🥤Sensationalism isn’t new, but the stakes are higher

October 23, 2026 | Read online

👋 Good afternoon! Yesterday, we made our way to Lagos Cocktail Week, and today, we’re back for the final day. If you subscribed yesterday, congratulations on getting your very first issue of The Juice. 🧃

We had such a good time meeting fellow Juice lovers, and honestly, we don’t want the fun to end. 🥹 If you’re in Lagos, our green booth is still open, and we’d love to have you stop by for a chance to win free cocktails.

Let’s get into it.

In this edition: This Week in Culture, a novel ticketing platform, the rise of fake news and the dangers of sensationalism, New Music Friday, and more.

If you’re enjoying this, don’t forget to subscribe and join The Juice community. We’re building this together ♡.

Shalom Tewobola,
Editor.

🗞️ THIS WEEK IN CULTURE

🎵 MUSIC

Flytime Promotions has announced its 2026 December concert lineup, with Brandy headlining House of R&B on December 20, followed by Lil Baby and Kehlani at Coca-Cola Rhythm Unplugged on December 21.

While we wait for more headliners to be announced, it’s great to see these platforms continue to strengthen Nigeria’s music experience and bring international acts across the Atlantic.

📽️ FILM

Netflix’s global layoffs have claimed Ben Amadasun, its Africa content chief, who joined the company in 2019 and became VP of Content for the Middle East and Africa in 2023. The Nigerian executive is among roughly 1,000 employees affected by the cuts.

His exit comes as Netflix celebrates a decade in South Africa with a new nine-title slate, while its Nigerian originals have reportedly slowed. The shift raises concerns about the future of investment in Nigerian stories and the support available to local filmmakers.

📚 LITERATURE

The CANEX Prize for Publishing has announced its 2026 shortlist, featuring five publishers from Nigeria, Mozambique and Jamaica. Nigerian finalists include Cassava Republic Press for The World Was in Our Hands, Masobe Books for Sumanguru: Sorcerer King of Sosso, and Parrésia Publishers for South Side.

The winning publisher will receive $20,000, while each of the four other finalists will receive $2,000. The winner will be announced at CANEX WKND in Lagos from November 5th to 8th.

⭐AWARD

Edo cultural horror thriller IDIA has earned three nominations on the 22nd Africa Movie Academy Awards list: Achievement in Soundtrack, Achievement in Costume Design, and Best Young and Promising Actor for Gbubemi Ejeye. The cast includes Linda Osifo, Mercy Aigbe, Tope Tedela, and more.

The film follows a young orphan taken care of by a wealthy couple whose real intentions will later reveal something evil. Horror films are not all that popular around these parts, so it’s good to see more Nigerian stories exploring the genre.

🚨MATTERS ARISING

With Nigerians across the country complaining about the heat, a new Climate Impact Lab report projects an additional 31,400 heat-related deaths in Nigeria between September 2026 and February 2027 due to extreme heat associated with El Niño.

These are projections, not confirmed deaths, but the warning is worth taking seriously. Stay hydrated, keep cool where possible, and look out for children, older people, and anyone more vulnerable to extreme heat.

MAIN SQUEEZE

How four friends built a ticketing app for a better event experience

Two friends started out with an online shopping platform. Then, in 2020, Damilola Jerugba began exploring a new idea: a ticketing company. He brought his friends on board, and Jetron Ticket was born. Today, the company handles ticketing for major events, including Dave’s first Nigerian concert, The Boy Who Played The Harp Tour.

In this interview, Jetron Ticket’s COO, Kayode Babalola, reflects on the company’s unexpected beginnings, what sets it apart, and what young people can learn from building a business.

Jetron Ticket started in 2022 by a group of friends, and now you're fresh out of university with a ticketing platform handling major events. How did the idea come about, and what made you believe it was worth pursuing?

Jetron Ticket actually started as a different idea. Our founder, Damilola Jerugba, was learning to code, and our co-founder, Akinkunmi Solomon, would give him projects to build.

Dami and Kunmi were at Landmark University, and ordering from Jumia, Konga, and other platforms was always a struggle for students at private universities. One of those ideas became JetronMall, a platform that would help students at private universities shop across different online stores, pay once, and have their orders delivered to their rooms.

In 2020, while they were home on a break, Dami mentioned he was working on a ticketing platform. Many of our friends were already organizing parties and working in entertainment, so the idea made sense. That was how Jetron Ticket began. I joined through Kunmi, a childhood friend, while studying computer science.

Dami mentored me, and today I’m the COO. Dami's sister, Feyikemi Jerugba, joined to handle finance because she was great with accounting. Once Jetron Ticket was ready, we reached out to Dafe, also known as Partyboy, who studied with Dami and Kunmi at Landmark and was deep in the party scene. We brought him on as a partner, and his network made a huge difference.

When we launched in 2022, we hosted a pitch event for some of Lagos’s biggest youth event organizers. A few started using the platform immediately, and that showed us we were onto something.

You've handled everything from raves and pop-ups to Llona's Homeless Nationwide Tour and Dave's first Nigerian concert. What have these different kinds of events taught you about what event organizers and audiences actually need from a ticketing platform?

The biggest lesson we've learned is that no two event organizers want exactly the same thing, and one of our greatest strengths at Jetron Ticket is how malleable we've built the platform to be. We listen, adapt and build around what organizers actually need, rather than forcing everyone into the same structure.

When organizers wanted to sell tickets through their own websites, we launched Jetron Fluid, our ticketing API, to power those sales behind the scenes. Working with Massive Entertainment and Live Nation on Dave’s concert also pushed us to meet higher standards. We introduced features such as interactive seat maps, structured presales, queueing systems, and virtual waiting rooms.

