Toyin Adebola, also known as the Black Rider popular, for his motorbike adventures and his motivational thoughts, was a guest on Dream City. He spoke with Tobore and Itunu about growing up, his work and music career, politics and the Nigerian environment.
He is engaged in the shipping side of the petroleum industry while doing music riding bikes and adventure as aside. Proud to be an Ijebu man, he has a deep passion for Nigeria and believes it is priceless to me as a Nigerian.
He sees himself as a super hero just like the comical spiderman, superman, incredible hulk and the likes. He thinks people who ride on motorbikes are the closest to what can be called super heroes of the present day
Adebola was exposed to responsibilities early in life as he had to look out for three younger siblings while he was barely 10 years old, a reason why he is always looking out for people till today. He took after his mom who had no social life but listening to songs from Luther Vandros, Jackson five and Michael Jackson and occasionally, Kolington Ayinla were his escape from boredom.
Becoming a church boy in 1989, Adebola started listening to gospel music which influenced his music career till 2019 when he saw the need to do songs that will inspire everybody, songs that everyone can relate with.
One of his hit songs ‘something big’ reflecting the Nigerian situation was a message to give hope and encourage us to do what is right, that people should not allow the Nigerian situation to change them, but for everyone to find strength in spite of the challenges and survive.
Fascinated about the creativity of Nigerian musicians, he picks inspiration and hope from the amazing sounds, the tunes and the meaningful lyrics. He would love to feature any of Fireboy, Joeboy, Burnaboy, Davido, Tekno, but according to him, he cannot afford them. He however challenged them to use their advantage to share positivity.
His biggest dream is to feature Bob Marley on the international level and Fela on the Nigerian level, something Big actually.
His idea behind Blackrider is to change the misconception about Nigeria all over the world, he wants to engage more talks about a good Nigeria, a positive Nigeria where things are working. He is on a quest for one good narrative that Nigeria can look up to irrespective of religion or faith.
On 2023 election, he said Nigerians have to be strategic in thinking, put emotions, religion and tribalism aside. He said it is unfortunate that people talk about throwing their votes away losing the opportunity to make a change in the next four to eight years. He described votes as silver bullet to making a change in 2023.
The Nigerian Challenge according to him is a combination of bad leaders and the reality gap. He opines that there is not bad leader but there are people who have failed at governing. ‘We need leaders, we don’t have leaders, we have people who govern our affairs but they are not doing that it in a responsible way’, Adebola concluded.
His definition of the 21st Century leader is that with vision, you must have historical understanding of the story of mankind, the historical understanding of the journey of your people and where you want them to be.
He advised those delaying the actualization of their dreams to ‘go for it, do it afraid, don’t under estimate yourself but start realistically. You have to start from somewhere, make small objectives, achieve them but don’t stop yourself from trying.’
Toyin Adebola’s brand, Blackrider is managed by Young & Cerebral.
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