Antar Laniyan Faces Backlash After Saying He Would Walk Away From Friends Who Criticise Tinubu
A resurfaced clip of veteran Nollywood actor Antar Laniyan has set Nigerian social media alight. In the footage, taken from a podcast appearance that aired months ago, the actor says he would walk away from any friend who criticises President Bola Tinubu while in his company — a remark that has now drawn a wave of criticism from Nigerians online.
The clip began circulating over the weekend and picked up speed through Monday, October 19, 2026, as entertainment outlets picked it up and commentators weighed in. At the heart of the controversy is a simple question that has followed Nigerian celebrities for years: should stars speak up about politics, or keep their distance?
What Antar Laniyan Said
In the clip, Laniyan is asked how he handles political conversations in his friendships. His answer is blunt. He says that if he is with a friend and the friend starts speaking badly about President Tinubu, he will simply leave the room.
Pressed by the host on why he would rather walk away than argue his case, the actor explains that the president, in his experience, is not the person his critics describe — and that he does not feel obligated to adopt a friend’s point of view. Tinubu, he says, has not treated him the way his detractors claim.
Laniyan goes further still. He makes clear that this is not about personal gratitude alone: even if the president had wronged him personally, he says, he would still choose to leave the conversation rather than join in the criticism. For the actor, the point is about how he keeps his friendships — politics, in his telling, is simply not something he wants dominating his time with people close to him.
Reports differ slightly on where the original interview aired. Several outlets describe the clip as coming from an episode of the African A-List podcast, while at least one report identified the programme as the Oyinmomo TV podcast. What the reports agree on is the substance of the remarks — and that is what has sparked the backlash.
The Online Reaction
The response online has been swift and mostly unforgiving. Many of the reactions quoted by entertainment outlets describe Laniyan’s position as selfish, arguing that a public figure with his platform owes Nigerians more than silence on matters of governance.
The anger is not just about the remarks themselves. For many critics, the clip landed at a moment of real frustration over the economy, and it revived a broader debate about where Nollywood’s veterans stand when ordinary Nigerians are struggling. Comments sections across blogs and social platforms have filled with users arguing that entertainers who benefit from fame should not close their ears when fans raise concerns about leadership.
Others have taken a more measured view, saying the actor is simply describing a personal boundary in his friendships rather than making a political declaration. But that reading has been in the minority in the coverage so far. As one outlet noted, most of the reactions that have surfaced publicly characterise his stance in harsh terms.
As of the time of reporting, Laniyan had not issued a public response to the criticism.
Why the Timing Matters
The resurfaced clip did not emerge in a vacuum. It is circulating just days after fellow veteran actor Yinka Quadri appeared on the same podcast programme and gave a full-throated defence of his support for Tinubu’s re-election bid.
Quadri used his appearance to explain why he backs the president’s second-term ambition, pointing to what he described as Tinubu’s long-standing help to entertainers. Among the examples he gave was a claim that Tinubu paid $25,000 to bring the remains of actress Moji Olaiya back to Nigeria from Canada after her death in 2017. Quadri also pointed to road projects in the South-West, pension payments and the Nigerian Education Loan Fund as reasons for his support.
That two veteran actors would use the same platform, days apart, to stake out pro-Tinubu positions has not gone unnoticed. With the battle for the 2027 presidential election already gathering momentum, every statement from a prominent entertainer is being read as part of the early campaign season.
A Long History: Yoruba Actors and Tinubu
The debate around Laniyan’s comments sits on top of a much longer story — the close relationship between a section of the Yoruba film industry and Bola Tinubu, which stretches back years.
In June 2022, during the run-up to the presidential election, several prominent Yoruba actors appeared in a video endorsing Tinubu’s presidential ambition. Yinka Quadri, Jide Kosoko, Taiwo Hassan and Femi Adebayo were among the names in that video, and it drew criticism from some Nigerians at the time who felt entertainers should not lend their fame to political campaigns.
Tinubu went on to win the 2023 election and was sworn in as president in May of that year. But the alliance between the actors and the presidency has not been a smooth one — and it is the cracks in that alliance that make the current moment so charged.
The Regrets of 2025
Last year, some of the very actors who campaigned for Tinubu in 2023 said they felt abandoned after the election. Fatai “Lalude” Odua and Ganiu “Alapini Osa” Nofiu, both veteran comic actors, publicly said they and their colleagues had been neglected after working for Tinubu’s campaign. Their comments fed a wider conversation about whether entertainers who throw their weight behind politicians ever get anything in return — and whether the public backlash they absorb is worth it.
