From theatre to journalism, music to branding, from selling cars to shaping culture, Muyiwa Kayode has lived a life of restless creativity and quiet courage. He branded ideas long before products, built bridges before billboards, and turned curiosity into a career…
As he turns 60, I celebrate not just a friend but a force — a man whose story is melody, whose laughter is rhythm, and whose legacy is harmony.
SOME lives are lived in sequence. Others are composed like jazz — spontaneous, layered, brilliant, and unforgettable. For Muyiwa Kayode, sixty years young, life has always been a grand improvisation in rhythm and meaning.
My first encounter with Muyiwa Kayode was in 1983, through our mutual friend — the late Olawale Obadeyi, fondly known as Wally Jay De Lover. We met in Iwaya, Yaba — that restless cradle of Lagos where ambition, art, and street wisdom collide like drums in a carnival. Muyiwa and Wally Jay were no ordinary young men; they were walking dictionaries of wit, wordsmiths aflame with theatre dreams and a hunger to conquer the world through intellect and imagination.
After their A-Levels, Muyiwa proceeded to UNILAG, where I often visited him and his roommate, Sterley Okocha, the cobbler-philosopher. Muyiwa could write, paint, act, and laugh with thunderous intensity — Buhaha! Remember Actor Gayle Gay? He dazzled in Bertolt Brecht’s Man Is Man, directed by the late Mr. Bassey Effiong of the Anansa Playhouse. Even then, the stage could barely contain him.
Music was his other heartbeat. He learned to play the guitar, formed his first band, Nonsuch — (Buhahaha again!) — and later The Umuntu Band, which still performs at gigs and festivals. He went further, recording an album whose standout track, Ya Fun Were Ni (“Clear Road for the Mad People”), remains a daring satire on Nigeria’s siren-blaring leaders. Muyiwa didn’t just play music; he played conscience in rhythm.
With Wally Jay and a few creative friends, he founded Galaxy Playhouse to produce stage dramas. While in university, he wrote fiery columns for national newspapers. His words burned through the pages — bold, fearless, unafraid. After youth service, Muyiwa joined The Guardian as an investigative journalist. I remember him calling one evening, asking me to help him trace Lagos Island’s drug underworld for a story. We took the risk together, and his report became a national sensation.
Soon, advertising called. He wrote an environmental campaign proposal that landed on the desk of Ms Julia Oko, the creative genius and her partners behind GTBank’s iconic imagery. Impressed, she hired him into SO&U Advertising in 1991. Before that time, fate played its softest chord. At a Rotaract Club of Akoka fellowship I invited him to, he met Henrietta (Hetty) — the woman who would become his wife. She typed the very proposal that earned him the SO&U job. From proposal to partnership — the typewriter became Cupid.
Muyiwa later moved to Prima Garnet, where his creativity blossomed. Working with Dada Ajai-Ikhile and Kunle Ajose, he rose to the position of Director, shaping campaigns, mentoring young talents, and redefining Nigeria’s advertising tone in the vibrant 1990s. His entrepreneurial spirit was uncontainable — he sold imported cars (70% upfront, 30% on arrival), even ventured into the house doors business — each endeavour stamped with humour, flair, and confidence.
Then came the leap. In 1998, Muyiwa, Kunle Ajose, and Dada Ajai-Ikhile co-founded USP – Unique Selling Points. From their base in Opebi, Ikeja, they redefined brand storytelling in Nigeria. USP built identities for major institutions — BOI, NFF (new logo), Zinox, and Emzor Pharmaceuticals — and later launched Next Media, with Dada as pioneer Managing Director, to expand into outdoor and visual communication. When USP boldly evolved from advertising to Total Brand Consultancy, critics scoffed. Yet twenty-seven years later, USP stands strong — relevant, refined, and respected.
From USP’s creative roots sprouted initiatives that shaped Nigeria’s branding landscape — Brands to Wealth, empowering SMEs through packaging and design; COBRA Awards, the first consumer-voted brand honors; Erocs, the football clubs’ jersey branding and production company; Turtle Taido, the animated cultural explorer bringing Nigeria’s beauty to children in Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, and English; and LIFANIMA Awards, now in its ninth year, celebrating excellence in African animation and storytelling across the continent.
Muyiwa’s authorship deepened his impact. His books — 7 Dimensions of Branding and How to Brand a Nation — are today cornerstones of African brand strategy. His thoughts, like his work, always flow toward national identity, purpose, and pride.
For over fourteen years, I have partnered with USP as an external consultant on experiential projects, activations, major events, PR, and media buying — never once have we disagreed. Muyiwa is calm but firm, patient yet principled. Behind that professional polish is a man anchored by love — blessed with a devoted wife and children whose warmth completes his world.
From theatre to journalism, music to branding, from selling cars to shaping culture, Muyiwa Kayode has lived a life of restless creativity and quiet courage. He branded ideas long before products, built bridges before billboards, and turned curiosity into a career.
As he turns 60, I celebrate not just a friend but a force — a man whose story is melody, whose laughter is rhythm, and whose legacy is harmony.
May your guitar never lose its tune, your words their wonder, nor your dreams their daring.
Happy 60th Birthday, my brother, my friend, my inspiration — Garry G. Muyiwa Kayode — the man who branded the soul of creativity itself