Who Is President Obonjo? – The Full Story of Benjamin Bankole Bello, the UK-Nigerian Comedian Who Built a Fictional African Republic and Fooled the World

Most comedians spend their careers trying to get people to notice them. Benjamin Bankole Bello — better known to audiences across Britain, TikTok, and large swathes of the internet as President Obonjo, Supreme Leader of the Lafta Republic — has spent his career managing the opposite problem. His character is so convincing, so committed, and so thoroughly realised that major news agencies have had to fact-check him not once but twice. TikTok banned him for a week because users reported him as a real African warlord. American audiences genuinely believed a fictional African dictator was issuing geopolitical ultimatums on social media. Reuters investigated him. USA Today issued a fact-check specifically to clarify that the Lafta Republic does not exist.

This is, by any reasonable measure, one of the most original and successful character comedy acts in the United Kingdom — and it was created by a quietly spoken Nigerian-born man who had never performed stand-up comedy until he was 45 years old, who was unemployed when he invented the character, and who was inspired, of all things, by Barack Obama’s struggles with Congressional partisanship.

The story of President Obonjo is one of the more genuinely remarkable origin stories in British comedy. The man behind the military uniform, the booming declarations of absolute power, and the TikTok videos that have had international fact-checkers scrambling is Benjamin Bankole Bello — and his real story is as interesting as the fiction he has built around it.

President Obonjo Biography

Early Life and Background – Liverpool, Nigeria, and Back to England

President Obonjo was born in Liverpool to Nigerian parents. His father is from Akure and his mother is from Warri. He arrived in Nigeria in the early 1970s and left for the UK in 1985.

This is an unusual biographical trajectory — born in England, taken to Nigeria as a small child, raised there through the formative years of the 1970s and early 1980s, and then returning to the UK as a young adult in 1985. That movement between worlds — between British and Nigerian culture, between the Yoruba heritage of his father’s Akure and the Delta culture of his mother’s Warri, between the country of his birth and the country of his upbringing — is not incidental to who Benjamin Bello became. It gave him an outsider’s perspective on multiple cultures simultaneously, which is precisely the kind of double vision that the best satire requires.

Growing up in Nigeria during the 1970s meant growing up under a succession of military governments. Nigeria’s post-civil war period was defined by military coups, military rule, and a parade of uniformed men declaring themselves heads of state. His journey growing up in Nigeria under dictators directly informed the creation of President Obonjo. The comedy character he would eventually create — a self-appointed African dictator, dripping in medals and magnificence, issuing absurd decrees with absolute solemnity — was not an abstract invention. It was a satirical portrait drawn from direct childhood observation.

Obonjo has been back to Nigeria only twice since leaving in 1985, but has kept in touch.

Personal Life – A Wife Who Prefers Obama

Benjamin Bankole Bello is married, though his wife has never been publicly named. She maintains complete privacy and, by all accounts, prefers it that way.

Behind President Obonjo is a very different persona, Benjamin Bankole Bello, a quiet man whose identity has been stolen by The President and whose wife is in love with the other man.

That is not merely a comic’s quip. It reflects a genuinely funny biographical detail that Benjamin has shared in interviews: the creation of the Obama-inspired President Obonjo character was partly motivated by his wife’s obsession with Barack Obama. When Obama came on the scene, Benjamin was watching him being elected as President and his wife, being an obsessive fan of Obama, made him think he had to get his wife back. He recalled that Obonjo was his nickname back in Nigeria and thought if he added “President” to it, he was on a run.

The irony — that a character created partly to compete with a wife’s admiration for a real president became so convincing that international news agencies had to confirm he was not himself a real president — is the kind of recursive absurdity that belongs in a comedy special.

Details about their children, if any, have not been publicly shared.

Education

Benjamin Bankole Bello’s educational background has not been publicly documented in detail. What is known is that he came to comedy relatively late in life — it is impressive for someone coming into comedy at the ripe age of 45, relatively late in industry norms. The period between his return to England in 1985 and the creation of the President Obonjo character in 2011 spans 26 years — years during which he built a life, presumably worked, and developed the sensibility and observational intelligence that would later power one of Britain’s most original comedy acts.

