₦airaland Forum

naptu2:
4) Prime People And Vintage People

These were the major Nigerian gossip magazines at that time. Think of them as the Linda Ikeji Blog and Stella Dimoko Korkus of the 1980s.

Prime People was founded in 1985 and it quickly became the biggest selling publication in Nigeria. Whenever the vendor came to the house, rather than the office (which was usually at the weekends), my sisters would immediately request for Prime People in addition to the two papers we bought every day. I believe Prime People usually hit the newsstands on Fridays.

Vintage People appeared in 1987 due to a split in Prime People.

Prime People covered stories about who was having an affair with whom, who bought what car, why did a star leave a TV series, disputes between music stars, how much did a famous person’s coffin cost, etc.

Prime People and Vintage People competed for exclusives and scoops on the Wedding Of The Century (Lanre Tejuosho weds Moji Okoya) in 1987. They reported about the items that the two families were procuring for the wedding and the cost of the wedding, who attended the wedding, who was on the bandstand at the two all-night parties (Sunny Ade and Ebenezer Obey), the gifts that the couple got (including cars and houses), the souvenirs that were distributed at the wedding (including Eleganza products), etc.

Prime People also reported the insane Harold Shodipo scandal in the 1980s and early 1990s. A wealthy man, Chief Harold Shodipo, who is a good friend of the Ooni of Ife, sued for divorce from his wife (they had been separated since 1983). He claimed that the Ooni of Ife was having affairs with both his wife and his daughter. The wealthy man’s daughter, who was a young lawyer, appeared in court as the Ooni’s counsel. Years later, the wealthy man’s daughter got married to the Ooni of Ife (who was her father’s former friend).

I think it was also Prime People that broke the story about the affair between Bianca Onoh and Odumegwu Ojukwu.

Vintage People deviated at a point and started publishing stories about juju and all that crap (they wanted to add something extra to the gossip stories that they regularly published. They wanted something to differentiate them from Prime People). That put me off a bit. However, I still read them occasionally because two of my favourite journalists from Prime People, Desola Rajifuja (later Desola Bakare) and Kunle Bakare both moved to Vintage People. Kunle wrote about cars and I’ve forgotten what Desola’s column was about, but I never missed it. They later got married.

naptu2:
11)Ikebe Super, Lolly

These were slightly erotic and very hilarious comics.

Ikebe Super followed the exploits of the Ajasco Family and their friends Boy Alinco, Miss Pepeye and Pa Jimoh. Ikebe Super was not very explicit but there were lots of sexual inuendos, especially in scenes that featured Papa Ajasco.

Lolly was a much more sexually explicit comic book. It starred Dauda The Sexy Guy, whose solution to every problem was sex. In fact, I would describe him as a rapist. He often got into trouble because of his sexual escapades.

naptu2:
12) Benbella

This was an action/detective comic book that was popular in the 1980s.

13) Newswatch

This was the most popular Nigerian politics, economics and current affairs magazine. It covered major political stories and it was shut down several times by the military governments of the 1980s and 1990s. One of its journalists, Dele Giwa, was killed by a parcel bomb and several of its journalists were arrested.


14) Guardian Express, Evening Times, Lagos Weekend

Guardian Express and Evening Times were evening papers that were popular in the 1980s. Guardian Express was owned by The Guardian Newspaper, while Evening Times was owned by the Daily Times. There were several other evening papers at that time, but I can’t remember their names.

The evening papers usually hit the newsstands around 4:30 or 5pm, so they were able to report the major events that had occurred that day (government decisions were usually made during office hours, but TV stations did not air their first news broadcasts until 7pm, so the evening papers bridged the gap). The evening papers usually carried the first stories about riots, changes in government policy, etc.

However, such major stories did not occur every day and the evening papers needed something to fill their papers with, so the evening papers were better known for publishing (1) weird and funny stories from divorce court (2) weird crime stories (3) TV and radio schedules of almost all radio and TV stations in the country (4) weird and sometimes funny stories about sex and (5) cartoons, crossword puzzles, jokes, riddles and quizzes.

