Iyadunni Gbadebo: Making Storytelling Great Again

She is a theatre practitioner, tourism strategist and hotel executive, but at the heart of everything Dr. Iyadunni Gbadebo does is a singular mission: to make Lagos a destination with stories that captivate the world, writes Vanessa Obioha

There are many layers to Dr Iyadunni Gbadebo, and each one reveals a fascinating facet of her personality.

One is the tourism promoter who recently stood before a motley audience in the Grand Ballroom of Eko Hotels and Suites to unveil her latest report, the Lagos Smart Tourism Index. It was a rigorous piece of research that not only highlighted the city’s challenges and potential but also presented data-driven solutions for positioning Lagos as a leading tourist destination in the future.

But it was not only the figures that captivated her audience. It was the passion she exuded and the stories she told throughout her presentation. Whether she was recounting her visit to Mexico’s famous Hell’s Gate or describing how Lagos could tap into its rich heritage to market itself as a tourism destination, Gbadebo spoke with infectious enthusiasm and admirable confidence. As I would later realise, that passion is genuine and runs through everything she pours her heart into.

Another is the thespian in her. She turned down Mass Communication in favour of Theatre Arts at the University of Lagos. Theatre, according to her, is innate. Although it did not pay off in those early years due to limited sponsorship, which led her to pursue careers in aviation, advertising, and hospitality, she has now found a way to bring that first love into her work at Eko Hotels and Suites, where she creates unforgettable experiences for the hotel’s well-heeled guests during the Christmas holidays and summer.

Then there is Gbadebo, the administrator, currently the Director of Sales and Marketing at Eko Hotels and Suites. I met this side of her when I visited her office one recent morning. It was one of those pleasant mornings when the air was cool, the sun gentle, and the relentless rains had finally taken a break.

Dressed in a pink-and-white ensemble, with her signature curls neatly packed up and bold bangles adorning her wrists, she projected the image of a corporate executive with the soul of an artist. Art portraits of varying sizes lined the white walls while decorative artworks shared shelf space with books and awards tucked neatly into one corner.

When I arrived, a few members of her team were already seated in her office. She had hoped to finish a quick meeting before I got there, she admitted with a smile, but time had other plans. Instead of asking them to leave, she carried on, issuing instructions at intervals, with brisk confidence softened by bursts of humour that drew easy smiles from the team.

For over a decade, Gbadebo has occupied the sales and marketing director role in Eko Hotels and Suites, transforming the hospitality business into an experience that blends theatre and tourism.

Lagos, it appeared, is very dear to Gbadebo’s heart.

“I grew up in Lagos, actually in Ozumba Mbadiwe. I have a large family, the Cole family, and we were all raised in my grandfather’s house,” she began.

Her grandfather, an immigrant from Freetown, Sierra Leone, settled in Lagos many decades ago after leaving his homeland. A businessman in shipping and ship repairs, he established roots in what would become one of Nigeria’s most important commercial cities.

Gbadebo’s earliest memories are of Lagos that is very different from today’s sprawling metropolis.

“It was Maroko and Victoria Island. We didn’t really have Oniru and all of the expansion of Lekki that we now have. That was the heart of the city. The closest thing to a beachfront was the Bar Beach, and the Oniru Palace was on Ahmadu Bello.”

More importantly, she remembers a city where dignity cut across professions.

“It was a decent city that had so many people, but people had dignity in labour. A mechanic didn’t need to look like a scruffy man. Even though we had the elites, middle class and the lower class, there was a sense of dignity in any trade. The barber was a proud barber. The vulcaniser did his work very passionately.”

That imagery contrasts sharply with the Lagos of today.

“There is a more distinctive difference between the elite and the lower class. The poor people are really poor, and the rich people are extremely rich. Even in terms of the difference between the numbers of rich people versus the number of really poor people, you find that your rich people are still in all of your 10 fingers, and the poor people are in truckloads.”

For a city that is so rich, economically powerful and potentially ambitious with its diverse people, it is interesting to Gbadebo that Lagos has been unable to tap into these to scale.