The Creation of President Obonjo – A Character Born From Unemployment and Obama

During a period of unemployment, Benjamin created the comedy character President Obonjo of the Lafta Republic in 2011.

The origin story is worth examining in full because it reveals something essential about both the character and the man.

Thinking of the challenges the US president was facing getting his initiatives through a highly partisan government, Bello saw an opportunity. “I thought: that’s what Obama actually needs. Obama needs to be an African president — a real African dictator,” he recalls, and the character of President Obonjo was born.

The comedic logic is elegant in its simplicity: what if the most powerful democratic leader in the world had the unlimited, unquestionable authority of a tinpot African dictator? The contrast between Obama’s earnest constitutionalism and the imagined version who could simply decree his legislative agenda into law captures something real about the absurdity of democratic dysfunction — and transforms it into character comedy.

“Obonjo” was Benjamin’s nickname back in Nigeria, and adding “President” to it gave the character both a personal root and an immediately legible satirical frame.

He was told after his first stage performance that he had “found his mojo.” Audiences immediately loved Obonjo, though they couldn’t say why, stating they felt they weren’t supposed to like this guy, but absolutely did.

That paradox — the audience’s guilty delight in a character they know they should resist — is the signature of great satirical character comedy. The best fictional villains make you laugh while making you think, and President Obonjo, the pompous self-appointed dictator of the entirely fictional Lafta Republic, does exactly that.

Career Journey — From First Stage to Edinburgh Fringe to International Viral Fame

The Early Circuit Years

Benjamin began performing the President Obonjo character on the UK comedy circuit in 2011, building his presence slowly through club nights, competitions, and — crucially — social media. Unlike most comedians of his era who used social media as a supplement to live performance, Bello understood from early on that the character of President Obonjo was uniquely suited to online content.

Obonjo has become a successful comedian because of his innovative use of the internet to engage with Lafta addicts online. The internet was part of an overall digital strategy that has turned thousands of supporters to embrace Obonjomania.

The “party political broadcasts” — short video monologues in which President Obonjo issues decrees, makes pronouncements, and addresses the citizens of the Lafta Republic — became a signature format that translated perfectly to Facebook, YouTube, and later TikTok. The only social media comedian to run for Presidency to meet Obama and Clinton through Photoshop, to use social media to launch a comedy career

His early competition wins were impressive for a relative newcomer: Luton Comedian of the Year, winner of Beat the Gong, Beat the Frog, Bath Comedy Gladiators, and Hastings Comedian of the Month. He often plays to audiences of 150+ up and down the country.

The Edinburgh Fringe — Three Shows, Critical Acclaim

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world’s largest arts festival and the proving ground for British comedy. Benjamin brought President Obonjo to Edinburgh three times, each time to packed audiences and critical recognition.

President Obonjo performed shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2015 — President Obonjo Stole My Identity, 2017 — The Rise of the Comedy Dictator, and 2019 — Goodbye Mr President, all critically acclaimed shows

Goodbye Mr President was described as “a short, impactful story of friendship between an African dictator and an Englishman.” Chortle called it “a great comic construct,” while FringeGuru described it as “a fascinating, bewildering and painfully funny experience.”

The Malcolm Hardee Award — Comedy’s Most Eccentric Honour

In 2019, President Obonjo won the prestigious Malcolm Hardee Award, previously won by Trevor Noah in 2012.

The Malcolm Hardee Award, named for the anarchic comedian and promoter who died in 2005, is perhaps the most characterful honour in British comedy — given specifically to acts that embody the spirit of “madcap, anything-goes comedy anarchy.” Previous winners include names that went on to global prominence. The fact that President Obonjo won the same award as Trevor Noah — now host of The Daily Show and one of the most recognisable comedians in the world — places Benjamin Bankole Bello in significant company.

At the same ceremony, he was nominated for Comic Originality and for Act Most Likely to Make a Million Quid

The BBC and E4 Controversy — When Institutions Steal a Character

One of the most remarkable chapters of President Obonjo’s story is not a comedic one — it is a story about intellectual property, institutional power, and an entire comedy community rallying around one of its own.

