Nollywood: Euphemism for Crap.

Have you ever watched a Nigerian made movie? Yes? No? I advise you don’t. I can hear the screams already; ‘off with his head’!!! Support Nigeria!!!. I’d poke my tongue out at all of them. It seems to me-and I may be wrong-that the singular reason why youths watch Nigerian movies is for the sheer indecency (indecency can be appealing to some of us as we are well aware). I find it hard to believe they watch it because they find them interesting. I also don’t believe Nigerians are that dumb as to be excited by the terrible screenplay.

In 1960 the pioneers of the Nigerian movie industry (credit is rightly given to Herbert Ogunde, Ola Balogun and co.) were forced to curtail production due to high costs , absence of distribution channels and government’s lack of active partnership. The content however wasn’t lacking, production involved detailed execution, intelligent screenplay and rich cultural performances. Given that the government of those days was a whole lot more reactionary, the later establishment of government owned stations helped induce Nigeria’s first introduction to proper acting without the direct influence of the Pioneers. Nigerians were treated to the likes of Checkmate, Behind the Clouds,Cockcrow at Dawn, Mirror of the Sun, brilliant hilarious comedy such as Mind your Language, movies such as the adaptation of Chinua Achebe’s: Things Fall Apart.

The commercialization of the industry as is currently seen did not begin full blown until, Living in Bondage (1992) directed by Chris Obi Rapu. Figures as to just how many copies this particular movie sold is controversial. What is not contested however is the popularity of this particular effort. Perhaps due to the ingenious marketing strategy employed by the producers of the movie using the Onitsha, Aba markets, foreign movies began to suffer a decline in viewership. Nigerian made movies utilizing the commercial power of the eastern markets virtually started to dominate the video industry. (the writer supposedly made the film because of the large number of empty cassettes he had, easily replicated, he was able to control piracy at a time where technology for dubbing by pirates in Nigeria was minimal).

We only outlined this brief, history to understand the context of just how profitable and widely acceptable the Nigerian movie industry is today, from the exploits of a determined amateur effort to a multimillion Naira industry. But just how relevant the industry is other than a money spinning venture that provides employment is highly questionable.

Nigerians, it must be said are highly exploitative,-a defensive mechanism against the scourge of government induced poverty, the opportunity to make a quick buck, a chance to get further ahead in the unending rat race-this mentality, coupled with laziness, lack of vision, and crass mediocrity becomes the active ingredients for the rot in the sector.

Movies today mean little or nothing. It is a chance to get Ini Edo in revealing clothes, mixed with logic defying story line, poor acting, an even poorer script-and for what? The knowledge that, regardless of whatever trash you make, Nigerians, in a misguided sense of patriotism and, misplaced priorities are going to buy. It’s a formula that has never failed, seemingly never will. It is also a tragedy.

It would seem our fault to expect more really after-all, we all witnessed the adoption of the ‘’Nollywood’’ appendage and approved of it. It is a nomenclature that has sickened me not just for the fact that it mimics the American “Hollywood” but because it gives a proper noun to our abject lack of creativity. It gives a name to our sickness.

Proponents of the industry are quick to shoot growth figures at you as a response to any criticism; depending on who you talk to we are either behind Bollywood, (another sickening nomenclature) or directly behind Hollywood in yearly output. Local A-list actresses and actors earn 6-figures but unlike foreign movies we have not been able to create any societal change or introspection with our movies. The plight of the Nigerian woman is not helped by the portrayals she is given. More often than not she is pictured as morally loose, diabolical, cunning and outright mischievous. Societal ills are more or less glorified; a particular instance is when we find ritual killers (a realistic societal ill) as a matter of routine, finding salvation in Christ at the end of every movie as opposed to facing any form of justice for the crimes committed! It is almost as if producers are ignorant of the power they wield over society or are just too willing to abuse it.

As a rule, movies are windows that let you see into society first by mirroring society, hence the saying; ‘’it is just a movie, it is not real’’. However unreal it maybe, we are utterly convinced by the storyline and the portrayal of it to the point where it elicits an emotional response from us. By acting we are inspired, moved to tears, upset, happy, and tilted to reflect, that’s why we are going to remember a certain Brad Pitt and not Jim Iyke in 30 years from now.

And while we are talking about acting, are you ever convinced when you watch Nigerian actors?, hardly? Just why is that? An utter lack of professionalism runs deep in the business. I have seen Peter Edochie, Olu Jacobs, men who ordinarily have an enviable career, and are the few remaining professionals in the business, taint it with stereotyping themselves into ‘Igwe’ roles, movie after movie. I can’t be bothered counting but am sure between them, there are probably 600 or more such similar appearances. Why? Simply because it pays the bills! Actors with less impressive work catalog I assume simply play into the stereotypes they are given for this same reason. Hence, chances are you are going to play the same type of character for over a period of time or, for the rest of your life. While in Hollywood certain individuals have made the portrayal of an identity such as a villain’s, their exclusive preserve, we don’t get tired of seeing their faces because over there, there are such things as proper costumes, better acting, intelligent scripts, sets, and more importantly; no one plays a villain in 40 movies in a single year.

