How NEXT Boss Dele Olojede Wasted $20m On Women And Golf
3 min read
Surely this is not the best of times for the Pulitzer Prize winner and Publisher of NEXT newspaper, Dele Olojede who finally closed down the print version of the newspaper over his state of finances which is now in the zero region.
We gathered that before Olojede started the business he took a loan of $10m (then around N1.3b) from First Bank. He allegedly sourced loans from other well meaning Nigerians, including former EFCC boss Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Fola Adeola, Hakeem Bello-Osagie and Tunde Folawiyo. This, we learnt, ran into another $10m.
The question on the lips of many is, how did Olojede spend the huge of amount of money within the spate of two years without success. Those who know claim that when Olojede collected the money he went on a spending spree, buying expensive automobiles, going on vacation, living large and playing golf all over, on a loan meant to be used for the growth of the business.
Global News further learnt one of his past times is to frolic with women of easy virtue who he pays in dollars to enjoy their services.
One of his women is one Kadaria Ahmed popularly known as Kadara Dele, who he made the editor, and also spent part of the money on, neglecting those who are more competent to do the job.
Dele Olojede, we learnt, was embarrassed by Access Bank sometime ago when he went toParison one of his numerous foreign trips. As usual, he wanted to use his credit card to purchase some goods but unknown to him, the card had been suspended by the bank, to stop him from further plundering the card. This caused him so much embarrassment because he was delayed for several hours.
Before NEXT finally shut down, some of the company staff had quit when the establishment could not pay their salaries for many months. Six of them have taken the management of Timbuktu Media, and the publisher, Mr. Dele Olojede, to court for non-payment of salaries and allowances, wrongful termination of appointment and non-remittance of deducted pension benefits.
The staff are former Sport Editor, Olukayode Thomas; Reporters, Opeyemi Olu and Bolade Oladoye. Others are Sola Babarinsa, Ireyimika Oyegbami and Damola Owoeye.
They are asking the court to order the management of NEXT newspapers to pay an aggregate sum of N4,592,450.03 k owed them in outstanding entitlements. They are also asking for a sum of N5 million each general damages for “wrongful, unlawful, illegal and unconstitutional termination of their employment”.
When the case was first mentioned in court on May 25, lawyers for Timbuktu Media and Mr. Olojede pleaded for more time to file their defence.
The former staff claimed that they were owed over four months salary but they continued to work diligently until their appointments were terminated without proper notice and blamed the financial difficulty of the media house on the “reckless spending of its top managerial staff”.
They particularly blamed Mr. Dele Olojede, whom they accused of riding “state-of-the-art cars” and living in the “highbrow district of Lagos”.
The management of NEXT was also accused of failing to remit the 7.5% deduction it was making from each staff’s salary to the ARM Pension Fund.
According to the claim, the management of the newspaper also failed to remit taxes deducted from salaries to the Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue.
NEXT newspaper was bad concept from the beginning. It was a comic newspaper meant for primary schools with their selective and elitist journalism. NEXT was broke within 6 months of starting. A Casanova publisher that played the banks with his Pulitzer winning fame, an inexperience staff especially the editor that never understood the Nigerian factor. Kadaria was probably hired while having sex with Dele Olojede, another man’s wife (Search Google). A clique of corrupt hypocrites that tried to take Nigerians for a ride. NEXT could not even cover Nigeria because they had no resources. Instead they were combing the internet for international news that is the reason you find the newspaper and website full of unrelated News to Nigeria or Africa in general. NEXT was an ACT that belongs to the theatre. A NOLLYWOOD story
@LillyDele. so if Dele Olojede is married to Aman Ogan who is Kadaria Ahmed married to? Is this not the same woman talking about morals during the presidential debate? What a shame. I m told she has children and husband.
@Baba90 what platform are you talking about. An immoral publisher collecting bribes and sleeping with married women. Is that a good lesson for your journalist
@samesame. you need to know that it was not always this way. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts.
Its always easy to throw the stone. One thing i would forever continue to respect Dele Olojede for is his INTEGRITY! even if the business fails, young people like me privileged to have work for next would always carry on the values. Why is nobody talking about the platform NEXT created for them? the connections! the only media house whose journalists NEVER collect “brown envelopes”. where you write the story no matter who and what is involved. If the whole idea was a fraud, why are politicians and businessmen offering to buy NEXT? Ribadu once said: if u try to fight corruption, corruption fights you back. by the way, a “NEXTER” won the LNG award for literature 2011 just like the
baba90 -In the land of the blind,the cyclop is the king. You are saying it gave people a platform for how NOT be a journalist abi?. How many of you know that NEXT was financed by stolen money. The rest was a loan from First Bank. The collateral was from stolen money.Hocyprites. And who said your publisher did not collect Brown envelopes or favours from the govt officials. I think the entire staff belonged to nursery school. Baba90 please dont take it the wrong way. You are supposed to be the journalist here with open eye not the other way round.
@Lilly Dele, I dont think u have ur facts rights. Where ever u’re from, u dont know NEXT. The business idea might have failed but the concept is beyond Nigeria. NEXT kept politicians on their toes everytime! I dont know where u got ur facts about Kadaria, but I know she knew her onions, cant say same about u!! Staff of NEXT were the best Nigeria could boast of and other media companies can attest to it by the speed they picked up ex-NEXTers. Ask any ex-NEXTer, they still prefer NEXT without the financial problems. Dele did his best, the remaining is history.
Global News » How NEXT Boss Dele Olojede Wasted $20m On Women And Golf. Global News » How NEXT Boss Dele Olojede Wasted $20m On Women And Golf
”MORE GREASE TO HIS ELBOW, HE WILL
CERTAINLY BE ON HIS WAY TO WORLD BOOK OF
RECORD.
THANKS.
Next might have come and gone, despite its inherent weaknesses, we’re delightful that Dele is still here and have risen from such a negativity into a positive force, learnt from such demise of such a titanic corporate edifice as Next.
After darkness, there shall be the glorious dawn
Dele you’re welcome.