The movie King of Boys was a great movie that made the cinemas epic centers in 2018, the audience was left with ecstatic and suspense feel at the end of the movie when the King of Boys, Eniola Salami (Sola Sobowale), managed to escape Nigeria to take refuge in the United States after bloody engagements with the powers-that-be which led to the loss of her two children.

Now, Kemi Adetiba in 2021 made history and blew our minds with the Return of the King not as a 1-2 hours movie but in series. The storytelling and acting in each episode get you at the edge of your seat for the next episode. One could rephrase Olamide’s lyric to “Action po bi Eniola Salami”, even her wink was action!

In the sequel, Return of the King, Eniola Salami returned to Lagos, Nigeria, the death place of her children, and without wasting time she threw ‘her gele’ into the forthcoming Lagos State gubernatorial elections causing her old enemies like Aare (Akin Lewis) to shiver (the man doubled his guards😀) and igniting new ones like Jumoke Randle, the First Lady of Lagos.

While Eniola’s enemies shiver, the not-ordinary woman mourned the death of her children even with self-flagellation. Battling with guilt, and evil promptings from her younger self (Toni Tones) she tried to seek redemption but Rev Ifeanyi (Richard Mofe Damijo) blew his chances of saving a soul with his mention of ‘generosity’ in the salvation process (In this scene, if I was God I would have sent thunder to fire the ‘Onijekuje’ priest😏). It was at this point that Eniola Salami finally decided to unleash again the “Laburu” (Evil genius) in her.

A couple of things got me here, First, the fact that we(humans) all have inner conversations, Eniola had several inner conversations with her younger self. Notable amongst her inner conversations was when her younger self made a list of Eniola’s enemies ‘In alphabetical order…’ and ‘Soro soke werey.’ Second, when we (Christians) underestimate the impacts of our light in the world and fail to shine the lights of the true gospel of Jesus Christ, we endanger the world more.

Watching the episodes, I couldn’t help but realize that Eniola Salami’s leadership dent right from part 1 when she first attempted to move from the ‘streets’ table to become a respectable politician. Eniola in her pursuit to move higher neglected her leadership roles as the King of Boys and this was how the duel with Makanaki (Reminisce) started. This pattern was repeated in the Return of the King and Odogwu Malay repeated Makanaki’s unloyal reaction. I realized, to lead is a commitment to people who have decided to follow you because they trust your prowess to be beneficial to them when needed. So, what happens if the leader’s commitment to actively lead is breached? Consequently, the follower’s commitment to actively follow gets breached too and viola, we have a divided house giving room to someone like Odudubariba (Charly Boy). 

The scenes when Ade Tiger (Titi Kuti) seemed to betray/ pointed the gun at Eniola Salami were always so intriguing or the scenes when the Journalist, Dapo Banjo (Efa Iwara) and Jumoke Randle (Nse-Ikpe Etim) were played into shame. However, the final scenes though were very intriguing left some questions in the audience’s mind of “How did Makanaki and Eniola Salami reunite and settled their bitter differences?”. Hopefully, this will be answered in the next season of King of Boys. Gosh, this review will be incomplete without mentioning Ade Tiger’s unflinching, calm, active loyalty to Eniola Salami, and Eniola’s affection towards the fine young man.

Yes, Eniola Salami was the Laburu (Evil genius) but she could be humane. One of her touching, humane expressions was when she appreciated her campaign manager, Mr. Fashina(Deyemi Okanlawon). The man was surprised and touched. One would have expected that Eniola Salami would sack/punish the man for his supposed ineptitude but with subtle patience and Laburu’s skills, Eniola got the best of the man.

Needless to say, the entire King of Boys script mirrors Nigeria’s politics; the obvious instances of Machiavellianism, corruption of the religious, lobbying, politically constructed disinformation, and allusions to the #EndSARS protests. 

Gbagbe, no doubt Kemi Adetiba is an intriguing, master storyteller because how she turns the table with her script will make you calculate, doubt, lose your thoughts and pick them up again. I’m aware that there could be some bits of downsides in the movie but if e easy, you sef do am. The movie sequel, The Return of the King definitely increased Nollywood’s rank in the global movie industry and for some of us (audience), Kemi Adetiba gave us a good 2021 experience through this sequel. Cheers to the Return of the King!

A reminder; as the King of Boys returned in this sequel so will the KING OF KINGS return one day oo…don’t be an Odugwu Malay, Odudubariba or Rev Ifeanyi, faithfully shine your light for God!!

Trust you had an interesting read like I did while writing. Thanks for reading and please feel free to drop a comment, check our other posts and follow Dife Blog on social media platforms. Je t’aime mon ami🤗🤗🤗