A story of romance, accusation, and a fractured online persona is unfolding across social media, centring on US-based entrepreneur Max ‘Makispoke‘ Obae and Ezra Olubi, the co-founder of the Nigerian fintech giant Paystack.

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The controversy ignited when Obae, who is bisexual, hosted an X Space session titled ‘My Piece,’ where she levied serious allegations of misogyny against Olubi, whom she cryptically referred to as ‘John Doe’.

Obae narrated that she first met Olubi in Ikeja, Lagos, when she was 19, through a mutual friend from the social media platform X.

She described the initial encounter as casual, noting a misogynistic comment from the other friend ‘Charles’ but not from Olubi himself. For years, they remained distant X mutuals.

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The dynamic shifted in 2016 when Olubi visited her in New York. Obae, who was primarily dating women at the time, said she viewed him as a “decent guy” and believed him to be queer and feminist based on his “presentation”. She claimed she was unaware of any romantic interest on his part.

The relationship transformed in the summer of 2023. Obae, now married to a woman, reconnected with Olubi in Lagos. She said she proposed incorporating him into their “polycule” — a consensual, non-monogamous relationship network — citing his financial resources as a potential avenue for her to leave corporate America. She said Olubi enthusiastically agreed with this vision of a shared community.

Obae’s account took a dark turn as she described the deterioration of the relationship. She alleged that upon learning Olubi was sexually involved with a female subordinate, she found the situation ethically wrong, regardless of who initiated it.

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She claimed that after she and Olubi had sex for the first time, his behaviour became “extremely rude” and “hostile” towards her, while he remained friendly with her wife.

Obae described a jarring disconnect between her negative experiences and her partner’s positive ones, which she attributed to the fact that he had not slept with her wife.

She characterised Olubi’s behaviour as “psychological sadism,” accusing him of cultivating a “cult leader” dynamic within his inner circle where “your way is perfect and anything else is wrong”.

She concluded by suspecting he lived a “fake life to lure women in so that he can systematically abuse them”.

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Obae also confirmed receiving a $55,000 loan from Olubi, which she intends to repay, and shared a photo from May 2024 showing herself, her wife, and Olubi together in Lagos.

Below are remarks from Obae during the Space session:

I met John Doe for the first time when I was 19 years old. This was in Ikeja, where I lived. I met John Doe through a friend—a mutual—because we were all mutuals on Twitter. We followed each other for several years. John Doe came to my house with someone else, I’ll call Charles, and we went out.

I definitely got the feeling that there was a little bit of hatred towards women, not necessarily from John Doe, but from Charles, because what had happened was when I walked into The Londoner with the two of them, then there were all these people looking at me. Charles looked at me and made a comment, going, ‘oh, so, you know, you must really feel like you’re pretty’?

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That comment stuck in my head because I was like, it’s only misogynistic men that notice those kinds of things and try to make women feel bad for being beautiful or for being recognised.

So then over the years. I did not have a close relationship with John Doe.

I did not have a real friendship with John Doe. It was just Twitter mutuals. Then fast forward to 2016 in New York, John Doe reaches out to me, comes to my apartment in New York and spends like a weekend with me.

And this is the beginning of when they are working on their company. And at the time, I actually thought this was a very decent guy.

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And so John Doe comes to my house. We spent the weekend together. It was great. It was fantastic. And that was where we took a set of pictures.

I was like, I did not realise you had a crush on me or anything like that. This person sent me that note last year. So I was like, oh, okay, I guess this has been a long-time crush that they have had on me because I just did not look at them that way at all. I was dating women for the most part in 2016 and 2017. I was not even dating men.

When I am housewarming and buying stuff, John Doe reaches out and I was like, ‘oh, I will be happy to get you a gift’. And then I got a rug. And that was like the last communication with this person for the most part, except I think there was some thread on Twitter where this John Doe was being attacked.

And I had been, like, in defense of this person. I have always had an admiration for what I perceive to be bravery, for being so out there in a way that is not common. I had even inadvertently referred to this person as queer because I thought that this person was queer based on the presentation.

By the way, in the middle of all this, I got engaged to another man. I was never in a relationship with this person. I just really was not. So I did not even see the person that way at all. But then in the summer of 2023, and I am in Lagos, and I am visiting John.

And I was like, you know, my partner and I are one of those couples that want to have a community of friends and potential lovers and potential partners because we really believe that there’s strength in numbers.

And then John Doe was like ‘that’s exactly how I see the world too. I also want community. I also want to be part of a big thing’.

So then fast forward to several months later, I speak to my partner, and I was like, I feel like maybe we should ask John Doe to be part of our thing.

My reasoning was that he has money. Yes, 100%. Like I said, I have never had any interest in this person. It was because I wanted to leave corporate America, and I saw this as an opportunity for me to leave corporate America. So it was not like a long-term desire for the money.

Fast forward to the winter of last year. I went to Nigeria, and I had the knowledge that he was apparently sexually involved with at least one subordinate.

And the way that it was explained to me was that it was she who initiated and started the situation. But I do not really personally believe that it does not matters who initiates. If you are a boss and you are sleeping with (sic) your subordinate, it is just wrong.

Between like end of December 2023 and February, I started noticing some weird, controlling, rude things about this person. I just kept noticing it and making notes of it in my head and kind of talking to my partner about it. Like, I feel like there is something a little bit weird and rude, really, about this person’s behaviour. But, like, this was, again, long distance.

I feel like that was the first time we had sex. And immediately after that experience, it was like the rudeness just went up. It was like going from zero to 100. So imagine going from knowing this person, who came to my house in New York in 2016, who was so sweet and so nice to suddenly this rude guy. Extremely rude guy.

And then the thing that kept jarring me was my experience of them, and then my partner’s experience of them didn’t jive. Because, you know I feel like I believe it is because he had not slept with her.

About the friendships, the so-called friendships, about the so-called inner circle. It felt very much like a cult leader. I call it psychological sadism. This idea that your way is perfect and anything else that is not your way is wrong. That’s literally what I felt like when I was there the whole time.

A Flood Of Old Tweets And Calls For Action

Obae’s allegations triggered a massive response on X, where users unearthed and circulated a series of old, inflammatory tweets from Olubi’s since-deactivated account.

The resurfaced posts, dating back to around 2010, contained shocking claims, including statements about being sexually attracted to “young, innocent, and clueless” girls.

A tweet complaining about being “deprived of watching 16-year-olds’ nudes on screen” and bizarre assertions of having had sex with his cat and a squirrel, including one tweet where he suspected he contracted an STD from the cat.

The viral spread of these tweets intensified the backlash, with many users labelling the posts as misogynistic and pedophilic.

Hanu Fejiro Agbodje, founder and CEO of Patricia, explicitly called for Olubi’s arrest, posting on X: “It’s very clear Ezra… is a pedophile and misogynist, he needs to be investigated and he should be locked up”.

Below are some of the tweets:

There are reports that Paystack has suspended Ezra pending an investigation into “alleged sexual misconduct involving a subordinate,” an allegation first raised by Obae in her X Space session.

A petition was also launched seeking the federal government to review the award of OON conferred on Olubi.



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