Toyin Subair was in July 2023 announced as a Senior Special Assistant (Domestic) to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Who is Toyin Subair?
Toyin Subair was born in 1969 (we cannot independently confirm this). He married his long-time lover, Anita Gupta, an Indian, in 2018.
According to a LinkedIn profile, Subair, until his appointment into Tinubu’s cabinet, was the Executive Chairman of Digital Play Limited.
He obtained his LL.B. from Lagos State University in Nigeria, was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1992 and for many years specialised in Intellectual Property Law.
He set up Abraham & co, Solicitors & Advocates, in 1997 and represented companies like Microsoft, HP, Nigerian Television Authority, Multichoice, MNET, NuMetro, etc and local exclusive licensees of Integrity Music, Turner Broadcasting systems and numerous local right owners, including music groups, actors and film production companies.
Toyin Subair founded the now-defunct HiTV, a digital satellite TV channel founded in 2007. It was created rival the DSTV monopoly and was the first television platform in Africa to deploy Hypercable, a terrestrial pay-per-view TV decoder system.
The startup, however, closed its shop around November 2011.
According to a report, Toyin’s relationship with Tinubu dates back to early 2000, and both operate a father-and-son relationship.
In fact, during the period he left the country after the collapse of High Television, HiTV, a multi-channel digital satellite television service, which was supposed to give South Africa-owned Digital Satellite Television, DSTV, a run for its money but ended up being put into receivership, Tinubu was there for him.
The president stood by him and nursed him back to ‘life’. With his return, perhaps, he may begin to nurse the idea of returning to the digital satellite space as he badly craves for a replication of the success of HiTV.
In an interview where he spoke about the failure of HiTV, Subair said the startup collapsed essentially because of a clause in our original Shareholders Agreement, which allowed a group of founding shareholders to block the company raising money or selling off a subsidiary.
“This right was exercised to block our capital raise because it was believed to be a possible ploy by another group to take control of the company.
“We the management were caught in the middle and it took us another 8 months to pursue the alternative that was acceptable to the shareholders but by that time the equity market had gone bust, leaving us grovelling all over for debt.”
With his latest position in his godfather’s government, the sky may not be his limit.
Disclaimer
The information in this article was curated from online sources. NewsWireNGR or its editorial team cannot independently verify all details.
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