Olugbenga Agboola is a Lagos-based entrepreneur, novelist, and social critic. His first novel, “Trap,” has been translated into four languages and was a finalist for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book in 2007. He is a founding Director of The BE Foundation (www.thebefoundation.org), established to promote entrepreneurship among Africa’s youth while helping them develop the skills they need to survive in the global economy.

In his words: “I am an engineer by training but a philosopher at heart. As a technocrat, I don’t believe in solutions. I believe in opportunities. Creativity is the key. If you see a problem as an opportunity instead of a problem, the solution is easy.”

In Nigeria, Agboola has brought together leading media practitioners to explore ways traditional media and bloggers can co-exist peacefully and productively for the benefit of Nigerians. He argued that traditional media had been slow to embrace new technologies such as blogs; this slow reaction resulted in bloggers being perceived as increasingly unreliable, not because they are but because their sources are unknown. He called for both sides to set aside their mutual suspicions and work together. The BBC has praised his ideas in its “Alternative View” column.

He also worked with the Hedge Fund, UK-based investment manager, Hernando de Soto, to campaign for global property reform in Africa. He chaired an NGO meeting organized by the UN Association of Nigeria and other organizations that unanimously agreed to support De Soto’s “New Deal for Africa” initiative, which empowers African nations to bring their land into private ownership.

In October 2016, Agboola came to national attention after drawing up a list of demands on Nigerians that included:

1. Making it mandatory for Nigerian men to marry by age 30. 2. Banning polygamy 3. Blocking any subsequent polygamous marriages, 4. Blocking all importation of foreign wives into Nigeria 5. Banning all marriages conducted on the Internet 6. Blocking all marriages conducted in religious ceremonies other than church and mosque 7. Ending child marriage 8. Ending child, teenage, and forced labor 9. Strict enforcement of the law banning the practice of female genital mutilation 10. Banning the practice of men and women marrying outside their ethnic or religious groups 11. Banning all early marriages 12. Banning all temporary marriages 13. Ending the practice of dowry 14. Banning child labor 15. Putting a stop to the trafficking of Nigerian girls for forced marriage and prostitution 16. Putting a stop to bride kidnapping 17. Rounding up both ‘loose’ women and men who solicit sex from them 18. Stopping the abuse of mostly Christian women abducted into Muslim households under pretenses and converted by force 19. Arresting wedding planners who break building codes 20. Arresting priests, pastors, imams, and other religious leaders whose marriages are not sanctioned by law 21.The banning of all polyandrous relationships 22. The banning of all sexual relationships between married men and unmarried girls 23. Stopping the practice of churches, mosques, and other places of worship performing marriages that have not been sanctioned by law 24. Enforce the law against impersonating a marriage registrar 25. Stopping underage children from being married before the minimum legal age of 26. Ending the culture of ‘arranged’ marriages 27. Ending the practice where parents choose their children’s spouses 28.

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