Organizers need flexibility and reliability; audiences need simplicity, convenience, and trust. Our job is to keep building a platform that delivers both, regardless of whether it's a small pop-up or an international concert.

Taking charge of ticketing for Dave's concert is a significant step for a young company. How did the opportunity come about, and what did preparing for an event of that scale demand from your team that previous events hadn't?

The opportunity came through a recommendation from someone in our network. After demonstrating our system’s flexibility, we worked on the integrations and added a dedicated analytics dashboard for organizers to monitor ticket sales, page traffic, and audience activity.

We also built offline support into our ticket-scanning system, allowing ticket validation to continue without internet connectivity, with data syncing once the connection returned. Tickets could also be accessed offline through our app.

On the ground, we established box offices and help desks at every gate. We also moved accreditation to the final point of entry, alongside security, with organized queues and dedicated barricades. This helped ensure attendees were properly validated before entering.

What we're particularly proud of is how well the entire operation was received and the confidence we had in our technology. Our systems were reliable enough that when a ticketing dispute came up, we could verify exactly what had happened and resolve it based on accurate information rather than assumptions. The experience raised our own standards.

As you've moved from smaller events to larger productions, what has become more difficult behind the scenes? Have you had to change how the team works or how you approach the risks that come with scaling?

The hardest part hasn't been the technology; I'm confident that we've built some of the best ticketing technology in West Africa. It's managing the expectations of promoters and audiences. Promoters make decisions about pricing, ticket policies, and seating, but audiences often approach the ticketing platform when they're unhappy.

We've had to expand customer support. Our mindset, however, remains focused on the company we intend to become. We try to anticipate what the next stage of growth will demand, from infrastructure to hiring, rather than waiting until those demands overwhelm us.

When we identify something we need, our response is never, "We can't do that right now, let's just manage." It's, "What do we need to make this happen? Let's get it done."

For young people trying to build something similar in the events industry, especially those who are yet to land such opportunities as Jetron, what would you say to them based on your own journey?

Start with what's around you. Jetron Ticket began with friends throwing parties, a founder learning to code, and a problem we understood. Your network is your first advantage, so use it. Be willing to learn. I joined as a student learning to code and, with Dami's mentorship, grew into the COO role. You don't need everything figured out before you start.

Don't be afraid to change direction. The first idea doesn't have to be the final one. Build what the market needs, and don't wait for opportunities to find you. Sometimes you have to create the room yourself. Early on, we hosted a pitch event and invited the biggest youth organizers in Lagos. Some said yes immediately. Opportunities don't always come to you, so go and make them.

🔪 THE PEEL

Sensationalism isn’t new, but the stakes are higher

The discourse

On October 20, the fifth anniversary of the #EndSARS protests, Sahara Reporters reported that “police opened fire on #EndSARS Memorial Participants at Lekki Toll Gate.” What had, in fact, happened was that participants were tear-gassed at the scene. These are two different things, and the distinction should be emphasized.

Every year, Nigerians return to the toll gate to honor those who lost their lives in 2020. Given what the location represents, confrontations are surely bound to stir emotions. That makes accuracy even more important. "Shot at" and "tear-gassed" paint very different pictures, with the former being a terrifying one in people's minds before the facts supported it.

The growing trend of sensationalism raises questions about news reporting today and the tendency to exaggerate events, even when it risks misleading the general public. Should getting attention and engagement matter more than reporting the facts?

Peeling it back

This is not a one-off, and it is not only about one publication. It is a pattern, and across social media, bloggers and content creators share videos with headlines that exaggerate happenings. Media and news outlets attach a caption or headline built to make you click. You watch the video or read the piece, and it turns out to be exactly that: clickbait.

What was promised in the caption is nowhere in the footage or the article, and what is said, shown, or written does not tie to it at all. Platforms reward content that gets reactions, whether accurate or not, because stoked anger drives comments and controversy keeps a post alive.

This makes it important for publishers and reporters to pay closer attention to how they frame stories. Getting people to click should not come at the expense of telling them what actually happened. A headline should reflect the story it introduces, not create a different one for the sake of engagement.

Words have meaning, so reporting that protesters were tear-gassed is not the same as claiming they were shot at. One does not become less serious simply because it is described as it is. Yet the more dramatic version can travel further, leaving people reacting to an account of events that may not have happened as reported.

Another layer

It would be unfair to pretend this appetite for the worst-case version comes from nowhere. Many Nigerians carry painful memories of #EndSARS and a lingering distrust of official accounts, so an assertion of gunfire feels plausible before anyone has verified it. That instinct is understandable.

But it is exactly why precision matters, especially with another election season approaching. When emotions are high, and hope is thin, people are easier to push toward fear and panic.

An exaggerated claim that falls apart also gives critics a reason to dismiss the whole story, including the parts that are true and that should be taken seriously. As such, these inflated headlines cost factual reporting some credibility. Tear gas used against memorial participants deserves scrutiny in its own right, and it carries more weight when described exactly as it happened.

The core

While presenting news and reports, the onus falls mostly on publishers and reporters. They must be willing to prioritise accuracy over engagement and correct mistakes as visibly as they made them.

Readers, on the other hand, also have a role to play. If a post makes you feel something strongly before you have finished reading it, treat that as a signal to check, not to share. Watch beyond the clip, and ask whether the headline matches what the video shows.

Not every alarming report is fake, and not every mistake is deliberate. But in a media environment where attention is currency, we cannot afford to treat engagement as evidence of truth.

🎵 PRESSED BY THE JUICE

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