The evening papers were usually sold on weekdays. They were not sold at weekends.

Lagos Weekend carried similar stories as the evening papers, but it was sold on Fridays, so it did not usually publish the breaking news that the evening papers published. Instead it published information about concerts and events that were to take place that weekend.

15) Drum Magazine (the Nigerian edition) and Spear Magazine

These were Nigerian versions of South African lifestyle magazines. They were published by Daily Times and were very popular in the 1970s. They published stories about African musicians, politicians, sports stars, food, fashion, health, social issues and other issues that affect Africans. They also had a “girl of the month” feature (Miss January, Miss February, etc.) which was like the page 3 girl feature in the newspapers. Drum Magazine vanished from the newsstands in the early 1980s. I still don’t know why.

There were many Drum-like magazines that were published in Nigeria in the 1970s, but I can’t remember any of their names. I remember that they were smaller than most magazines (they were novel size) and another significant difference between them and Drum was that they oftentimes featured half naked women. You might be reading an article about food or fashion and you turn the page and see a topless girl at Bar Beach. It was quite jarring.

koxyz:
Those are the days when we still have the reading culture intact, the emergency of internet in the early 90s change the whole atmosphere.

richiemcgold:
We used to refer to all newspapers as Daily Times. I used to say Dele Times back then as a kid

Ikebe super was the first I could identify as a kid but I could not read, I would only go through the pictures. I started reading many years later in late 80s/early 90s. My favourite were Hints magazine, Hearts and Better Lover. I loved Sunday Punch too (my dad always bought it), Tunde Fagbenle was my favourite column. It was Tell magazine that evoked the spirit of activism in me. I loved reading Gani Fawehinmi's interviews. That's why as a secondary school student in 1994, I joined June 12 protest with my classmates.

.. gone are those days

ChiefOloye:
It is not true, it is mere nostalgia. Nigeria has never been a 'good' country in the way some people remember. It is simply that life became less complicated due to modern access to things like the internet and mobile phones. In the past, there was no electricity or good roads. Very few people could afford imported used cars, build sizeable houses, or send their children to higher institutions. I remember in 1994/95, families couldn't even afford a loaf of bread or a whole tuber of yam, raw yams were sold in slices and using a kerosene stove was considered a luxury. While those specific things are changing, life remains very difficult.
However, with more corruption, yahoo and ritual, life seems to be softer now.

Idontknowyou:
Damn, this give this Nostalgic feeling. Men feels like a lot have changed in this world...

No more honesty amongst us

EmptyGarden:
IKEBE SUPER!
You’d find the likes of Nakson and Pa Jimo here.

EyeCumInPiece:
What about this legend,
Dauda the ........ guy. 😁

EmptyGarden:
IKEBE SUPER!
You’d find the likes of Nakson and Pa Jimo here.

EmptyGarden:
IKEBE SUPER!
You’d find the likes of Nakson and Pa Jimo here.

victorazyvictor:
Yaa Ikebe super.

My cousin was the one drawing the cartoon then when he was studying architecture in NEKEDE Owerri.

DonEd:
Honestly, life back then formed a proper base for the intellects. All we had was books and magazines, u had no choice but to be interested in reading.

Life was simple, everyone respected themselves and each other despite social strata. People visited each other and it would be lots of gist.The advent of advanced technology brought about this divide where folks consider themselves superior or out of the common league.

Having even 10naira made one look like a billionaire cos you could get stuffs to push you till the next day(s) .

Women were jewels then, precious and adored. Wooing them was like JAMB.

Then we had neighbours who were actually closer then siblings. Street friends were golden especially when it comes to time of play or other activities.

Too many things to talk about jare.


I miss those days mehn!

victorazyvictor:
Yaa Ikebe super.

My cousin was the one drawing the cartoon then when he was studying architecture in NEKEDE Owerri.