Even more striking was the case of actor Olaiya Igwe, who had campaigned for Tinubu in one of the most attention-grabbing ways imaginable — appearing naked on a beach in a show of support. Igwe later apologised to Nigerians for backing the president, a public reversal that underlined how much the mood had shifted among some of Tinubu’s celebrity supporters.
That history is the backdrop against which Laniyan’s and Quadri’s recent comments are being judged. For critics, the question is obvious: after the public regrets of 2025, why are veteran actors once again staking their reputations on the same political figure?
Who Is Antar Laniyan?
For younger audiences who know him mainly from this controversy, Laniyan is one of the true veterans of Nigerian film and television. He began his acting career in 1981, after studying Theatre Arts at the University of Ibadan, and has worked across theatre, television and film for more than four decades.
His credits include the classic film Sango, and he directed the first episode of Super Story, the landmark television series from Wale Adenuga Productions that premiered in 2000 and went on to become one of the most beloved drama series in Nigerian television history. As an actor, producer and director, he belongs to the generation that built Nollywood’s foundations — long before the streaming era and the global attention the industry enjoys today.
During the same podcast appearance, Laniyan also spoke about his experiences in the industry and how much Nollywood has changed between his early days and now — a reminder that the man at the centre of this storm is someone who has watched the entire arc of modern Nigerian entertainment unfold.
The Bigger Picture: Celebrities and Politics in Nigeria
The Laniyan episode is the latest chapter in a recurring Nigerian drama: celebrities, politics and the public’s demand that the famous take a side.
Nigerian entertainers have always had a complicated relationship with political power. On one hand, stars command enormous audiences and can move public opinion; on the other, they depend on goodwill from fans across the political spectrum, and taking a stand can be costly. The 2022 endorsement videos, the 2025 regrets, and now the podcast defences of 2026 trace a pattern — enthusiasm, disappointment, and then a new round of declarations as the next election approaches.
What makes this moment different is the economic context. With Nigerians facing a difficult cost-of-living situation, statements perceived as defending the government land harder than they might have a few years ago. The charge of selfishness levelled at Laniyan is, at its core, an argument about solidarity: that those who have done well out of the system should not look away when others are hurting.
Podcast Clips: The New Engine of Celebrity Controversy
There is another layer to this story worth noting: the way it broke. Laniyan’s remarks were not made at a press conference or in a prepared statement. They came from a podcast conversation recorded months ago, clipped, and recirculated at a moment when they would cause maximum stir.
This has become the standard pipeline for Nigerian entertainment controversy. Long-form podcast and YouTube interviews — the African A-List podcast, Oyinmomo TV, and a host of others — give celebrities room to speak freely for an hour or more. Then a thirty-second clip, stripped of its surrounding context, does the rounds on X, Instagram and WhatsApp, and a months-old conversation becomes today’s scandal.
The format rewards strong, simple statements, and Laniyan’s “I will walk away” line was perfectly shaped for it. Whether the fuller conversation contained nuance that the clip left out is something the current debate has largely skipped over — the clip is the story now.
The Endorsement Question Nollywood Keeps Dodging
Underneath the outrage is a question the industry has never really answered: what do celebrities owe the public when it comes to politics?
In 2022, the endorsement videos were explicit — famous faces, on camera, asking Nigerians to vote a certain way. In 2025, some of those same faces said they regretted it. In 2026, a new round of podcast appearances is staking out positions again. Each cycle follows the same arc: enthusiasm, backlash, regret, and then — as the next election approaches — a fresh set of declarations.
The calculation for the stars is genuinely difficult. Speak up and you alienate half your audience; stay silent and you are accused of complicity. Laniyan’s answer — to physically leave the room when politics comes up — is one attempt to escape the trap. The reaction suggests the trap has no exit: even the refusal to engage is now a political statement.
What Happens Next
Whether Laniyan responds, and how, will shape the next phase of the story. A clarification or an apology could cool the controversy; silence could let it harden into a lasting reputation question. His colleagues’ experiences offer cautionary tales on both sides — Olaiya Igwe’s apology did not erase the memory of the beach video, and Lalude and Alapini’s regrets came only after the damage was done.
For now, the clip continues to circulate, the comments keep coming, and one of Nollywood’s most respected veterans finds himself at the centre of a political firestorm he says he would rather walk away from.
—
Source: Pulse Nigeria, Leadership, New Telegraph, The Sun, QED.ng. Background biographical details via QED.ng and New Telegraph.