Do you remember crouching before your television set ahead of 4pm eagerly waiting for the multi-coloured lines that would signal broadcasts were about to begin? We completely remember it just like yesterday. While it may seem like another lifetime, it wasn’t  that long ago that the internet DIDN’T run our lives, and 24-hour cable channels did NOT exist in Nigerian homes, and we were completely at the mercy of NTA for entertainment.

 

 

We may have come a long way from that time but we never forget the glory days when the entire country was hooked to just one channel, and it’s entertaining soaps. Join us down memory lane as we recall some Nigerian soap operas that rocked Nigerian homes in the 90s.

 

Ultimate Power:

Because the fear of ayamatanga was the beginning of wisdom for every Nigerian child growing up in the 90s. Not quite a soap opera, Ultimate Power was a serialised movie produced by Mount Zion films which had a religious theme. Widely popularly, the phrase ayamatanaga is one no 90’s child who grew up in Nigeria would be unfamiliar with, right up there with agbara nla.

 

 

 

Checkmate:

 The mother of them all, Checkmate had a cult following and spun the also widely popular ‘Fuji House of Commotion’. Starring Ego Boyo, Richard Mofe-Damijo, the late Francis Agu to name a few, Checkmate centred around the powerful Haatrope family and kept us all glued to our screens.

 

 

 

Super Story (2001-2018)

Super Story is the brainchild of TV producer Wale Adenuga who is also responsible for Papa Ajasco on TV and on print. 18 years running, Super Story is a unique format that has appealed to the Nigerian audience. The first season of the show told the story of Suara and Toyin Tomato (played by the brilliant Sola Sobowale). The debut season was a hit which has influenced the success of the following seasons.

 

Each season tells a different story centred around the lives of middle-class Nigeria.

 

 

Papa Ajasco (1996-present)

This another creation of Wale Adenuga. Papa Ajasco was initially a comic strip in the 80s which turned out to be very successful. After an initial movie in 1983, Wale Adenuga adapted it for TV in 1996 starring the famous characters, ‘Papa Ajasco’, ‘Mama Ajasco’, ‘Bobo Ajasco’, ‘Boy Alinco’, ‘Miss Pepeiye’, ‘Pa James’ and ‘Pa Jimoh’.

 

 

Heavy on slapstick comedy, Papa Ajasco has continued to make Nigerians laugh for over 20 years.

 

If these soap operas meant something to you… Comment below..

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