But it so typical of us isn’t it? A putrid lack of any maintenance culture in all aspect of our endeavors otherwise, just why are we not able to make better props? Stage better effects? A scene leading to an accident in a Nigerian movie is as uninspiring and as ridiculous as it was 15years ago. All that is done is have the camera go around in circles and have the next scene shows Tonto Dike mummified with bandages on some hospital bed somewhere! And this is an effort we supposedly export?, a digital recording of our idiocy?  It is unfortunate that for the entire money spinner the industry is, it is managed by louts who only care about undeserved celebrity status than actual content or their legacy. That’s why for all its growth, there is an unequal ratio in reinvestment, no sets are constructed for films, no special effects are done in movies, no worthy scripts are written, talented people are rather into art academia than on our screens,  and  knock-outs (local cheap fireworks)  are used to fake bullets…..

 Like most of the many things where we Nigerians prefer a foreign version to its local equivalent, we find that the Nigerian movie industry isn’t exactly any different. Sounds absurd right? after-all we only just argued that Nigerian watch a lot of home videos to foreign ones but think again, just what is Nigerian about what we watch? The only time a woman wears Ankara most often is in a scene that shows her as a villager, uncivilized and mealy-mouthed, spewing brimstone upon her drunk alcoholic husband. Is that Nigerian? it maybe a believable scenario, one that exists in contemporary Nigeria but when for a single year over hundreds of such films are made then it betrays a lack of talent in our producers or mirrors the generality of society we live in. and if it must be said as mirroring the society we live in then isn’t there something grossly wrong with that picture? the misrepresentation of an absurd singularity for the whole.

What is Nigerian about the portrayal of a society that is all too often trapped between whole scale copying of western values and the mismanagement of it’s downsides?

And then there is this issue of nudity and sex in our movies, especially those in collaboration with that equally redundant Ghanian movie industry. (At least they have the decency to avoid ‘ghannywood’.) Insiders say it’s a measure of our ‘advancement’-sophistication, if you will. I wonder what is sophisticated about a sex scene? What exactly does a sex scene tell us? That two people are play acting sex? It’s a technique that has been used by Hollywood as a marketing ploy, its not art and all that talk is for the birds. These days however its mired up in ‘art’ and any critic of it is seen as a criticism of their freedom of expression but oh well…

I hope I get some venom spewed at me for writing this so I can cough up more reasons why there is so much rot in that system and hopefully someone somewhere will wake up to correct it. Or I can just poke my tongue out at them!

Abacha and the Fourth republic.

Today makes it exactly 14years since the demise of the military ruler Gen. Sani Abacha. I refrain from using the media imposed title of ‘Dictator’ not because the General wasn’t deserving of it but because if that appendage must be applied at all, it should be applied to the entirety of leaders in Nigeria today. Abacha died in the most uncertain of circumstances, from tales of Indian call girls, to poisoned apples and international clandestine operations as stated by his C.S.O, Maj. Al-Mustapha. What was certain however was the relief and elation Nigerians felt at his demise. 

       I was a skinny little lad then, not yet a teenager, my younger brother and I were in the local neighborhood market trying to obtain school sandals when the news filtered through over the radio- what happened next was an experience that was clearly unprecedented in my mind. The market place erupted into a scene of wild jubilation and euphoria and even then it occurred to me the oddity of celebrating over the death of a fellow human being. Suddenly, there was alcohol everywhere, wild joyful screams, laughter, people locking up shops to get lost in the moment. “ Abacha ti kuu ooo.”!!! “O ti kuu da nu”!!! Rent the air, the local women turned to dancing, the burdens and the business of the day forgotten. That scene made an impression and I have never forgotten it nor do I doubt that I ever will. Sometimes I even wonder why I just happened to be listening to the radio at that stall. “…..the death of the commander in chief of…” every moment seemingly etched.

   With the passage of time my view of that scene has changed, the still clear voice over the radio, the woman whose scream after the announcement seemingly starts the pandemonium, the coloured plastic buckets behind her, the dancing characters….., all remain the same except the reason for the jubilations. While I cannot speak for them I can however deduce that the euphoria wasn’t about the demise of a fellow human being but the realization of their freedom from a reign of tyranny and the hopes for a far better future.

    Fast forward almost a decade and half later and one wonders if the celebrations had not been ill advised, a little immature perhaps. The transitional government of Gen. AbdulSalam Abubakar handed over to another General-as a sign that our democracy was just another scam-Olusegun Obasanjo to begin a chapter that holds the record for being the most putrid in our nation’s history. The Fourth-Republic for all the aspirations behind it could rightly be argued as having a greater symbolism in the life of this country than the fight for independence itself. Permit me, the fight for independence holds great value and I by no means demean the struggle of those who fought for a ‘sovereign Nigeria’ but if we hadn’t fought for it back then the British would have gotten bored eventually and handed over. It may seem a difficult argument to observe given that some say the colonialists would never have left this shores if oil had been discovered earlier but the answer simply is the current presence of Shell, BP and the others.  Colonialism as a system of government practiced as it were pre-1960 was definitely not sustainable it has simply just morphed into other forms-media, resource, technology-colonialism but, I digress.

