The first time I met Adebola Williams, I knew he would be my friend. We were in the audience at an Inside Out with Agatha shoe recording. We began to talk, as young people do when they are curious about the world. Very quickly, we realised we saw the world the same way. We believed in the same values. We wanted to do the same audacious things for Nigeria and for the world.
But knowing someone will be your friend is one thing. Knowing they will become your business partner is another. That moment came at Glover Memorial Hall on Lagos Island.
We were three friends, but we had only two tickets to see a play. Adebola simply said, “You two should use the tickets; I’ll figure my way.” We asked him how he planned to get in.
“Don’t worry,” he said.
We thought he was bluffing. About thirty minutes into the play, he appeared beside us.
“How did you get in?” We whispered.
“Oh,” he said casually. “I spoke to the girl outside.” He had toasted her and convinced her to let him through.
And I remember thinking: this young man has a rare gift. An ability to speak to people, to disarm them, to connect, to make them feel seen. It was instinctive. Effortless. Like a superpower. And there is no one on earth above its reach.
But the day I knew Adebola would be my friend for life happened one evening. We were driving across the bridge in Lagos when we were robbed. The men took everything from the car – phone, wallets, bags. At the time, I was a writer. That laptop contained my life: my articles, my drafts, my ideas.
When the robbers ran off with it, Adebola jumped out of the car and chased them without hesitation. I remember standing there stunned, thinking, “Even I, whose laptop had been stolen, did not run after armed robbers.” That was the moment I knew. We have now been friends for almost 25 years. And in all that time, those two things about Adebola have remained exactly the same. First, his extraordinary ability to connect with people. Second, his deep and instinctive loyalty to those he cares about.
People sometimes misunderstand Adebola’s generosity because they see it in public spaces. They see him show up for people who are famous, powerful and influential. They see him walk onto a movie set with food, celebrate a governor’s birthday and stand beside cultural icons. Then they assume it must be a strategy.
But the truth is simpler.
Adebola will carry two piles of yam to my mother’s house. He will send gifts to former employees whose names others have forgotten. He will quietly help someone who needs it, without announcement or performance. Kindness, for him, is not positioning. It is simply his nature.
Of course, the world knows Adebola for other things. For building institutions. For shaping culture. For helping define what millennial Nigerian ambition looks like.
From Rubbin’ Minds to YNaija and Enough is Enough Nigeria, from The Future Awards Africa to Red Media Africa and Statecraft Inc., the institutions he helped build have not only survived, but they have also endured. They continue to shape conversations about culture, politics and leadership across Africa. Across Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and beyond, he has helped shape political campaigns, civic movements and cultural moments that defined a generation.
Many people remember the now-iconic photographs of him standing beside Muhammadu Buhari during the 2015 campaign. Those images, taken by Bayo Omoboriowo, the photographer our mutual company hired for the campaign and who moved on to the Presidency, travelled across the country and across the world.
They happened because of Adebola’s unique gift. Because Adebola has a presence that is difficult to explain but impossible to ignore. When he walks into a room, the temperature changes. Conversations shift. Attention gathers.
He doesn’t request attention. His being compels it. And we knew his presence alongside the candidate Buhari would telegraph a message deeper and fuller than a million press conferences.
Adebola is the one human being I know who is truly, essentially confident. He does not know what it means to be insecure. Yet the most remarkable thing about him is that inside that larger-than-life presence is one of the gentlest human beings you could ever meet.
At his wedding toast, I shared that I have never heard Adebola say an unkind thing about anyone. He has never, ever shared an unkind thought or plan. For someone like me, who believes kindness is the highest virtue, that is no small thing. Now he turns 40.
The companies, platforms and institutions he created are still standing. Still working. Still helping lives. And after decades of building institutions, nurturing talent, shaping movements and stirring the political and cultural consciousness of a generation, you can feel something else emerging. Another act forming beneath the surface, beneath the social media silence of the past year.
I, and the world, watch with anticipation.
Because if the first 40 years have already helped define a generation, one can only imagine what the next chapter will bring. Not just the escalation of his impact, but the deepening and expanding of what makes him truly special as a human being.
Happy birthday, my brother. It is a privilege to know you and a blessing to do this life with you.
