#WithChude

They own perhaps the biggest web series in Nigeria and Africa - and the biggest Gen Z series ever. Without making any noise about it and with no media campaigns, their videos rack up millions of views. One of them has over 11 million views! Jesi, Jemima and Jeiel Damina are YouTube OGs, and the youngest is barely out of her 20s. They are also fantastic singers. First I was their fan, and THEN I discovered that they are the daughters of Abel Damina, a man whose teachings in 2017 saved my faith, and changed my life. I was extremely excited to discover this. As they release their first feature film, ‘Guli’ this weekend, we release this exclusive conversation that discusses how they grew their platform to over one million followers from their base in Uyo-Akwa Ibom, how they converted mops into boom mics, and what it’s like to grow up as Pastors daughters. We talk about that time Jeiel was kidnapped, and how her father challenged God, and why she blamed her father for a long time. And we talk about the big, big BIG visions they have for the now and the future - while they focus on the work and only the work. Now, these ones are true inspirations for their generation.

First, she lost her younger brother to chronic kidney disease.Then last year, Ufuoma McDermott was also diagnosed of Stage 3 kidney disease - after battling with it for 12 years. She was told to slow down at work and rest. But she thought she had more time and negotiated with her doctors. That delay turned out to be costly. She was shortly diagnosed of Stage 4 kidney disease. Stage 4. That’s the final stage. And she says it was a result of drug abuse - ingesting too many painkillers. Thus began a battle for her life, where there was zero room for error. For 6 months, she couldn’t move. She couldn’t work. She couldn’t add weight. She actually thought the end had come. In this exclusive interview, the actor and producer shares how she found her way back from Stage 4 kidney disease, how it changed how she lived her life, how she managed her public career while dealing with this in private, and why this life-changing experience has transformed the way she lives her life today. Also for the first time, she confirms that over the past few years she has lived with her family abroad while acting and producing in Nigeria - and how a very private life has served her very well. This was one hell of a conversation. 

For 6 months last year, Oluwadolarz suffered from depression - and no one knew about it. He couldn’t function. He couldn’t create. He couldn’t even leave his room. He finally opens up about this in this exclusive interview. What caused the depression? He suddenly saw his career crater and felt he was ‘un-blowing’ while watching his colleagues grow in leaps and bounds. It’s a familiar story, isn’t it?One day his mother finally had enough, and he tells me what she did that finally made him find a way out of depression. It’s also the reason his mother started making skits. It’s such a beautiful story, to hear him tell it. Then he tells me about that time an anonymous person came online to accuse him of abuse and then disappeared, leaving him panicked and having to defend himself. He also learnt that not everyone who likes his posts wishes him well. Then we talk about having his first child with his wife while navigating the #EndSARs protests - and for the first time, he opens up on what exactly he apologised to his wife last year. He says he was “tested as a man and he failed the test woefully.”What did we not talk about? I think I now have a mind-crush on Oluwadolarz - because this conversation was so honest, so real, vulnerable, inspiring and magical all at once. I try never to stereotype, but I honestly was not ready for this level of depth. This conversation WILL bless you. 

For speaking up against what he considered injustice in school, Mr Macaroni was expelled just before convocation. It was the fight of his life.How did that transform his life?Why did that radicalize him? What did his journalist father say about all of it?How did that prepare him for that time when the Nigerian Police stripped him naked?And how long can he keep fighting while still remaining a pop culture brand?“Any brand that is not happy with my activism - bye bye!” he says. This interview goes deep into the heart of what makes this young man special. 

He was arrested by a battalion of Nigerian police men at his home for leading protests at #EndSARS - tortured in the system long after the protests ended. Then began an ordeal that lasted more than one year - as the Nigerian government stormed his house, took him away in his boxers, slept in a prison cell without a roof, passed from location to location at night, locked underground and then taken to court in secret. The police denied that they arrested him or knew him. They wanted him to disappear completely. For protesting against police brutality, Eromz became a victim of police brutality. How did he escape?He tells me the story, exclusively, today. 

How did Falz become so iconic? Was it inevitable that the son of the great Femi Falana would bring help bring the Nigerian government to its knees years ago? And how has he managed to do that while still maintain his place as a singer actor and a mover of the culture? We go deep in this conversation.

Vector says he has paid a very steep price for insisting on being himself in a country like Nigeria - he has been shadow banned, he says. But he insists on being himself, making his art, and speaking his mind, telling me he has no fear of any man who owns a mic. From studying witchcraft at the University of Lagos to teaching his daughters how to box and defend themselves, this ‘song of a gun’ tells me about growing up amidst the violence of Lagos Island, being detached without being inhuman, how his wife and daughters have helped him understand tenderness and why he didn’t cry when his father passed. We speak about regrets he may have about the epic scuffle with MI, why exactly that was a battle he had to fight and recent misunderstandings in the media of what he said about Burna Boy, Nigeria - and that time Portable heard Vector rap about ‘Zazu’ (Lion King’) and thought he was being attacked.Then I ask him if he is happy with where his career is today. Everything about this episode is fire.

When Rico Swavey - #BBNaija contestant and singer - died in a motor accident in October 2022, the nation was in shock. He was well loved.His mother, Halima Hassan watched him die in her own arms in a Lekki hospital - asking the doctors to leave her with his corpse as she begged him to come back to her. Months after, as friends and family watched her walk the streets aimlessly, unable to cope with the loss of her son, she had to check into a mental facility.He was the second son of hers to die while she was alive.In this exclusive interview, on the second anniversary of Rico’s passions, she joins me to talk about the premonition she had of his death, his last days and his last moments - and how behind the scenes, her son struggled to get his colleagues to support his music.She also talks about how she survived the loss and found her way back to mental and emotional recovery.Then, she shares with me Rico’s unfinished business - and the solemn promise she made to him as she cradled him in her arms for the last time. This episode will move you.