The Nigerian technology sector has long been projected as a triumphant narrative of African potential—a dynamic confluence of innovation, capital, and ambition. Its startups have secured historic funding rounds, its founders have become cultural icons, and its successes have inspired a generation. Yet, this glittering facade of unicorns and global acquisitions has concealed a foundation riddled with ethical fissures.
Over the past several years, the ecosystem has been convulsed by a painful and public reckoning, exposing a workplace culture built on quicksand. A relentless stream of allegations—from toxic leadership and financial malfeasance to systemic sexual misconduct—has used the unsparing engine of social media as its primary courtroom. This digital insurgency, crystallized under the banner of #HorribleBosses, has irrevocably rewritten the contract, proving that the personal conduct of its leaders is inextricable from their corporate legitimacy.
A House of Cards: The Ezra Olubi Scandal
The controversy that engulfed Ezra Olubi in late 2025 stands as the archetypal case of this new accountability. As co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Paystack, Olubi was more than a successful entrepreneur; he was a symbol. Paystack’s landmark acquisition by Stripe for over $200 million had anointed him a visionary, and his androgynous personal style—challenging norms with lipstick and painted nails—positioned him as a vanguard of a progressive, new Nigeria.
This meticulously crafted image disintegrated on November 12, 2025. A pseudonymous X user, Makispoke, who claimed a past polyamorous relationship with Olubi, issued a cryptic but devastating accusation: “this person sleeps with their female subordinates. and this isn’t even the tip of the iceberg. when i say they are dangerous, i mean exactly what i’m saying.” This specific allegation of sexual misconduct, emanating from a source with intimate knowledge, acted as a spark in a tinderbox of long-suppressed rumors, lending explosive credibility to private anxieties.
The ensuing digital firestorm was swift and merciless. The public, now adept at forensic online excavation, unearthed a cache of Olubi’s old tweets from 2009 to 2013. This archive was not merely juvenile folly; it contained sexually explicit, crude, and profoundly disturbing content, including comments about colleagues, references to meetings, and allusions involving minors and animals. This digital paper trail was instantly weaponized, transforming from forgotten provocation into damning evidence of a deeply ingrained character. It cast his leadership of a high-trust financial institution into severe and legitimate doubt.
The corporate response was unprecedented. Within a day, Paystack suspended its celebrated CTO, pending a formal, independent investigation. This moment marked a seismic shift: the past was permanently retrievable, and the personal history of a founder could, in an instant, jeopardize a corporate empire worth hundreds of millions.
A Systemic Pattern: Precedents of Power and Abuse
The Olubi scandal was shocking not for its uniqueness, but for its familiarity. It represented the highest-profile manifestation of a pervasive sickness within Nigeria’s startup sector—a sickness born from the toxic alchemy of unchecked founder power, immense capital, and vulnerable employees.
This pattern had already been exposed in other major companies, creating a context that made the public instantly receptive to the allegations. In 2020, communications consultant Kelechi Udoagyu publicly accused Kendall Ananyi, CEO of internet service provider Tizeti, of sexual harassment, alleging he exposed himself and solicited sexual acts during a professional meeting. The outcry forced Ananyi to step down, but the more significant development was the action of investor 4DX Ventures, which resigned from Tizeti’s board, citing the company’s “haphazard response.” This was a watershed, signaling that the global capital fueling the ecosystem might finally demand ethical accountability.
The tremor became an earthquake with the exposé of Flutterwave, then Africa’s most valuable startup. In April 2022, investigative journalist David Hundeyin published his seminal report, “Flutterwave: The African Unicorn Built On Quicksand.” It detailed a stunning array of allegations—financial fraud, insider trading, and the invention of a fictitious co-founder named “Greg” to appropriate shares. Crucially, it also contained claims of sexual relationships with subordinate female staff and a culture of widespread bullying. Though CEO Olugbenga “GB” Agboola issued denials, the sheer volume of claims inflicted profound and lasting reputational damage. These cases, viewed together, revealed an industry battling a deep-seated cultural rot, where founder impunity was too often the price of rapid growth.
The Digital Reckoning: The #HorribleBosses Movement
This cascade of sexual misconduct scandals did not emerge from a void. It was preceded and facilitated by a broader social movement that fundamentally altered the power dynamic between Nigerian employees and their executives. The #HorribleBosses trend, which peaked around March 2022, served as a crucial pressure-release valve for a generation of tech workers who felt silenced.
Using the relative anonymity of platforms like X, employees publicly cataloged the grim realities of their work lives: verbal and emotional abuse, tyrannical demands for inhuman hours, predatory contracts, and a pervasive lack of job security. #HorribleBosses normalized the public critique of once-untouchable figures. It legitimized speaking out and established social media as a digital court of last resort—a space where accountability could be demanded instantly, in the absence of robust labor laws or impartial internal channels. This foundational shift is what paved the way for more grave allegations of sexual impropriety to be heard, believed, and acted upon with decisive force.
Public Outcry and the Indictment of Privilege
The reaction to the Ezra Olubi case laid bare deep societal fissures concerning wealth, male privilege, and the contours of modern feminist discourse in Nigeria. The social media conversation was a maelstrom of visceral reaction. Users expressed sheer shock at the resurfaced tweets, with one noting, “Those Ezra’s old tweets are disturbing asf!” Others wryly observed the weight of a “digital footprint,” watching a tech “god” be humbled by his own past words.
The scandal also ignited fierce debate over selective outrage and the insulating power of capital. Some users explicitly called upon feminist activists to apply their principles to this case, demanding they address the inherent power imbalance in relationships with subordinates. Meanwhile, more cynical voices suggested that Olubi’s wealth and influence were already mobilizing defenders, with one user quipping, “There’s really nothing money cannot do.” This cacophony highlighted a central tension: the immense difficulty of holding powerful, wealthy men accountable in a culture where their success often serves as a shield. It underscored the grim reality that, for many women, enduring harassment remains a calculated trade-off for professional survival.
Forging a Sustainable Ethical Future
The past several years have delivered a brutal but necessary corrective to the Nigerian technology sector. The scandals surrounding Ezra Olubi, Olugbenga Agboola, and Kendall Ananyi are not isolated failures but symptoms of a systemic illness—a culture that mistook founder impunity for visionary leadership, creating environments ripe for exploitation.
Social media has been the indispensable, if messy, catalyst for this reckoning, forcibly dragging these issues into the public square. However, sustainable change requires a conscious evolution beyond the cyclical nature of public shaming. The path forward hinges on three pillars: consistent investor enforcement, where global capital mandates transparent governance as a non-negotiable condition for funding; profound internal reform, where companies establish independent, third-party reporting systems that truly protect victims; and a deep cultural shift, which actively dismantles the tolerance for power abuse and victim-blaming.
The fall of celebrated figures like Ezra Olubi serves as a stark and enduring lesson: in the digital age, a reputation built on genius and wealth can be dismantled overnight by the collective power of public truth. For Nigeria’s tech ecosystem, the era of easy excuses is over. Its long-term survival and legitimacy now depend on a genuine, demonstrable commitment to ethical governance—proving that its foundation can be rebuilt not on quicksand, but on solid ground.