“The vibe that Lagos has today is not because Lagos is a waterfront vibe. It is the people. It is the resilience of the people. It is the diverse nature and diversity in the experiences that the people of Lagos have, whether in Lagos or outside Lagos, that have given Lagos that almost natural aura of vibe.”

Where Lagos falls short, she argued, is in its lack of intentional planning. According to her, cities do not become global destinations by accident. They measure themselves, plan deliberately and build systems that outlive individual administrations. Lagos, she believes, already possesses commerce, talent, culture and ambition. What it lacks is coordination.

“Right now, we are moving by chance. We have the vibe. We have the people. We have the exposure of the elite. We have the money. We have commerce. We have the aspiration that people who don’t have in other states aspire to and come to Lagos, and they achieve it. They make it in Lagos. But we are not a coordinated city. You lack the intentionality to put structure into everything.”

She points to the financial technology sector, where companies such as Opay and Moniepoint have successfully introduced structure into previously informal systems, as an example of what deliberate planning can achieve.

“You have everything, so you don’t appreciate that in having everything, you can actually multiply the effect of everything that you have. You can make it better if you are more structured and coordinated. If you understand how to measure where you are, if you remember where you’re coming from, and you measure where you are at, you’ll be able to gauge and plan for where you are going.”

That same philosophy extends to how Lagos tells its stories. Gbadebo is careful to distinguish between criminality and talent. In her view, many young Nigerians possess remarkable digital abilities that, if identified early and channelled through education and innovation, could become assets rather than instruments of crime.

“Children, like Yahoo Yahoo boys, are special kids. They are very talented. A structured economy like America would have identified them as whiz kids, put them in magnet schools where they are engaged and help them become useful citizens.

“So my point is, take these boys and use them to transform your digital economy. These boys are an asset and not a liability. They are a brand that needs to be advertised, that needs to be positively retold to the world and presented to the world, not as Yahoo Yahoo, because Yahoo Yahoo has a negative connotation. You have branded them as the devil, scammers, and people without a heart.”

“Likewise, places often dismissed by outsiders—from Computer Village to Makoko—can become tourism assets if their stories are told honestly and imaginatively.”

To solve the problem of Lagos tourism, Gbadebo believes that every policymaker and government official in the sector must be highly qualified for the role and present actionable planning to make it work. Beyond that, she believes in the power of storytelling. As she outlined in her upcoming book, ‘Destination Africa,’ authentic storytelling plays a role in helping make a city like Lagos a tourist attraction.

“Nigeria is a land buzzing with stories. The challenge is to tell these stories authentically and consistently to the global audience.”

She believes the country needs a coordinated storytelling agenda in which government, businesses and ordinary citizens project the same authentic narrative.

“The story I’m telling about Lagos needs to be the story that the policeman on the street is telling. We need to synchronise and put structure in that story. Lagos is too important to Africa, and that’s why the story of Lagos cannot be mediocre.”

At Eko Hotels and Suites, she is already putting that philosophy into practice.

Her annual theatre productions form part of the hotel’s Tropical Christmas Wonderland, drawing guests from within and outside Nigeria. For Gbadebo, these productions are far more than entertainment.

“When I bring theatre to Eko Hotels, it’s not a theatre like commercial producers bring. It’s art. It’s the art of theatre. That’s why in our plays you see music, you see costumes, you see sets, and you see it in a way that you haven’t seen before,” she said.

“The audiences that come here — Americans, British, Taiwanese, people like Auntie Joke Silva — review our plays, and it’s phenomenal. It’s on different levels. And today people are paying me a fortune to stay the weekend in Eko Hotels just to watch our shows.”

This year’s production, part of the hotel’s golden jubilee celebrations, is titled The Golden North.

“This year’s Christmas is the Golden North,” she explained. “For the last three years, we have sold an African tale of Christmas. We’re tired of Western stories of Christmas, so we want to tell you what Christmas looks like in Africa.”

The production begins a four-year journey across the continent’s regions—North, East, West and South—celebrating African culture through music, costume, royalty and storytelling.

Through all of these layers, a distinctive thread runs through Gbadebo. Storytelling. She captured it succinctly.

“I’m a natural-born creative, and I know I have a gift of building anything I believe in.”