Personal short film about the 1976 assassination of General Murtala Muhammed moves Lagos audience.
Ramat, a short film written and directed by Steve Babaeko, Group CEO and Chief Creative Officer of X3M Ideas, had its African premiere at the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) on Thursday 5 November 2026. The screening, held at 4:00pm on Day 5 of the festival, drew a full room across two simultaneous screens. It ended in silence, then sustained applause, and what many in attendance described as one of the most memorable moments of this year’s festival: Babaeko’s announcement that the Steve Babaeko Foundation would fund the full university education of the film’s child actor, Samuel Adebola.
The film runs eight minutes and is built around a memory Babaeko carried for fifty years. On the morning of 13 February 1976, he watched his father, a serving Nigerian Army officer, receive news of the assassination of General Murtala Ramat Muhammed and weep for the first and only time. Ramat is his attempt to give that memory a life on screen.
Speaking before the screening, Babaeko addressed the audience with rare honesty.
“I studied Theatre Arts at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. I graduated as the best student in my class. Over the years I have been on location for hundreds of television commercials, as a copywriter, as a creative director. I know what a set feels like. I know what it takes to make something. And yet making this film scared me. It scared me because this is not a client’s story. It is mine. Like every major achievement in my life, I did it scared.”
After the film, Babaeko returned to make an announcement that caught the room off guard.
“Samuel Adebola plays the boy in this film. The small boy watching his father cry for the first time. He found something in that role that I had not seen on a face since I was that boy myself. Today, I am committing to funding Samuel’s university education in full, through the Steve Babaeko Foundation. Because if this film is about anything, it is about what we pass on. What one generation carries so the next one does not have to.”
Ramat was officially selected by AFRIFF from hundreds of submissions for the 2026 edition of the festival, now in its 15th year. It is the first personal directorial work by Babaeko, whose agency X3M Ideas won Nigeria’s first Cannes Lion in 2023 with the Soot Life Expectancy campaign for the Nigerian Conservation Foundation.
The film now enters the international festival circuit. Upcoming submissions include the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in France, Berlinale Shorts in Germany, the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, and the Brussels Short Film Festival, among others. Each represents a potential pathway to Oscar and BAFTA qualification.
About Ramat
Ramat is an eight-minute short film written and directed by Steve Babaeko. It is a personal film about the morning of 13 February 1976, when news of the assassination of General Murtala Ramat Muhammed reached a Nigerian Army officer and his young son. The film had its African premiere at AFRIFF 2026.
About Steve Babaeko
Steve Babaeko is the Group CEO and Chief Creative Officer of X3M Ideas, a Lagos-headquartered independent creative agency with operations across nine countries. He is VP and Area Director for Africa on the IAA Global Board and holds a Visiting Fellowship at Henley Business School, University of Reading. He studied Drama at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, graduating as best student.
About the Steve Babaeko Foundation
The Steve Babaeko Foundation supports education and welfare initiatives across Nigeria, with a focus on underserved communities in Kogi State and beyond.