My five fabulous Nigerians

We all have people who simply delight or inspire us, don’t we? These are usually people who give you some ‘x’ feeling, whether that means you want to be with them, be like them or just hear, smell, touch and watch them as they live out their lives. I’ve my own such Nigerians, five of whom I glorify here today. These are the five Nigerians by whose spirit (in the past few years at least) I feel constantly enchanted and challenged on account of their individual gutsiness, energy, unbridled passion, sincerity and tenacious dedication to how they do their ‘thing’.

Kaffy (Kafayat Shafau)

Four words - passionate, creative, talented and energetic – perhaps describe this young woman. A few years ago you were considered wayward and, for a female, an ‘ashewo’ to be a dancer in musical videos in Nigeria. Enter the likes of Kafayat Shafau, and parents themselves are today queuing up to enroll their children for dance lessons across the country.

With a dance/mentoring academy – Imagneto Dance Academy –, A-list appearances in musical videos and a Guinness World Records entry (in 2006, she danced for 55 hours and 40 minutes non-stop) to her name, Kaffy has helped elevate the art of dance in the country. Not only that, she has also undisputedly helped to build the foundation for what is becoming a professional dance industry in Nigeria, and in the process, becoming arguably the foremost dancer/music video choreographer in the country. The most admirable part of it is that Kaffy never attended a formal dance school. Rather, through an unquenchable desire to be better always, sheer ‘opportunism,’ passion and energy, she has revolutionalised dance in Nigeria. She is certainly a pointer for many young people in our society.

Pee Jay

PJ is my eight-year-old cousin, Alexander. PJ is the name that has stuck with him ever since when, as a toddler he would insist on picking his clothes to wear by himself only to end up combining attires in which he looked so funny that we would jokingly liken him to Pa James of the Papa Ajasco comedy drama series. The name stuck on further on account of his unpardonable and almost incurable spoonerism and malapropism, a la Papa Ajasco’s Pa James.

This little terror is loudmouthed, stubborn as a he-goat, inquisitive as a philosopher and daring as Don Quixote. PJ may not be top of the class in school, but a constant B and B+ student is not a bad one either. And with his keen interest in and fair share of knowledge of subjects like current affairs, sports, (especially football), books and entertainment, he gives me more reason to always strive to expand my base of knowledge, for you never know in which subject you may have to explain an issue to him next. Ultimately, it is his intuition, self-confidence and remarkable tenacity, as well as his don’t-you-just-try-to-mess-with-my-sanity attitude that endears him to and ennobles many of us who know him.

Funmi Iyanda

Broadcaster/talk show host, media producer, MC, writer/columnist/blogger, all of award winning proportion - that is Olufunmilola Aduke Iyanda. She is also a philanthropist and an advocate for women/children, although FI, as we her fans love to call her, would tell you that she is no philanthropist but just a woman living her life the way she knows how to. The female broadcaster/writer axis of Ruth Benemesia Opia, Bimbo Oloyede, Chris Anyanwu and Bunmi Sofola is some company to belong in. But even in such exalted company FI still stands out for her versatility in being able to handle issues in sports, arts/entertainment, politics, economy, name it, with almost equal ease. That fashion as a field is not included in the above list is in itself testament to her wacky and radical ‘my own style’ attitude to fashion. And guess what – so far, we are still only dealing with an extremely abridged version of FI.

I first caught the FI flu after a young FI left UI as a geography graduate, traveling Nigeria and the world and regaling us with interesting tales on a range of issues, both on TV and in the defunct Tempo newspaper. By the time she started serenading 30 million Nigerians with New Dawn - a show that became a movement while FI grew into a brand, teetering towards a religion of sort, for many adoring fans - I was already a bonafide Funmi Iyanda groupie. From opinionated loudmouth, bra-burning feminist, unconventional TV anchor, mentor, free-spirited reckless dresser, to philanthropist – Brand FI is today, different things to different people. And that very fact speaks for her multi-faceted personality - a veritable amoeba that defies specific definition and description.

Babatunde Fashola

By all accounts, Lagos is still a dirty city, but someone is clearly making an effort to make it cleaner. Fewer road users are cursing as they drive along Lagos roads today not because the roads are necessarily smoother to drive on. If anything, many of them are now more hellish to navigate. But because Lagosians acknowledge that someone somewhere is genuinely making an effort to improve the roads, many seem ready to show a little more patience and understanding. In recent times, I have come across many Lagosians who, after years of tax evasion, are now enthusiastic about paying taxes because they are convinced that someone is sincerely putting their money into good public use. And one man - Babatunde Raji Fashola - is arguably responsible for the fresh air sweeping across the state.

Pre-2007 elections in Lagos, there were whispers of how Fashola was not going to make a good governor because he was “an administrator and a bureaucrat.” Back then, I wondered what all that meant. And although a lot of that cynicism still prevails (and with good reason, some might say), but if his antecedents in office so far are what those comments meant by “administrator,” then I think I love bureaucracy. With Fashola’s antecedents so far, one could boldly say that for once in this generation (at least) in this country, a state government is working for its people and you needn’t read newspaper and magazine supplements or watch television documentaries to know of it or the extent. More heartening for me is the all-action almost single-minded manner he goes about his business of bettering the lot of Lagosians. And that is a template for governors and governance in Nigeria to follow.

Xee

Xee (just Xee because she would eat me if I let out her real name here) is a friend of mine whom I first met over two years ago. She had requested to take a look at a novel I was holding, and the sheer energy and wisdom that sipped through from her every word and gesture during our brief conversation thereafter, got me riveted. Quickly and steadily, the acquaintance we built from then became friendship.

Xee is gutsy, feisty and uninhibited, all with the energy of a teenager. But beyond that teenage energy is a smart woman who is untainted by the vacuity, vanity and sense of frippery associated with many a teenage girl. She is one of the most driven and focused teenagers you would ever come across, for this is one young woman who knows what she wants and does what she must to get it. Cold Cow, as I jokingly call her (apparently many other people also call her ‘cold’) because of her penchant for and ability to shut out all things she considers unimportant towards achieving any goal she sets out to achieve, Xee is this strong-willed package of only about 5ft. And in that package is a woman of ‘ancient’ wisdom, one who is very much at home with herself.