AUDU MAIKORI, FOUNDER & PRESIDENT OF CHOCOLATE CITY GROUP.

Audu Maikori is a Nigerian legal counsel, business visionary (entrepreneur) and social extremist. He is best known as the Founder of Chocolate City Music Group which involves 4 distinct organizations. Audu Maikori’s Chocolate City is one of the greatest record labels in Africa serving to control the professions of several artistes including Asa, Djinee, MI, Jesse Jagz, Ice Prince, Nosa, and so on. It has expanded its operations to South Africa of which I believe it could be regarded as Africa’s biggest and most successful music label.

A multi-award winning business visionary and innovative industry expert, Audu soon tackled the part of social activism by subsidizing and taking an interest in an assortment of youth strengthening ventures. He was a key individual from the Enough is Enough rally in 2010 which is remarkable for tending to poor administration issues in Nigeria, amid which he had a face-off with Nigerian military police, when he declined to withdraw when a rifle was pointed at him in an offer to prevent him from driving the serene challenge to the doors of the National Assembly.

Audu Maikori is additionally a much looked for after open speaker and has travelled generally to talk on the inventive business in different fora including instructive foundations, for example, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Oxford University and in addition the prestigious Pan African University.

Audu Maikori is likewise well known in Nigeria as a previous Nigerian Idol judge and has been contrasted with Simon Cowell because of his extreme position on hopefuls amid trials.

YNaija Magazine, one of the leading youth influencers, named Audu one of the most powerful people in Nigerian Entertainment Industry in March 2014.

HIS EARLY LIFE

Audu Maikori was conceived on the thirteenth of August, 1975 and he is the third of five youngsters, he was destined to a Christian family and hails from Kwoi, Jaba Local Government, Kaduna. Jaba Local government is really known as the home of the Nok Culture. He experienced childhood in Lagos with his parents Adamu Maikori, a lawyer-politician and mother Laiatu Gyet Maude, a princess of the antiquated Jaba regal crew. He went to Adrao International School and King’s College in the witness of getting his Law degree from the University of Jos. He later acquired his Bachelor of Laws (B.L) from the Law school Abuja and youth administration. In 2014, he was accepted as a Fellow of the Nigerian Leadership Institute (NLI) in November at the NLI-YALE Leadership Conference which held at the Yale Campus in New Haven.

HIS CAREER

In 2001, Audu Maikori and business accomplice Paul Okeugo framed the Guild of Artistes and Poets, a non-benefit expressions society meant for empowering inventiveness in Abuja, which has held workmanship displays alongside joint efforts with the French Cultural Center. It was through GAP that he met with a scope of artistes and began rendering free legitimate administrations striving for artistes. After two years, Maikori registered Chocolate City – a record label, recording studio, events consultancy, and artiste management organization – with profit from his reward quarterly, and enrolled Okeugo and sibling Yahaya (who is likewise co-proprietor of Maikori’s Chinese eatery Oriental Express) as chiefs on the board. The organization has various artistes on its books, including M.I, Jesse Jagz, and Ice Prince, Pryse, Nosa, Dj Caise.

Maikori, is an individual from the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators UK, International Association of Entertainment Lawyers, the Nigerian Bar Association and International Bar Association (IBA). Maikori cut his teeth as an Associate with the case slanted firm of Chief Afe Babalola SAN & Co. also, worked from that point as Legal Advisor to Leasing Company of Nigeria (an auxiliary of Bank of Industry,Nigeria, and organization secretary of Abuja Markets Management Limited (a backup of Abuja Investment and Property organization) all before the age of 30. In 2002, he collaborated with his senior sibling Yahaya Maikori to begin Law Allianz, a firm of legitimate professionals situated in Lagos and Abuja which concentrated on Intellectual property, gaming and additionally key privatization exchange admonitory administrations. Maikori was in a piece of the legitimate group for key national base activities, for example, the Lagos Rail Mass Transit venture, Abuja Mass Transit venture, Kano Mass travel venture in 2011.

In 2006, Maikori was designated Senior Legal advisor with CPCS Transcom International, a Canadian framework firm, where he chipped away at the legitimate and administrative parts of privatization exchanges including the Nigeria Ports Authority, Nigerian Railway Corporation, unbundling and privatization of PHCN. He spoke to Nigeria in the UNIDROIT Sub-Committee of administrative specialists for the planning of a preparatory draft Protocol to the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment on Matters particular to Space Assets in 2005.

