"Laburu has landed!", the caption for a YouTube ad for the sequel to the "king of boys" movie truly described it in one sentence! In it, a lot of media personnels were seen muling around the Murtala Mohammed International airport, Ikeja in anticipation for the much expected arrival of Alhaja Eniola Salami but at the end, she succeeded in throwing all of them into abject confusion because she seems practically everywhere in the airport, as persons dressed exactly like her were seen at different places at the same time! Now that was a great and exhilarating advert and of course, the movie did not fail to meet up to the high expectations that were already built.
The airport scene.
Eniola and President Mumusa
Jumoke Randle and Eniola Salami
Dapo zipping up first lady's blouse
Reverend Ifeanyi praying for Eniola
Ade Tiger, a thug speaking polished English.
The first installment of "king of boys" came in 2018 and it turned out to be a real blockbuster! It was about 3 hours long but it was captivating, thrilling and suspenseful. Hence, the wide publicity and hypes around its sequel. The movie was about Alhaja Eniola Salami, a very powerful force in Lagos politics. She was besieged by a number of enemies; which consists of collaborators both from her mafia and the government agencies. Corruption allegations were levelled against her but not without the undercurrent of eliminating and sending her into oblivion. However, she escaped death that was coming to her in the prison with the help of Inspector Nurudeen Gobir, thereafter, she fled the country to the US.
In this 7-episodes long movie, "The return of the king", Kemi Adetiba again proved her ingeniousity. The storyline was a very creative one, as each episode lasting for about 45minutes each, leaves you with the hunger to find out more. The Sequel stars Sola Sobowale as "Eniola Salami", Toni Tones as"Young Eniola", Richard Mofe Damijo as "Reverend", Illbliss as "Odogwu Malay", Remilekun 'Reminisce' Safari as "Makanaki", Charles 'Charlyboy' Oputa as "Odudubariba", Titi Kuti as "Ade Tiger", Akin Lewis as "Aare", Nse Ikpe-Etim as "Mrs Randle, the Governor's wife", Efa Wara as "Dapo Banjo, the fearless journalist" and of course, Taiwo Ajai-Lycet as "Chief Mrs. Randle".
It all started with the surprising arrival of Eniola from the US after 5 years of self-exile. Her arrival however means different things to different people; to Ade Tiger and other loyalists, it was the triumphant return of his mistress while for Aare, Odudubariba and most Elders at the Roundtable, it was the unwanted return of the monster. The movie got more intriguing when Eniola announced her interest in contesting for the Governorship seat of Lagos State against the incumbent, Tunde Randle, right at the hanger of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport!
And without much Ado, the game began in earnest. While Eniola was focused on how to clinch the Governorship seat, Ade Tiger was more concerned about regaining the relevance that his mistress had lost at the Roundtable. Earlier in the movie, we saw Eniola's willingness to become a changed person, as she struggled with her old self, an "imaginary" role played by Toni Tones (Young Eniola) who usually appear to remind her of her horrible past and tilt her mind towards revenge. A very good instance of this was when Ade Tiger was requesting for her order to coordinate strikes on Aare and Odudubariba, Eniola's arch enemies but she declined and resolved that she is leaving the battle to God.
However, the turning point in the movie came after the scene where Makanaki attacked her convoy while she was coming back from a Governorship debate. One of her security details, "Boxer" has been indited of being a double agent, he was said to be working for Aare and was allegedly behind the bombing of her car at the Makanaki's attack scene. Initially she was hesitant about eliminating Boxer when it became clear that he was culpable but as soon as her old self overwhelmed her, she couldn't help it, as she terminated the culprit's life herself.
Although the scene where Makanaki attacked Eniola closed after the bombing, but there seems to be more. Perhaps, viewers are left to imagine what later happened between Makanaki and Eniola, because Makanaki did not get to feature again until the last episode, where it was finally found out that the duo had reached a truce and that translated to Eniola handing over to Makanaki, as the King of the table. This could have happened after the attack but was reserved to be served last as the finest wine of the movie.
Themes in the movie ranged from politicking, Power, Family, Love and Loyalty. The movie depicted the intricate architecture of Nigeria's politics and the numerous manouverings that characterises it. Eniola is seen as really desperate to clinch to power but without clear intentions. This revelation came very early in the movie at the cemetery scene, where young Eniola (her old self) told her that the motive for her running for Governor is not necessarily for the citizen's welfare but for her to have more power. This became clearer when she jettisoned her journey towards positive change and came back to her ruthless self. Then, her approach changed. It started when she visited the President during his visit to Lagos to commission some projects. Funny enough, she was dressed in a sultan's oufit as a disguise for this visit so as to hide her identity from the ever inquisitive media.
Obviously, it was important for her to visit the President this way because the two have history. Rumours have it that while she was in the US, she was responsible for the unexpected victory of President Mumusa. According to the movie, Mumusa was a nobody who was contesting on a fringe party but thanks to the "king of boys", he won by a landslide and based on the deal they had, he was supposed to have worked out her comeback three years before that time by dropping all the charges levelled against her, but he delayed on delivering his own part of the deal, that was still annoying Eniola and when she finally arrived in Nigeria, she tried to dissociate herself from him but when she realized that her campaign was no longer flying, she made use of her trump card; she coerced Mumusa to prevail upon his party to declare her as the flagbearer, threatening him with a spiteful loss at the polls if he would not bulge.
