The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-Founder of Bento Africa, Mr. Ebunoluwa Okubanjo is currently trending on Nigerian Twitter for unprofessional and callous treatment of his subordinates.
A great deal of the ex-staff of the company had horrible things to say about their time with the tech start-up, run with an iron fist by Mr. Okubanjo.
‘Ebun’ was number one topic on Twitter for a long time today and had garnered over 36,000 tweets by the time this report was being filed. Most of the reactions are critical of the leadership style of the CEO and the corporate culture of Bento Africa.
Interestingly, the same Ebun trended briefly in 2020 when a customer of Lekki Fitness, also run by him, filmed him yelling at her because she complained about poor service and refund of her money. (See below for the video.)
Ex-staff of Bento Africa claimed Ebun emasculated them, called them unprintable names, including monkey, pussies, motherf*ckers and deadweights.
In an email he sent to an intern which was shared on Twitter, he called the gentleman ‘motherf*cker’ and told him he held a meeting with people who the intern’s father would say ‘sir’ to.
The intern incurred the wrath of the CEO by asking for more information on the exact office he was to report at. Apparently, Ebun had responded to the gentleman’s first request for an address, but the intern was still confused as to which of the offices in Lekki Phase One or Osapa London, off Lekki Expressway he was to report at.
He made another enquiry which fell on the rough side of the CEO. It was downhill from there.
Bento Africa, rebranded from Verifi.ng., provides payroll management software for corporate companies. It was founded jointly by Ebun Okubanjo and Chidozie Okonkwo, who is currently the company’s Chief Operating Officer (COO).
Some comments from the thread:
@yung_danny: “Ebun once message on a Sunday morning. Told him I was in church. He said you’re in church while I’m working let’s see who God will answer his prayers first. Omo I weak that day.”
@Nsukka_okpa: “Not a single person defending Ebun. Not an ex-employee, a current employee or a friend. Seems like He’s an all-round bad guy. Mad”.
@DavidHundeyin: “Ebun Okubanjo is a subprime human being who should never employ people again. The problem is that this description applies to maybe 40% of founders in the same space.
Twitter people are only being objective with his story because e no be corporate influencer for here.”
@OIfezulike: “Lmao. That Ebun guy must have been a real terror. Just heard that He broke up with his girlfriend and informed the whole staff via email that he is no longer with her. 😂😂🤣🤣😂”
@Benking452: “Unemployment and poverty would make 80% of Nigerians tolerate Ebun Okubanjo. Including me.
There are tons of employers like that even worse”
@pataki_ro: “This is why Nigerians should be clamouring for a strong employment law. Even if an employer thinks like this Ebun, the law will protect the workers. But we are in a country where people won’t be paid for 1 year and they won’t say anything.
@Olumuyiwa__: “Ebun’s day of reckoning has long been in the works. Sadly, there are a lot more startups run without structure and with the same attitude as Ebun.
I’m certain more of these stories will be told.”
@Irunnia_: “They said Ebun woke all his staff up by 11 pm to apologise 😂😂”