In May 2007, Audu Maikori co-organized the first Nigerian International Music Summit for building up a lawful and administrative system for the Nigerian music industry in March 2007. More than 400 music industry partners drawn from all over Nigeria attended the occasion. His faith in the imaginative businesses of Nigeria and Africa made him a representative and coach for some adolescent in and around Nigeria.

In 2012, after a corporate rebuild, another element Chocolate City Group was framed with prestigious business person and attorney Hakeem Bello-Osagie joining the board as Chairman. Four organizations were framed to constitute the gathering in particular Chocolate City Music, Chocolate City Media, Chocolate City Distribution and STM with Audu selected as CEO of the Group.

Audu Maikori has gotten both neighborhood and worldwide acclamations for his work in adding to the adolescents including being welcomed to Albania in 2008 to convey a keynote discourse at a course sorted out by the Albania Ministry of Youth and Employment, Minister of society and British Council.

In 2010, Maikori was a piece of the Enough is Enough crusade which saw a large number of Nigerians dissent against issues, for example, framework failings, fuel deficiencies and force power outages that thought about severely the administration’s push to give the fundamental courtesy to it’s subjects. In a generally serene four-hours dissent, they walked to the National Assembly in Abuja, conveying bulletins, wearing T-shirts which expressed “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH“, and conveying a letter laying out their requests. Maikori turned into the substance of Enough is Enough after a police cautioned him to withdraw or be shot; Maikori declined to withdraw and challenged the officer to shoot. He later drove alternate nonconformists to walk on calmly to make their challenges heard by the National Assembly.

On 13 February 2012, Audu Maikori was selected an individual for the Presidential Committee on the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Program ( SURE-P); the board individuals were hand-picked by President Goodluck Jonathan to manage and guarantee the successful and convenient usage of discriminating framework and social wellbeing tasks to be financed with  reserved funds accumulating to the government from endowment evacuation. Maikori was the most youthful individual from the board of trustees.

COPYRIGHT ACTIVISM

In May 2012 Maikori was elected to serve as a member of the board of COSON. On 20 May 2010, COSON was given the certificate of approval by the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) to be Nigeria’s sole government licensed collective management organization for musical works and sound recordings. Maikori was one of the brains behind the lobby for the NCC to officially appoint a CMO to collect royalties for songwriters and performers after 13 years of the NCC failing to settle the dispute between the MCSN and PMRS, both de-registered CMOs which had been embroiled in legal battles for supremacy for years. His appointment has been lauded as a right step in the right direction by music industry stakeholders.

AWARDS HE HAS WON

Audu Maikori has won a series of awards, below are a few;

• International Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year2007 (Nigeria)
• International Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year2007 (Global Winner)
• Entertainment Executive of the year 2011 by the Nigerian Entertainment Award (NEA)
• Winner – Award for outstanding award in Music and Entertainment by the National Youth Merit Awards 2011
• Young Entrepreneur of the Year (2011) – Diaspora Professionals Award 2011
• Mentor of the Year – 2010- Enterprise Foundation)
• Creative Entrepreneur of the Year for Music – 2011- CIAN
• Winner – African Awards for Entrepreneurship 2011.
• Entertainment Executive of the Year – 2012- Nigerian Reunion Corporation

Audu Maikori received a special judge’s commendation at the finale of the International Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year where he beat nine other contenders to win the global award in June 2007. At the inaugural edition of the United Kingdom Young Music Entrepreneur 2008, Maikori was nominated to serve as a judge alongside four other British music industry judges, making him the first black judge for a major British Music industry competition.

On 19th March 2011, he was recognized by City People Magazine for his outstanding contribution to the Nigerian music industry.

Although Mr. Audu Maikori likes to keep his private life out of the media he stated in an interview that his wife, Zel Umunna Maikori is one of the greatest blessings that has happened to him in this life.

Well after 10 years, Mr. Maikori stepped down as CEO of Chocolate City Music on June 30^th 2015 through an announcement on his twitter page by 5:00pm while categorically stating that Mr. Jude Lemfani Abaga will assume the position of the new CEO, Chocolate City Music.

I was actually going through Mr. Audu Maikori’s Instagram page with my friend and colleague, Henry Chestnut Ezikeoha (Brand Manager of Friendite Global Limited) and he had a few things to say,

He has actually said on an interview that he started the ‘entertainment hustle’ way-back in the University days with Paul Okeugo. He also has a great sense of fashion as can be seen on his Instagram page making me label him ‘a Classic man’.

‘Boss e no go bad if you bless your boy with some piece’

From the team (Friendite Global Limited) and most especially the Brand Manager we wish you a bountiful Happy 40^th Birthday Sir… Cheers!!!

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