It’s a new year. And in the spirit of engaging in shenanigans whenever I get the chance, here’s a list of 20 Nigerian pop culture predictions for 2026 I feverishly scribbled during the intense bout of malaria I had last week.

1) Omoni Oboli will release a third Love in Every Word movie.

After the first movie’s inexplicable success, Omoni Oboli gave the people what they wanted with a sequel titled, Love in Every Word: The Wedding, released seven months after the original, to just as much fanfare. However, the sequel only covered the main couple’s traditional wedding, with the last scene showing the two leads shopping for a wedding dress. Which is why I predict a third movie probably titled, Love in Every Word: The White Wedding will be released on the 14th of February 2026 to capitalise on the holiday of love.

It’ll be just as underwhelming and product-placement-filled as the others.

2) Other YouTube Nollywood channels will try to ride on the coattails of Love in Every Word’s success.

YouTube Nollywood is about to give Asylum Studios a run for their money with a dizzying flurry of titles like, Love in That Word, Love in One Word, Love Beyond Words, Love Beneath Words, Love is your Word, Oh Word? Love, Love is Our Word: A Communist’s Love Agenda…

3) Asake will shock everyone by keeping his current look.

Asake has spent his entire career serving us one jarring look after another. So in October 2025, when he showed up with this clean-shaven look, people were less surprised that he was debuting yet another face and more about his shaved head. Some people theorised that he’s having an identity crisis while others said he was simply taking advantage of being able to afford to look however he wants. Whatever the reason, I predict he’s going to gag us all by keeping this look for at least the next two years.

4) There will be an insane number of Nollywood romance movies with age gap relationships.

When the time comes, remember we did it first and best.

5) Avengers Doomsday will gag everyone as usual.

Rumours that large portions of the cast don’t understand the movie’s direction or plot due to them only acting alongside test dummies on green-screen soundstages have caused comic book movie fans to assume the movie is going to be a disaster. And while I get the panic, I need everyone to relax and unclench. The truth is all the other Avengers movies were filmed in this admittedly chaotic way, held been held together by CGI, nostalgia, and cameos. The difference between then and now is how much harder it’s gotten to prevent set leaks.

6) More Nigerians will feature AI “artists”.

Ai “artists” are charting, racking up hundreds of thousands of streams, and even getting official features from established stars. More Nigerian artists are going to it in 2026, and many people won’t be happy about it. The real gag is most people won’t even notice. And those that notice, won’t care.

7) One Nollywood titan will hold the Nigerian December box office hostage, and everyone else in the space will be so fucking mad about it.

At this point, the rivalry over who the Monarch of Nollywood is (specifically in December) deserves its own Empire-style TV show. We could name it Heated Rivalry…

8) Charles Okpakele (Charles of Play), the producer behind Nollywood remakes like Living in Bondage: Breaking Free and Nneka the Pretty Serpernt (2020) will announce that he’s gotten his hands on the rights for yet another Nollywood classic scheduled to be released in 2027.

If it ends up being Diamond Ring, I will jump out of a window.

9) Burna Boy won’t release a new album.

Maybe he’ll realise that churning out albums almost every year is draining his creative juices, or his team will force him to stay out of the public eye after the consequences of his bad behaviour over the years finally caught up to him and started affecting his money. Either way, we’re not getting new music from Burna. And that’s not a bad thing.

10) Wizkid’s son, Boluwatife Balogun, will drop a surprise album.

Fourteen-year-old Boluwatife, stage-named Champz, dropped his debut EP, Champion’s Arrival, in 2025. It debuted at #1 on Apple Music Nigeria, racked up over a million streams on Spotify in 24 hours, and forced me to grapple with my own mortality as the thought of Wizkid having a 14-year-old sent me into a spiral. With that kind of success, he’ll drop a full album this year. Because what else is he doing?

11) Idris Elba will change his mind regarding the upcoming Things Fall Apart TV adaptation.

When A24 announced in 2024 that they’d acquired the rights to Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” with plans to have Idris Elba play Okonkwo (the book’s protagonist) in a TV adaptation, Nigerian Twitter lost its collective shit. I predict he’s going to deem all of the backlash that’ll follow his performance not worth it, turn down the starring role but stay on as an executive producer.

12) At least two popular juice brands will needlessly revamp their packaging, causing the drinks to look more like body wash.

Someone will mistakenly take a shower with yoghurt and then tweet about it, triggering yet another online conversation about if branding has gotten worse over the years or if people are just foolish.

13) People will figure out exactly one year late too late that Starz released a new season of Spartacus in December 2025.

I think it’s hilarious that the tagline for every season has been some variation of “Return to the arena”.

14) During the hottest months of the year (January, February, March, and April), whatever company handling electricity where you live will find some bullshit reason for there to not be power.

It’ll either be a repair they could’ve done at any point in the last year but have decided to do now and will last three months for some reason.

15) Due to the growing popularity of raves, more Nigerian party organisers will start putting “rave” in their titles.

Shine your eye so you don’t end up at a “rave” with tables and a hypeman.

16) The Real Housewives of Lagos cast will get a shakeup.

Diadem won’t return because she’s too sweet for this reality show life. Caroline won’t return because she’s too insane for this reality show life. Chioma might return. Mariam and Laura will return in Avengers Doomsday.

17) Beyonce will release Act III and to everyone’s dismay, it won’t be a rock album.

It’ll be a gospel album. Turns out she heard all of you confidently yapping about the rock album and decided to pivot. Yes, not only is the rock album not coming, it’s your fault.

18) Beyonce WILL release a rock album, and it will feature composer extraordinaire, Stanley Okorie.

Forget what I said in the entry before this. I was a different man back then. The album’s opening track will be a duet, with them recording a new version of the official theme song from Karishika. Here’s the original so you get a taste of how perfect this is going to be:

19) Instagram is going to wait till you’re used to where everything currently is then shuffle things again.

Instagram’s internal design team just be doing anything to justify keeping their jobs.

20) Young, Famous, and African will return for a fourth season. So will Queen Annie Macaulay.

Let’s be honest. Annie has carried this show on her back with drama for three season. And because the producers are messy as hell (as they should be), they’re going to try to get 2Face and Honourable Natasha on the show somehow. Queen Khanyi Mbau, if you’re reading this, please return to us. We miss you.