LAGOS, Nigeria — Nigerian filmmaker and media entrepreneur Chude Jideonwo has named Senator Natasha Akpoti his Culture Icon for 2025, an annual recognition he uses to highlight a figure he believes captures the nation’s mood in a given year.
Jideonwo, an award-winning director and host of the talk show “#WithChude,” said his announcement on Friday, December 26, 2025, that he has chosen was guided by a specific idea of influence rather than polls or public approval.
For him, the honour goes to the person whose life and choices illuminate how many Nigerians think and live.
“If you look at that person,” he said, “you can understand a lot of Nigerians just by watching how they show up, how they fight, how they exist in the world.”
He announced Akpoti’s selection in 2025, adding that this year’s decision, in his words, was “beyond doubt.”
An annual honour built on courage
Jideonwo began naming a Culture Icon several years ago, and past honourees have ranged from pop musicians to investigative journalists.
Previous selections have included recording artists Naira Marley and Rema as well as investigative reporter Fisayo Soyombo.
What links these figures, Jideonwo said, is not likeness or shared background but a common thread of boldness that forces Nigerian society to confront itself.
He described his criteria as prioritising courage, the willingness to stand where others withdraw, to confront power directly, and to break new ground or act in ways that make it harder for the country to avoid difficult questions.
In Akpoti, he said he recognised that quality in a distinctly Nigerian register, describing it as bold, strategic and audacious, and as a posture that is unafraid of power.
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Akpoti’s confrontations with power
Akpoti, a senator, has in recent years faced intense scrutiny and political headwinds.
Jideonwo pointed to her passage through legal disputes, public criticism, political isolation and what he characterised as gendered hostility. Observing those episodes, he said he saw “a modern David standing firmly before Goliath.”
He noted her habit of appearing in court with her legal team and supporters, taking her case to international platforms and insisting on being heard in spaces where she had been told she did not belong.
To him, these were signs of what he called a refusal to be erased.
One episode, he said, crystallised this impression. When Akpoti was allegedly prevented from returning to her constituency for what was expected to be a large homecoming event, she arrived instead by helicopter.
“That,” Jideonwo said, “is someone who understands power, and understands how power works in Nigeria.”
According to his account, Akpoti has also contended with periods of isolation, including the fact that no other female senator publicly defended her during some of her most contentious moments.
He said she chose to continue nonetheless.
Focus on constituents amid national disputes
Jideonwo said that even while Akpoti faced limits on her ability to speak for her constituents in the Senate, she continued to travel back to her home base, inaugurate projects and organise interventions.
In his view, those actions demonstrated that national visibility is secondary to the obligations owed to the people who elected her.
He argued that Akpoti’s effort to operate at multiple levels, engaging international audiences, navigating national politics and maintaining a presence in her local community, all the while under pressure showcases a quality he considers a defining Nigerian strength.
“For all of it,” Jideonwo said, “for the courage, the audacity, the refusal to be silenced, and for the future she is forging, not just for herself, but for those watching her, Natasha Akpoti is my Culture Icon of the Year 2025.”
Jideonwo stressed that his designation does not attempt to resolve ongoing legal cases or public disagreements involving the senator.
Instead, he said, the choice is meant to highlight qualities he believes many Nigerians recognise in themselves — the determination to resist being written out, to remain in place even when isolated and to insist, despite obstacles, on continuing to speak.
