be 2022, we started this process in 2017 even though it started prior to that. 2017 is when the EFCC acknowledged the case.

In conclusion, all I want is some form of settlement from this group of ( Companies that conspired against me. This has been many hard years of attempting to gain traction and I periodically call my Attorney to see if there is any chance of obtaining a settlement. I think it is so unfair to work so hard and have people just literally steal from you like you are not worthy of making a living. I have never been discouraged from working with my associates in Nigeria because I know this is the type of fraud that makes it difficult for them to sell and purchase product. I cannot let this crush my spirit or move me away from working with your Country. I refuse to allow stereotypes to speak negatively about Nigeria because every country has their bad apples, and we cannot lose faith in humanity. I pray everyday that a Judge will bring these people to the front of the line and make them settle with me. I pray for that everyday. I was literally ready for retirement then until this happened.

Now you have the real story of what happened in these transactions and what I have been going through to keep it alive. Of course, I would love to obtain my full profit which would equate to a lot more money today, but I would settle for less just to close the books. I think out of ( Companies they can pool their money together and make this right. From what I understand they are gambling that they get away with this crime, but the question is if they do not, I believe the Judge might give them very long prison sentences.

A 57-year-old trader, Mrs. Chima Udemi, told an Igando Customary Court in Lagos on Wednesday that husband, Tobechukwu, was an unrepentant adulterer who has slept with her sister.

Udemi, responding to a suit filed by Tobechukwu, who had accused her of Infidelity.

“Tobechukwu is a serial womaniser, he sleeps with my younger sister and my friends.

“He once abandoned me and our seven children and relocated to his mistress’ house.

“He is an irresponsible husband and father. I struggled, doing unpleasant jobs to feed my children.

“He lives with me in the house I single-handedly built, eats my food, drinks my water and still frustrates my life.

“If my husband insists on divorcing me, he should be ready to move out of my house,” she said.

The mother of seven urged the court to grant her husband’s request for the dissolution of their marriage.

“When I die, he should not come for my burial. And I can assure you that when he dies, I will never attend his burial,” she said.

The petitioner, Tobechukwu, prayed the court to dissolve his 33-year-old marriage accusing wife of Infidelity.

“My wife is having an affair with a man from her village. She also abandoned me and the children for 10 years.

“She deserted her matrimonial home to unknown destination for 10 years, she just returned in 2020,” he said.

After listening to both parties, the President of the Court, Mr Adeniyi Koledoye, directed the estranged couple to maintain peace.

Koledoye adjourned the case until Sept.21 for further hearing.(NAN)