Babaeko's film on his father's tears premieres at AFRIFF, child star gets scholarship

A short film about the day Steve Babaeko saw his father cry has had its African premiere at the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) in Lagos, and the boy who plays him on screen now has his university fees covered.

The eight-minute film, Ramat, was shown on Thursday, 5 November 2026, to a full house, according to the organisers. It was picked from hundreds of entries for the festival's 15th edition.

The story is set on the morning of 13 February 1976. Babaeko was a small boy then. Word came that General Murtala Ramat Muhammed had been killed, and his father, a serving Nigerian Army officer, wept — the only time Babaeko says he ever saw him do so.

Babaeko, group chief executive of the advertising agency X3M Ideas, told the audience before the screening that the project unsettled him. He has worked on many commercial sets, he said, but this one was different because the story belonged to him and not to a client. He said he went ahead with it afraid.

Scholarship for the boy who played him

After the screening, Babaeko said the Steve Babaeko Foundation will pay the full university education of Samuel Adebola, the child actor in the lead role.

He said Samuel brought something to the part that he had not seen on a face since he was that age himself, and that the film is about what one generation hands to the next.

Ramat is Babaeko's first personal work as a director. His agency won Nigeria's first Cannes Lion in 2023.

The film now goes on a festival run that includes Clermont-Ferrand in France, Berlinale Shorts in Germany, the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles and the Brussels Short Film Festival in Belgium. The team is pushing for Oscar and BAFTA qualification.

What happens next

Nigerians can expect to hear more of Ramat as it travels through these festivals over the coming months. For now, the clearest gain is for Samuel Adebola, whose university education is now paid for.