Babaeko’s _Ramat_ film dey move everybody for AFRIFF, e even promise child actor university scholarship

Steve Babaeko's deeply personal short film, Ramat, no just premiere for AFRIFF on 5 November 2026; e scatter the whole place! The cinema was full, applause plenty, and people were literally crying their eyes out.

The 8-minute film na throwback to 13 February 1976. That morning, a young Babaeko watched his papa — a serving Nigerian Army officer — cry for the first and only time after the news broke say General Murtala Ramat Muhammed don get assassinated. Imagine that kind trauma.

Before the screening, Babaeko, who we know as the Group CEO of X3M Ideas (the agency wey carry Nigeria's first Cannes Lion in 2023), confess say the film even dey scare am. E talk say making the film scared am, because na him own story, no be client own. See levels of vulnerability!

But the real tear-jerker come after the film. Babaeko announce say him foundation, the Steve Babaeko Foundation, go pay for the full university education of the film’s child star, Samuel Adebola! My people, we no fit make this up. Samuel na the small boy wey play Babaeko as a child, watching his papa cry. Babaeko explain say, “He found something in that role that I had not seen on a face since I was that boy myself. If this film is about anything, it is about what we pass on.”

Ramat was picked by AFRIFF from hundreds of submissions for their 15th edition, and e be Babaeko’s first personal film as a director. Now, the film go travel to big festivals like Clermont-Ferrand, Berlinale Shorts, Pan African Film Festival for Los Angeles, and Brussels Short Film Festival, all to try and qualify for Oscar and BAFTA. Talk about aiming high!

This film no just tell history; e come with a whole heart. Who else is wondering how Samuel Adebola is feeling right now?