By Benjamin Njoku

…Inside the world of Mo Abudu

She’s  known in the broadcasting industry as a seasoned  producer and TV owner. But Mo Abudu is also making a serious foray into the Nigerian movie industry.

With the release of her commercially-successful 2015 first feature film, ‘Fifty”, and the follow-up movie, “The Wedding Party” which went on to become one of the top-grossing Nollywood movies till date, Mo has definitely written her name in gold as a force to be reckoned with in the country’s showbiz industry.

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She’s not just a talk show host, TV producer or media mogul, but also, a human resources management consultant, entrepreneur and philanthropist par excellence. Her passion to help change the narrative about Africa which began to grow, while she was a teenager living in the UK, schooling in Tunbridge Wells in Kent, a town that had just a few blacks at the time, inspired her decision to establish EbonyLife TV, a leading pan-African television station.

After studying Human Resource Management and having two children in a short-term marriage, Mo started her career as a recruitment consultant in the UK. After that, she went on to work for other big organizations before starting her own specialist HR company as well as an executive training center at the Protea Hotel, Oakwood Park, Lagos in 2000. In 2006, she established EbonyLife TV, but it couldn’t start broadcasting to a pan-African audience until June 30, 2013. She became Host of the hit talk show “Moments with Mo” which was the first syndicated daily talk show on African regional television. The show addressed topics ranging from politics, entertainment, culture, health and inspiring events.

Throughout its run, Moments with Mo hosted high profile guests that included Hilary Clinton, former President Goodluck Jonathan, President Muhammadu Buhari, Olusegun Obasanjo, General Ibrahim Babangida, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Wole Soyinka among others. She also created The Debaters, a reality TV show funded by Guaranty Trust Bank.

The channel is distributed to 49 African countries, including South Africa and Southern African countries. So far, EbonyLlife TV has produced and aired original shows like “Sons of the Caliphate,” “Fifty the Series” and “The Governor.”

Narrating how she established the television station, Mo Abudu said: “The irony was that as far back as 2006, when I first approached DStv with the proposition that Africa was ripe for its own Oprah Winfrey or Ellen DeGeneres show, I was at the same time already requesting for a global TV channel opportunity. At the same time I was exploring channel possibilities with SKY in the UK.”

“I have always reckoned that the vision to project Africa in a different, more positive light, needed a big platform and this was what spurred me to start thinking of establishing EbonyLifeTV. Looking back now and considering how ambitious the dream was and all we had to surmount to arrive at where we are now, one has to admit that God’s appointed time is always the best.”

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However, establishing EbonyLife TV, Mo Abudu who is described as the “Oprah of Africa seemed to have realized her dream of creating content that speaks to the continent’s young men and women in a special way. “It is one that craves a platform for self-definition and self-expression; one that sees a different Africa, an Africa that tells its own story through the showcasing of the continent’s best talents, from lifestyle and entertainment to fashion and music, education, information, love and relationships. So, with the mantra “Live the EbonyLife”, our channel is proud to be broadcasting premium, original and exclusively African programming which is both inspirational and aspirational, celebrating style and success while motivating the audience to dream and dream big,” Mo Abudu said in an interview.

No wonder, Mo alongside Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde was listed among the 100 Africa’s Most Successful Women by Forbes. She was also named on The Powerlist 2018. The list , which was revealed on October 23, is an annual list of the UK’s top 100 most influential people of African and Caribbean heritage. Not done yet, the University of Westminster, London, recently awarded her an honorary degree of Doctor of Arts, in recognition of her outstanding services to broadcasting and enterprise in Nigeria.

The presentation, which took place at the university’s annual graduation ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall in London, saw Abudu urge graduates from the School of Arts, as well as the School of Media and Communication to spend every day planning and carrying out their purpose. It was another feather to her cap, and Mo is enjoying every moment of it.

However,,  many are whispering that film production is currently dominating her time. In fact, since she released of her first movie, “Fifty” which was a commercial success, followed by her second movie, “The Wedding Party,” Mo has not looked back as she has continued to churn out new films in quick succession. Just after she released her third movie, “The Wedding Party 2” which wasn’t a sold-out movie, Mo recently released another star-studded movie, “Chief Daddy.”

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The movie which was released last Friday is said to have amassed over N40 million in its opening weekend in the box office, officially surpassing the record set by ‘The Wedding Party’, when the movie grossed N36 million in its opening weekend. The amazon is warming up to return to the trenches again for her upcoming movie project, “Oloture.” Revealing the movie’s synopsis on her Instagram page, she said: “Trapped on a terrifying journey, she sacrifices everything to expose the truth. This story is one that I am passionate about and I can’t wait to share it with you. We have an incredible team of creatives on this project.”

Mo Abudu is surely redefining the space not just as a broadcaster, but as a consummate film maker whose passion goes beyond changing the narrative and rewriting the African story through her films.