The game of poli-tricks went on also in the camp of Jumoke Randle, the Governor's wife: A woman with a dark history of promiscuity but sudden rise to glamour. Jumoke seemed more like the one up against Eniola Salami at the polls, as she was the one doing all the background works while Randle himself, according to Jumoke, believes that the game is won on the pitch. She started out by sponsoring negative media about Eniola Salami, all in a bid to pull her out of the race. Upon the advise of her mother in law, Chief Mrs Randle, she visited Aare for help, she even initiated a face to face meeting with Eniola to woo her with public funds and government contracts but at the end, the King of boys heavily pulverized her just few days to the election. I guess she still lacked the experience in the art of poli-tricks, just like Chief Randle noted and obviously, was no match for Eniola Salami! Jumoke fought really hard to take down a woman who is way out of our league but she didn't take necessary precautions, at the end, she ended up jeopardizing her husband's chances ----a nightmare that Chief Mrs Randle sternly warned her about and she became an unfortunate scapegoat!
And as for Dapo Banjo, the fearless and strong-willed journalist. I guessed he forgot that this is Nigeria, where you might even get sacrificed for speaking the truth! He was hell-bent on unravelling secrets behind the Eniola and Mumusa alliance. Precious warnings came from his boss, his anonymous source and indeed, his disintegrating home passed the subtle message of treading softly, but just like Jumoke Randle, he didn't survive the billows!
Apparently, he was a pawn in the hands of the Governor's wife but his stubbornness amplified his gullibility, and just like birds of the same plumage, they both went down!
The marriage crisis between Dapo and his wife, Aisha was attributed to infidelity. But in this case, the side chick for Dapo was his job and his obsession with "the big story". To be honest, Dapo started out with true intentions, he wanted good journalism that will make our leaders accountable but along the line, he got carried away and lost focus. And to show the extent of the damage he had done to Aisha's trust and love for him, she aided the police in their search for him.
Loyalty was also a consistent theme all through this movie; We saw Ade Tiger giving his Madam, unalloyed loyalty to the very end. Even though it seemed as if he was betraying Eniola when he came and divulged a highly classified information about her to the first lady and her pawn journalist, Dapo. Whereas, it was a ploy to get back at the first lady because, the portrait of Dapo zipping up Jumoke's blouse must have been taken under his watch. Ade Tiger was ruthless in his loyalty to the king of boys, as it again played out in the last scene at the Roundtable, again it seemed as if he had defected to Odudubariba's camp but it was another gimmick that would eventually take Eniola's enemies down.
Loyalty breeds loyalty, this was the message that the Editor of the conscience Newspaper was passing across to Dapo, his former employee, when he lamented that his country hasn't been loyal to him, so that informed his action; going on National Television to denounce the news that his paper had earlier published against Eniola Salami and President Mumusa, even if that meant concealing the truth and destroying the career of his devoted employee. His insistence on the truth had cost him so many things, just like it cost Nurudeen Gobir his wife in part One and he has got nothing to show for telling the truth all the while. So when he faced death threats from Eniola, he couldn't help but yield to the pressure and do the needful, if that would guarantee his safety and that of his family. The movie accurately passed the message that the system can only favour those that know the tricks and of course, we are all victims of this dysfunctional system.
One would have thought that the presence of Reverend Ifeanyi in Alhaja Salami's life after returning to Nigeria will be of a very great advantage. Personally, I had hoped that through him, she would get the needed help to become a better person but unfortunately, the Reverend was a bag of atrocities and this did not make him any different from Eniola, in the end, she capitalized on these clandestine faults of Reverend Ifeanyi and threatened to leak it to the public, if he would not give her the endorsement she so much desire from him.
This reveals the true state of religious institutions in Nigeria, places that people look up to for solution and that should serve as models for right living are not living up to that expectation, instead, they are being used by the selfish politicians to achieve their goal. A bulgy brown envelope is just enough to produce the much needed photo op, "laying of hands", that would adorn the glossy front covers of the National dailies. In Eniola's case, she brought two of them to Reverend Ifeanyi, one that contains a generous donation which did not produce an endorsement,the second one contains documents that could implicate the clergyman, this one got Eniola, the king of boys herself, the endorsement Governor Randle could not get in less than 24 hours!
Positive feminism was also among the issues addressed by this movie. In many parts of world, discrimination against the female gender is still a deep-seated problem. We saw Jumoke Randle exploit the topic of Eniola's single lifestyle, concluding that she wasn't settled and as such, will not be able to lead the state properly. And this, her campaign team sought to address by creating a false impression that she is getting married soon, to which she honorably rejected. She noted that the reason why all those things seem like a concern was because she is a female candidate which wouldn't be so, if it were to be a male candidate.
The movie is superb, captivating, thrilling and suspenseful. The use of words and proverbs is above board. The cultural diversity that was displayed in the use costumes and attires underpins her national identity as a multicultural country. The movie shows a close-knit relationship between the north, south and the Eastern parts of the country. The casting was superb, as all the actors and actresses played their role excellently. It was really exceptional and this movie will definitely serve as a positive image for Nigeria in the global front.
However, I have some reservations for some things about the movie. First, Ade Tiger said he is a thug, so I wonder why a thug would be very fluent and flawless in speaking the English Language. Perhaps, the image I have always attached to louts is the irresponsible, illiterate and haggard personality and Ade Tiger is none of this. Also, in the last episode, during the shootout between the boys, Eniola stood her ground where she was and came out of that place unscathed, does that mean none of the boys loyal of Odudubariba could have targeted her? It somehow looked implausible to me.
The movie premiered on Netflix on August 27, 2021. I liked it and definitely, you too will. It will be worth your time. Truly, as Kemi Adetiba posted on Twitter, King of boys has broken the sophomore curse!
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