They call me Mukky (Muktari Bala Roko)

A young, bright, promising and exceptional enterprenuer who has worked hard  to bring entertainment to a full stand in Jos and Nigeria as a whole. In an interview with Dingse Nandom Bitrus, Muktari Bala Roko (Mukky) has shed light on his rise to being a young CEO.

Can you kindly introduce yourself and your background?

My name is Muktari Bala Roko from the family of Zubairu Bala Roko. Born and raised in Jos but relocated to Abuja after my Secondary School.

Being the CEO of Spaceboyz enterprise.

Can you kindly shed more light on the Spaceboyz enterprise?

Spaceboyz entertainment limited is a dream that started with intelligent minds and with the help of my friends and colleagues; Michael (Head of PR department), Manji (Head of clothing department), Samuel Okonkwo ‘film boy’ (Head of media department), Weng Rwang (Head of Accounting department), and Drega Albert (Head of Music department). We’re bringing this dream to visual entity for people to see and know what this dream is all about.

As the CEO of Spaceboyz entertainment, what is your goal?

My goal as the CEO and the whole family of Spaceboyz entertainment is to transform and bring about change in the entertainment industry in Jos, Nigeria and the whole world as the name ‘Space’ implies. When you hear the name space, you should know that it is different and it has its own uniqueness and beauty. Our goal is to change and transform the whole music industry and bring about packaging in the whole stuff because so many people don’t know that music is not only about singing but something way beyond that. When you sing and package your art and craft, it will give you that uniqueness so that when people see, they will know that it is a different thing entirely. So the goal is to bring change and transformation.

As a young entrepreneur and CEO, what is your source of inspiration?

My inspiration came  when I sat down and looked into the lives of artists in Jos, Abuja, Lagos and other places and I discovered that it’s not everybody that has the privilege to express his/her craft due to financial issues or tribalism and the rest. So I sat down and that motivated me to bring change in the whole game and it baffles me when I see talents get wasted. I then decided to create a platform where they’ll be able to showcase their talents not minding their family and individual backgrounds, ethnic groups, sex, religious groups and even the part of the country the come from, but rather have a place to express themselves.

What has Spaceboyz entertainment being up to lately?

(Laugh) Actually Spaceboyz entertainment has been working so hard to bring down the Aliens from Space to bring about the change on earth. My Aliens are still working and they’ll soon come down to earth and what I mean by them coming to earth is they’ll soon start disturbing so you should watch out because when my aliens arrive, it is going to be a different atmosphere entirely. So we’re working and working, and our EP will soon drop and that’s when the atmosphere will change.

When was Spaceboyz entertainment established?

Spaceboyz Entertainment was established three years back from now; that is 2013 that Spaceboyz earth was established. As I told you, it started with a dream and immediately that dream came, that was when Spaceboyz entertainment was established and from there, we’ve been packing materials an making research and Spaceboyz entertainment got kicked up on Februray 14, 2016, that was on valentines day after so much research, finding and signing of artists and the creation of other departments.

The initial three years were the years that the research and restructuring of the company took place. You know you cannot just wake up, born a baby and the baby starts to walk, so we took time to structure the whole programme, department and research, then put them together and then Spaceboyz kicked off on February 14th.

How can you rate the acceptability of Spaceboyz in Jos?

Spaceboyz has been accepted not only in Jos but in some other parts of Nigeria. The speed in which the name ‘Spaceboyz’ is moving is even making me scared. From February 14 till date, we’ve had fit backs, complements, attention and contributions to the whole movement. The speed in which ‘Spaceboyz’ is going now, I assure you that the impact was having on other people and artists. Some artists before now, I will say were asleep but when they hard about the name ‘Spaceboyz’, they had to buckle up because we’re coming with a different packaging, the whole stuff is packaging.

I guess I won’t be wrong if I say that Spaceboyz has been a great success?

Yes! yes!!

Is Spaceboyz based in Jos or Abuja?

(Laugh) that is the question people keep asking, but as I said the whole dream started in Jos and as you all know Jos is the headquarters of entertainment in Nigeria. No matter how they’ll argue, we have the talent and if you look into our own entertainment industry now, 60% of the people making it are from Jos. Though they might not have their roots as indigenes, they are citizens in one way or the other. It is either they were born in Jos, or they grew up in Jos, so that influence is still in them so 60% of our artists, our stars in Nigeria are from Jos. So the headquarters of ‘Spaceboyz’ entertainment is in Jos and the main reason why the headquarters is in Jos is because we’re going to try our best to see that we bring back the market back to Jos. We don’t want Lagos, we don’t want Abuja. That is why the name is alien movement so we create good where there is no good so the headquarters where there is no good so the headquarters is in Jos and our main goal is to bring back the market back to Jos. lets have artists coming from Lagos to record, lets have artists coming from Lagos to Jos to shop, lets have artists coming to Jos to shoot their videos because Plateau is a very a beautiful place and we have all the locations that you can name.

Where is your head office located in Jos?

Our head office is located in Jos is at British, close to double dollar.

How do you cope with managing the enterprise and studies or do you have other people standing in for you?

That’s a very intelligent question (laugh). As I said before, we have departments and those departments are made up of heads. I knew and had it at the back of my mind that spaceboyz will not be possible with only one person so I recruited some other aliens to work in side with me and combining it with my school and education is stressful and it’s not been easy. At some point, I felt like giving up but the spirit of my other aliens kept motivating me. So school and business is something else but it's just God that has been seeing me through, but its stressful and there's no lie about that. The stress has coupled with the fact that I’m a theatre arts student and theatre arts is very demanding. You have to give it your time, your money, your body and everything, and the business again, but my colleagues are really helping and that has kept us thus far. We’ve started and there isn’t going back. We wouldn’t want to turn into salts like the woman in the bible who turned her back even when told not to, we can't turn our backs. We don’t want haters to laugh at us; we don’t want people to laugh at us. We want haters to keep hating.

Who is your major influence in life?

My major influence in life is Solomon in the bible. Everyday I wake up, I pray to God to give me wisdom and as Solomon had wisdom, he is one of the richest men in the history. I want to have wisdom like him, I want to be rich like Solomon, I want to be successful like him but I don’t want have plenty wives like him (laugh).

Where do we expect to see spaceboyz in the next 2-3 years?

Maybe in the next 2-3 years we’re going to be far away from Jos but the headquarters will still be in Jos but we might go out of Jos to bring more investors to invest in the whole entertainment industry. That is our goal.

An interview with Dingsi Nandom Bitrus of the Natifz Times Newspaper.