In Nigeria, Dr. Babatunde “Molo” Olanrewaju works as a medical doctor and runs Greencamp, a non-profit talent incubator preparing for its tenth annual festival this November at Freedom Park in Lagos, in partnership with Onijekuje Lagos.
His other work spans streetwear styling, event promotion and data science. Olanrewaju said data science has sharpened how he reads Nigeria’s entertainment industry from the inside.
Raised between Epe and Ikorodu, he described a childhood with “no limits”: dancing, styling, photography and organizing events before those activities had formal names. Medicine remained the constant, he said, while everything else grew around it.
Four careers, one founder#
Olanrewaju said he always knew medicine would not be the whole story.
I always knew. I acted and danced as a child, planned birthdays, social nights, and extracurricular days in secondary school. I was a dancer until I got to 200 level in university. I made my first tee in 2013, for my hostel boys, and I learned photography straight out of secondary school. I just knew I wasn’t going to do one thing. Honestly, I’d say medicine became part of the story, not the whole of it. I always wanted to be a free person doing anything I liked. Lowkey, I thought I’d end up like Kaffy, a professional dancer and entertainer.
He also pointed to his upbringing in Epe and Ikorodu as a factor.
Honestly, there had been no limits. My mum and dad made sure of that. We went on excursions in primary school. My dad stayed on Lagos Island, so we were always going in and out of Ikorodu. I went to NEPA Staff Secondary School, now Powerfield Group of Schools, a boarding house where I met people from diverse homes and places. I was also always ahead of my classes in primary school, so I represented my school a lot. We went to a French village twice. There were no limits, honestly.
Greencamp’s mission and commercial work#
Olanrewaju said he keeps Greencamp’s non-profit mission separate from paid client work for companies such as Wakanow and Rebirth Island.
It never gets blurry for me. I always ask upfront if someone wants to work with Greencamp or if they want to work with me, because those are two totally different things. Wakanow, Rebirth Island, that’s personal work. At Greencamp, the mission stays the same.
Asked which of his four careers pays the bills, he said medicine is the stable and regular one.
Honestly, all of them, but medicine is the stable and regular one. If I had to drop three, you’d have to kill me. I’m sorry. I got into data in 2023, but it’s genuinely improved how I approach everything else.
He said data science gives him a different view of Nigeria’s entertainment industry.
You already answered your own question, that data thing. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. It’s like a third eye opening. Retrospective observations, and numbers never, never lie.
Olanrewaju served as social secretary for the student body at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos (CMUL) in 2019. He said the role did not teach him much about events because he had already been organizing university and house parties since 2017, but it taught him how to move in political settings. He also cited his mother, who was head of department (HOD) for education in different local governments in Lagos State, as an early influence on organizing people.
Not really. I was already hands-on with events from secondary school, and I’d started throwing uni parties and house parties in 2017, two or three years before I became social secretary. But it did teach me how to move in political settings. One of my earliest exposures to organizing people, though, was watching my mum. She was HOD of education for different local governments in Lagos State.
Styling and first clients#
Olanrewaju said his first real client outside his own events and friends was styling Sammy from Big Brother Naija after his post-show media run. The request came through Bevs, now Mavo’s manager, for his brand Alaye Merch.
Outside my own parties, events, and styling friends who paid me, I’d say it was styling Sammy from Big Brother. Fresh out of uni, my brand Alaye Merch was popping, and Bevs, Mavo’s manager now, reached out to me to style Sammy for his post-BBN media run. The pay was wack, but I did it because Bevs was my guy, and it wasn’t going to hurt me anyway.
On talent management, he said the work is closer to a sibling relationship than a medical diagnosis.
I’ve never looked at it that way, but now that you mention it, you have a point. It’s too neat, though. You use different skill sets in both lanes, but the constant is management, just of different things. Talent management, to me, is closer to a sibling relationship. You have to know the person well to manage them effectively. You feel me?
On styling, he said he favours Afrocentric looks and believes styling in Lagos often looks too Western.
I just love clothes, pieces, shoes, and putting together a look. I dress people, and myself, based on what they want to express in that moment. The muse is always part of the styling direction, because it has to define you. I always go for an Afrocentric look, because I think styling should also represent where you’re from. Styling these days looks too Western. You’ll scroll social media and think you’re in the US, meanwhile the shoot was in Lagos. It doesn’t gel.
