Popular nightlife socialite Mike Eze-Nwalie Nwogu, aka Pretty Mike of Lagos, rose to prominence after co-founding the Ikeja-based Lagos nightclub Club Uno Lagos with his uncle, Frank Nwogu. His popularity further soared with controversial stunts, which have given him more enemies than friends, but he ran into troubled waters with the law when the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) raided his night club, Proxy, sometime in 2025 over an alleged drug party.

The University of Texas graduate has since been freed and bounced back to business. In this interview with GBENGA BADA, THE NATION’s ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR, he opened up on his late father, sisters, business and travails with the law.

Who is pretty Mike? Tell us about pretty Mike.

That’s a question I always shy away from because I would be forced to go into depth about my family background, but of course, with the passing of my dad, I started opening up a little bit to that aspect.

My dad was big in the telecommunications industry, Dr Basil Nwalie, and he was the founder and first president of the Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON). He’s one of the founding fathers of the telecoms world, but it’s something I rarely talk about.

He’s worked with all the past military presidents. One reason I don’t talk about him is that he was in charge of the telecoms industry during the military regime and navy regime, practically the air and sea transmitter, so he always kept a hidden identity. I grew up in a well- established home. I’m one of the few people who won’t tell you I was from a poor background. I’ve always been known to be humble.

My father taught me never to brag about anything. If you go to my social media page, you would not see me post about my parents. I had my early days in Nigeria before my father felt it was time to move to the U.S., where I had my secondary up until college and attended the University of Texas, and then I came back. I was eager to return to the country, and I did.

I was in the category of those who believed I could come back and change the country. My dad was a businessman who was always going back and forth to the U.S., while all my other siblings stayed back, I returned. I decided to dabble in the Nigerian corporate world. Through my dad’s connection, I got a good job. I worked there for four days, and on the third day, the person I was handed over to insisted on a certain percentage of my salary; he threatened that if I didn’t give him, he would make my stay unpleasant.

The fourth day, I told him I was going to leave the job for him and that I didn’t return to Nigeria to start working a salary job. I dropped my resignation and left. My dad heard, of course. I told my dad, and he was upset. I had a feeling that corporate work wasn’t for me.

In the U.S., I was known as the child who partied a lot and liked to have a good time. I was always amongst my four sisters and friends, partying. All my siblings are medical doctors. My father wanted everyone to be doctors because even though he is an engineer with a PhD, I was different.

Do you have a girlfriend, a lover or someone you are seeing?

I have plenty of girlfriends. I’m not married. I am also looking forward to having a wife. I tell men that if you are not married, you haven’t ascertained the full definition of manhood. Unfortunately, some of these marriages don’t work. In the last 10 years, I’ve been a best man 42 times and countless times as a groomsman, unfortunately more than half of the marriages have been scattered. The fast pace of broken homes at this time is getting so high that it scares some of us who are yet to be married. Regardless, I’ve made up my mind not to be one of those people. I’m also looking forward to getting married; marriage is a major achievement. There’s nothing as beautiful as a man and woman getting married and having kids. I look forward to having a wife and kids.

What qualities do you look for in a woman?

I’m one of the few men who don’t necessarily have a physical spec. The body doesn’t attract me because I have had all of them over the years. My track record speaks. It’s all about behaviour, attitude and personality. Most people who get married to their specs have a high tendency to cheat in their marriage. No matter your spec, after childbirth, the spec would scatter. So for me, it’s about her upbringing and training