By Joy Essien, Contributing Editor
There are words I pride myself on not knowing the meaning of and “Polycule”, if not for the trending story on the Nigerian X space over the weekend, was one of them. The entire concept behind the word makes no sense. Even animals cannot relate or seem to identify with it’s meaning or practice. In Kelechi Deca’s words, the word ‘polycule’ is simply a crass contraption that mistakes complexity for depth and often confuses the avoidance of traditional responsibility with a more enlightened form of love.
With all the disgusting exposé that happened over the weekend on X, it is obvious that the one who made them go viral doesn’t seem aware that certain lifestyles are punishable offenses in Nigeria. Probably reason why rather than go to court to settle any serious offences, public shaming was the considered option and it has resulted in suspensions and ongoing investigation but you and I know how ‘investigation’ goes in Nigeria.
I wondered about the motive behind Max Obae’s exposé because everything we do in life all boils down to motive, right? And after a little while, it was obvious what her reasons were. A scorned woman was asked to pay back money she owed and she decided to disturb us all weekend. Once upon a time, the going between all three of them was not our business. If you question certain lifestyle choices these days, the woke few would say, “mind your business” or “don’t judge”. But today, we’ve been made unwilling judge and jury over a matter that neither concerns nor benefits us.
In 2011, Ezra Olubi, co-founder of Paystack, and Max started out as people who engaged frequently on each other’s tweets on X. This morphed into a friendship that lasted over a decade and took on different forms. In 2021, Max asked Ezra to loan her $55,000 to support her brother’s school fee abroad. And Ezra did, with no added interest. I don’t know how it got to all 3 of them in a dating relationship. This relationship involved Max, her wife or girlfriend and Ezra. Oh, Ezra also came along with his girlfriend and there was 4 of them involved. All was rosy in Sodom and Gomorrah until Max felt Ezra was treating her girlfriend nicer and better and chaos ensued, leading to Ezra calling the whole relationship off.
Ezra also asked for payment plan for the refund of his $55,000. Max laid out a plan to pay back by 2027/2028. Days later, the mudslinging began. From calling Ezra a misogynist, manipulator and abuser and other details of her relationship with him, his tweets from 2011 resurfaced and boy where they from Hades. Sexual encounters with pets to minors to co-workers and hidden cameras/sound recordings of females friends who visited him. Ugly is an understatement. The tweets even showed he was a carrier (HIV+ and Hepatitis B). And she didn’t stop. But at this point, I think most of us were too sick in the stomach to continue with her on her dirty journey.
Ezra had deactivated his X account following the outrage on X from his past tweets. And those outrage were justified because, every parent who’s child got close to Ezra at any point in the past need to check in on them and possibly file a lawsuit. And I hope they get justice. Max, on the other hand needs to stop talking, go sit somewhere quietly and start thinking how to pay Ezra his $55,000.
These disturbing, dark tweets led to his suspension from Paystack where he worked as a Chief Technology Officer, following allegations of sexual misconduct.
Paystack is a Nigerian financial technology (fintech) company that provides online and offline payment solutions to businesses across Africa. Founded in 2015 by Nigerian computer science graduates Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, the company was accepted into Y Combinator’s start-up accelerator in 2016, where it received early stage funding in silicon valley. Later that year, Paystack publicly launched. By 2020, it was serving over 60,000 businesses and was acquired by Stripe for over $200,000M, making it the largest startup acquisition to date from Nigeria and Stripe’s biggest acquisition at the time.
