In 2013, Nejeeb Bello Oyarese, a digital marketing expert, alongside his team, saw the need for a Nigerian social media network, but the demand for a N50 million bribe by the government of the day impeded their progress.

As seen in a Twitter post shared on Monday by Oyarese, now the chief executive officer (CEO) of a conglomerate of several digital micro businesses called Baric Group, difficulties arose when his attempts to establish a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the federal government came to a standstill.

Oyarese’s team had built a social media network that year, but to prevent a potential shutdown by the government once the project was launched, he recognised the importance of an MoU.

After 10 years of Digital Social Media Marketing, I realized Nigeria needed its own Social Media Network which was not a copy of anything else, so in 2013 we built one and went to Abuja to get an MOU with FG so they won't shut us down soon as we start getting millions of users. https://t.co/MtwQVIh2o4

— Nejeeb Bello Oyarese (@NejeebBello) July 3, 2023

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An MoU serves as a non-binding agreement that can establish partnerships or to outline the terms and conditions of a specific project or initiative.

“After 10 years of Digital Social Media Marketing, I realised Nigeria needed its own Social Media Network which was not a copy of anything else, so in 2013 we built one and went to Abuja to get an MOU with FG so they wouldn’t shut us down as soon as we started getting millions of users,” Oyarese wrote on his Twitter page.

“We were asked how much we wanted from Government, and we said we didn’t need money, just mutual cooperation and partnership. Then they asked us how we were going to ‘see’ the officials who would help push our file. How much bribe did they want? N50,000,000!”

NYSC DEMANDS N50 MILLION BRIBE

Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was the president of the country at the time Oyarese and his team approached the federal government for the MoU.

To know the exact government agency that demanded the N50 million bribe, FIJ reached out to Oyarese, and he mentioned the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

“We went to the Ministry of Information and also the Ministry of Youth. The Ministry of Information promised to work with us once we had a buy-in from the Ministry of Youth, and the Ministry of Youth directed us to the NYSC. We wanted all these bodies to have the MOU with us, but we faced the issue of bribery at the NYSC,” he told FIJ.

FIJ also learned that Oyarese was a co-founder of the start-up and the head of digital marketing at UNA Collective, the company that worked on the project.

As seen in his Twitter post, his team decided to rework the MoU proposal after the NYSC demanded a bribe from them.

“My only advice was since we had invested both funds and effort worth less than N10 million, asking the government for N50m could make them the majority stakeholder, and as the 2014 elections were coming, if we didn’t allow our platform to be used for political propaganda, we could get sacked,” the digital marketing expert narrated.

“We were ready to stay in Abuja till an agreement was reached. However, four days into our mission, I received unconfirmed news that my very good friend had passed in unclear circumstances. I packed my bags and headed back to Lagos in tears on March 15, 2013.

“Some months later, we received a letter saying, ‘Sorry, an Internet Social Network is not a project the government is interested in partnering on at this time’, all because we didn’t include the N50 million.”

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While speaking with FIJ, Oyarese said the plan had to be shelved afterwards, as it led to internal squabbles within the team.

“Some felt we should have accepted the deal, others felt they would have negotiated a better deal if they’d gone to Abuja,” he told FIJ.

Although he declined to share the name of the start-up idea, he hopes the project would still be launched under the right circumstances.