Your Excellency

The EbonyLife Films feature, Your Excellency, is quite the collage of scenes and there’s really no other way to put it.

It follows the story of Chief Lekan Ajabi (Akin Lewis), a Trump lover and a comical presidential aspirant. In his third attempt at running for presidency, he finds himself suddenly becoming a serious and credible contender. Then the story follows his path to Aso Rock.

But the story doesn’t stop there, it decides to branch out and do a few more things. It also turns into the story of Kachi (Alexx Ekubo) who is a Nigerian music star turned reality television icon alongside his wife Candy (Osas Ighodaro). Your Excellency is also about Stephanie (Toni Tones), a full time social media influencer and champion of the online fake life movement. But that’s not all the movie is about, it’s also the story of Michael Idehen (Deyemi Okanlawon). Michael is a young presidential aspirant who also happens to be single and can barely get the public to focus on anything outside his physique.

While I am quite intrigued by this positioning of Deyemi Okanlawon as a sex icon, like most things in the movie I am not quite sure why any of it was necessary. However, with previous EbonyLife film projects, we have learned to stop asking long questions and just go with the flow. Which also happens to be the energy that most of the voters in this film seem to be following. It’s no surprise how this campaign ends, but it’s quite interesting to think that a candidate is able to sweep the election and become president of the nation when all his supporters and hailers seemed to reside in Lagos. Is Lagos equal to Nigeria?

But there we go again thinking too much.

Your Excellency is poised as a comedy so even if nothing else makes sense, the laughter is one aspect of the film that should have consistently delivered. And with a film starring Funke Akindele, Chioma ‘Chigul’ Omeruah, Seyi Law, Helen Paul, and EmmaOMG you expect this sector to be fully secure. Unfortunately, you can count on two hands (and even that’s being generous) the amount of laughs the movie provides.

One win here though is in the character of Lekan Ajabi. Despite his ludicrousness and his many antics, the writer manages to create a character that is endearing. Akin Lewis’ rendition comes off as sillier than Donald Trump but yet lovable in a manner that Trump can only aspire to be. The combination of him and his second wife (Funke Akindele) actually creates quite the adorable combo.

Silly as it may be, the film never misses an opportunity to make jabs at the average Nigerian’s fascination with all things foreign. From Ajabi’s fascination with Trump, to Professor Idehen’s attempt to find a “Michelle” for his son, and Candy’s strong desire to make her unborn daughter into a Kylie Jenner the message is not lost on the audience. The ‘fake life’ motif is most prominent with the characters of Stephanie and Candy. Despite the valid message, it’s hard to shake the feeling that these two storylines had nothing to do with the main plot, and the characters could have existed without the additional backstory given to them.

Your Excellency was chock full of unnecessary cameos. From Chigul to Kemi Akindoju, many names were just inserted to sell tickets and added nothing to the final quality of the film. One major highlight of watching this film is Toni Tones. Though her character was mostly unnecessary, she lit up the screen whenever she was on it. There’s a command Toni brings into the scene that makes it hard to ignore her. Same can be said for Shaffy Bello, as her energy on screen is always endearing.

Let’s be honest with ourselves, anyone hitting play on Your Excellency isn’t expecting anything substantial. However, coming from a production house that’s known for making movies that are pure fun at best, this was the least fun of them all so far.