BBC Studios sold a concept to Channel 4/E4 — a non-broadcast pilot called The Colonel Banjoko Show, in which actor Samson Kayo plays a fictional dictator — that had clearly been based on the intellectual property of comedian Benjamin Bankole Bello and his comedy character President Obonjo.

When the BBC and E4 conspired to dethrone the President by installing a pretender in his position of Comedy Dictator, the entire comedy community rose as one to demand that His Serene Excellency be recognised as the TRUE Supreme Leader of the Lafta Republic.

The campaign — centred on the hashtag #JusticeForObonjo — generated significant coverage and industry solidarity. Audience members shouted “Justice for Obonjo!” at the end of shows. Top agents in the country became interested. Tim Vine, Omid Djalili, and Stephen K Amos were among those who became aware of the case

In what the Malcolm Hardee Awards themselves acknowledged as the ultimate irony, the award for Cunning Stunt went to E4 and BBC Studios “for exponentially increasing the knowledge of, and sales for, President Obonjo with their appalling theft of his character.” The attempt to replicate the concept without involving its creator backfired spectacularly — and turned President Obonjo from a beloved circuit act into a cause célèbre with national coverage.

The Viral Phenomenon – When Satire Gets Mistaken for Reality

The most extraordinary dimension of President Obonjo’s recent career is the degree to which his fictional persona has penetrated global consciousness — often because people believe it is real.

Reuters fact-checked President Obonjo, a British stand-up comedy act that has been performing for over ten years. The shtick is that President Obonjo is the leader/dictator of the Lafta Republic in Africa. So convincing did many people — largely Americans — find this act that they believed President Obonjo was real.

USA Today issued a fact check against a President Obonjo video in February 2025, to help American internet users realise the comedy character is not real.

Comedian Benjamin Bello has been banned from broadcasting live on TikTok for a week, after a viewer mistook his character President Obonjo for a real African warlord and reported him to the platform.

On 23rd June 2023, a TikTok video was virally shared across social media with a man in military uniform claiming that if the elections in Sierra Leone were to be rigged, he would send his troops in 24 hours. Benjamin Bankole Bello, who goes by the alias President Obonjo, was incorrectly tagged as the Head of ECOMOG — the West African multilateral armed force military group.

The fact that a comedian from Liverpool performing satire about African dictatorship gets regularly mistaken for an actual African political figure by international audiences says something both funny and sobering about how media literacy functions in the social media age. It also, paradoxically, validates the quality of the work — a character this convincing is a character built with genuine craft.

The Guardian covered his performance in February 2024, noting that sets from President Obonjo give a bracing sense of the diversity of the comedy scene.

Comedy Philosophy and Style

Obonjo says he is drawn to comedy that is madcap, out of this world and clever — crazy comedy that goes against what is expected. He dislikes repetitive and predictable comedy. He is attracted to comedy that produces new ways of seeing things and breaks the rules, comedy close to the bone but still funny. The best way to describe it, he says, is “comedy like Picasso, abstract comedy, confusing but funny where the viewer/audience admires what the comedian does and is left wanting more.”

“By not doing what others are doing. I aim to stand out, dare to be different and take risks. I knew from the onset that I wanted to create an act that would challenge the status quo. Go against what the establishment expects.”

Bello has memories of being funny from childhood, even noting that his father commented that he liked to bring his son along “because he made him laugh.” It wasn’t until long after his move to the UK that his sense of “being naturally funny” started to solidify into a concept he could apply as a profession.

The separation between Benjamin and Obonjo is something he has explored directly in his performance work. “Interestingly enough over the years I have tried to perform as ‘myself’ Benjamin and people think I am playing another character… lol, very funny. Obonjo is inside me, Benjamin is the real me. But I sometimes think that Obonjo has taken over because he performs off stage and on Facebook.”

The Racial Abuse Incident – 2024

One of the more disturbing recent chapters in the President Obonjo story reflects a darker reality about performing as a Black comedian in British venues.

A man was arrested after comedian Benjamin Bankole Bello was subjected to a barrage of racial abuse on stage, causing the gig to be halted. Bello, who performs as spoof African dictator President Obonjo, was reportedly heckled with racial slurs by a group of 12 men when he played at the West End Comedy Club in London in April 2024.

