Nollywood actor Laide Olabanji has told Nigerians to drop tribal loyalty if they want a better life, arguing that the person who shares your language can still leave you hungry while someone from another group can give you peace. The latest clip, first shared on his Instagram page, began circulating widely on Tuesday after fan pages pushed it across X.
Olabanji did not dress the message up.
“Stay away from tribalism to make your life better. If your own children can’t give you happiness, another person’s child can give you joy. If your own tribe person can make you hungry and suffer you, another tribe person can give you a better life, it’s time for you to allow your brain to work better and vote right.”
He is asking voters to think past bloodline when they next mark a ballot, and he is saying some people have already paid for that habit with hardship.
The actor, a familiar face in Yoruba cinema and the CEO of LAIBAN Film International, has spent the past few weeks repeating a similar argument. Earlier this month he accused some Nigerians of accepting painfully high petrol prices because “your tribe man” is in charge, after they once complained when fuel sold for far less under a leader from another group. Days later he urged the public to judge leadership by results, not ethnicity, and named Peter Obi as the kind of option he wants considered ahead of 2027.
Replies to the clip split the usual way. Some users agreed that ethnic sentiment has cost the country more than it has given. Others pushed back and told him to take the same sermon to every region, not just the one he is addressing. One commenter put it more narrowly, saying the anti-tribe message was fair but that “vote right” should be left to each voter’s own judgement.