     1960, our fight was against colonization, now our fight is against corruption. The control of our means, welfare and resources by a few, using this said resources to further pauperize the masses they govern over. It is a newer, more brutal form of colonialism and just so because it is done by us to us.

        The fourth republic shares a lot of similarities with any military government. And since we  are discussing Abacha and his place on the scale of villainy allow me to rephrase the above. This fourth republic shares a lot of similarities with Abacha’s military government. The website www.assetrecovery.org/  places the amount looted in five years to 3-5 billion USD. Estimated amount recovered is given at 2.6 Billion USD. compare with the amount misappropriated by the successive PDP led governments of the Fourth republic. Do we have an estimate of the said sums? Need we? The undeniable fact remains that corruption is corruption and the difference in scale is irrelevant as long as the people remain impoverished and uncared for. If in a single year allocation for subsidy increases from 280 billion Naira to some shady 2.6 estimate in trillions without an equivalent increase in fuel consumption, and or production cost of crude then should we not begin to honestly see the similarity between Abacha’s resource grabbing and that of misappropriations of this fourth republic….?    

Let us take this particular instance; After the fuel subsidy reduction, we find that in the first quarter of 2012 financial year, the increase in the price of PMS to 97 naira only gave the government 60b naira. At 50 %, deregulation calculations will prove that the government will be saving a mere 240 billion. Now I don’t need no calculator nor mathematician to tell me 240bn is far cry from 2.6 trillion spent in 2011, so where is the subsidy?  what really is going on? And we aren’t even quoting facts from the Farouk Lawan report they are trying so hard to discredit.

Abacha wore a uniform, and couldn’t really figure what diplomacy meant hence anyone who held a dissenting opinion got shot, imprisoned or exiled. The lucky ones quickly buckled up and adapted until his demise in 1998. Similarly, the rulers of our fourth republic don the uniform of respectability, honesty and accountability. They haven’t exactly been shy to shoot people down either: the nation watched as President Olusegun directed the flattening of Odi, Zaki...Aljazeera exposed the death squads that we call the police over the Boko Haram insurgency. (Some have argued that this is what has spawned the current spate of national terrorism.) But while Abacha’s  has been the only face we spit at for massive corruption and misappropriation, this republic has given us variety. The small names: Ibori, Alameyesigha, Bode George, Tafa Balogun, why not the EFCC corruption list of 2006/2007 ET-al.? And to the big name: Lord Obasanjo.  While the opposition has not been exiled in this fourth republic, they have suffered worse: they have been grossly ignored. Ask anyone shouting at the top of his voice what is worse than being ignored? you might as well be voiceless. It is a strategy that has been perfected in this current dispensation, one which the opposition is discredited so it's message whether right or wrong is rendered....silent.

We could list instances but that entirely goes against what this article is meant to do. Am not trying to tabulate differences here, anyone can see that CORRUPTION as personified by Abacha, is the same CORRUPTION today in the fourth republic. While the patients have simply been rotated, the disease remains the same, nay! We may add that the disease has become more resilient, deadlier.

So what exactly is this article about? Is it to absolve the long dead General his wrong doings by equating his crimes to that of our democracy? I simply try to put in perspective the Crime with which we have judged Abacha and the Crime we are letting this republic’s leaders get away with. They are both one and the same. Like the proverbial two sides of a coin, heads or tail- both meaningless to the coppery nature of the coin.

 And in assessing ourselves, we of the dancing market women, former exiles and righteously indignant media, do we not profess to a certain double standard? And by this standard are we justifiably recompensed by the strengthening of corruption in our lands? Why are we not preparing another bizarre market dance? That good feeling as we returned from exile, free from the strongman’s whims did not burn strong enough? The dizzy dance and feelings of freedom surely must have been incentive enough for us to have prepared some sort of vaccine against corruption?? It wasn’t, we didn’t.  Look where we are.  

But if we must compare for the sake of this piece we are subtly tempted to romanticize that bespectacled General, we begin to see that it was his ground work that gave birth to 13% derivation (although true credence should be given to the Martyrs of that region), who implemented policy for the mobile telephony that we currently enjoy today. A foundation that the Obasanjo’s administration hijacked and termed: “dividend of democracy”.….This same Abacha had a better idea of what foreign policy for a country such as ours should be. Alas! Do we forget just how well he chided South Africans who are too willing to forget the role Nigeria has played in her History? Few leaders since then have defended the sovereignty-whether rightly or wrongly- of Nigeria with such resolute fierceness. (Even though he was pariah of sorts to the rest of the western world. )  But the temptation to romantics we must severely resist, just as the restraint-which we currently feel in appropriately labeling this dispensation as due-we must subdue. We must all not forget that they of the fourth republic and he of the spectacles and all that they stand for are one and same. The abuse of power for personal enrichment at the detriment of those whose interests they claim to protect.

We must dance in the markets again, and to do this we need to first tell this present crop of looters that they are no different from that General, that they should derive no sense of sanctimony over him. We must tell them that they are but changing faces of the same evil, that they are one and the same, nay!! Worse than Abacha himself! For they had the example of his years of terror to educate themselves from yet, they learned only of his greed.