The incident generated significant industry attention and support from the comedy community. That a man performing satirical commentary on African dictatorship — commentary born from direct experience of that world — could be met with racial abuse in a London comedy club in 2024 is a statement about both the environment in which Black British comedians work and the courage required to keep showing up.

Film and Television Work

President Obonjo is known for Gatwick Gangsters (2017), Bliss of the Abyss (2020), and President Obonjo: Goodbye Mr President (2020).

The filmed special of Goodbye Mr President preserves one of his Edinburgh Fringe shows for a wider audience, and represents the kind of documented record that allows a character comedian’s work to be assessed beyond the live performance context.

He also hosts the podcast If Comedians Ruled the World with President Obonjo — a concept that extends the character’s premise into long-form audio content and speaks to the breadth of his creative output.

Net Worth

Benjamin Bankole Bello’s personal net worth has not been publicly confirmed. His income is derived from live comedy performance fees as a headliner and MC, Edinburgh Fringe shows, television and film appearances, social media monetisation across TikTok and YouTube, podcast revenue, and brand engagement. As a Malcolm Hardee Award winner with significant TikTok reach — over 348,800 followers on his official TikTok account — and growing international visibility, his earning potential has expanded considerably since the early circuit years. No specific figure has been verified

Tribe, Religion, and Nationality

His father is from Akure — making him Yoruba on his father’s side — and his mother is from Warri, which places her in the Delta/Urhobo cultural tradition. Benjamin was born in Liverpool, making him British by birth, and spent his formative years in Nigeria, making his identity genuinely bicultural. He is British-Nigerian in the fullest sense — not as a hyphenated compromise but as a lived experience of two distinct cultural worlds that he has spent his career putting into creative dialogue.

Conclusion

Benjamin Bankole Bello is, in the most precise sense, a late bloomer — a man who did not find his professional calling until his mid-40s, who built it from unemployment and an Obama obsession and a Nigerian nickname, and who has spent the years since constructing one of British comedy’s most genuinely original personas. President Obonjo of the Lafta Republic is not a costume. He is a fully realised satirical character — complex enough to fool Reuters, original enough to win the Malcolm Hardee Award, and funny enough that audiences who feel they shouldn’t like him absolutely do. The man inside the uniform is quieter, more thoughtful, and more interesting than the character he plays. But the character he plays has done something remarkable: it has made the world sit up, pay attention, and — in the best possible way — not quite know what to believe.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Who is President Obonjo? President Obonjo is an alias. His real name is Benjamin Bankole Bello. He is a famous UK-Nigerian-born comedian who created the comedy character President Obonjo of the Lafta Republic in 2011 during a period of unemployment.

2. Is President Obonjo a real president? No. He is a professional comedian. His videos about political events are merely aimed at stimulating laughter in the most creative manner. The Lafta Republic is a fictional country that exists only in his comedy.

3. Where is President Obonjo from? Benjamin Bankole Bello was born in Liverpool to Nigerian parents. His father is from Akure and his mother is from Warri. He arrived in Nigeria in the early 1970s and left for the UK in 1985.

4. How old is President Obonjo? He came into comedy at approximately 45 years old, which, given the character was created in 2011, places his birth year around 1966 — making him approximately 58–59 years old as of 2025.

5. What award has President Obonjo won? In 2019, President Obonjo won the prestigious Malcolm Hardee Award at the Edinburgh Fringe — an award previously won by Trevor Noah in 2012.

6. Why has President Obonjo been fact-checked by Reuters and USA Today? His character is so convincing that many people — largely American internet users — believed President Obonjo was a real African political figure. Reuters investigated him on more than one occasion, and USA Today issued a fact-check in February 2025 to clarify that the Lafta Republic does not exist and the character is a British comedy act.

7. Is President Obonjo married? Benjamin Bankole Bello is married. His wife has not been publicly named. He has joked that she is in love with the President Obonjo character rather than the real Benjamin — a detail rooted in the fact that his wife’s admiration for Barack Obama partly inspired the character’s creation