'Lionheart', Genevieve Nnaji's diplomatic debut

Watching 'Lionheart', directed by Genevieve Nnaji, has convinced me, once more, that the Nigerian film industry has come of age. I watched it on Netflix, which released it on January 4.

 Nnaji starred in the lead role as Adaeze, a foreign educated only daughter of an Enugu-based bus passenger tycoon.  

Adaeze's father, played by Pete Edochie, is in the doldrums of a failing health and a company operating in a slippery business environment, threatened with bankruptcy as it clashes with an aggressive competitor. While her only brother has his sights on a career in music, it becomes Adaeze's lot to do all she can to save the company. To succeed, she teams up with a mirthful uncle (Nkem Owoh) whose ideas she at first rejects but has to embrace when all her chosen options are locked up.

There is an interesting north-meets-east portion in the movie where Adaeze's family teams up with the Alhaji Maikano family from Kano (played brilliantly by Sani Mu'azu and Yakubu Muhammad).

Poster of the movie 'Lionheart'

The film is superb. Tension, joy, family values, sensuality, humour, among other emotions, are well-conveyed. There is scarcely any misstep in the acting, setting and the cinematography generally. The mush-mash of English, Igbo and Hausa not only reflects our diversity but also projects a delicious art form. Kudos to Nnaji, the cast and crew, and The Entertainment Network (T.E.N.) which funded the 2018 production.

With 'Lionheart', the delectable Nnaji has re-established herself as an A-list African actress with the promise of a global prowess. And to think that this  is her directorial debut! No wonder it is the first Nigerian movie to be obtained by and featured in Netflix and it has received favourable responses at the international film festivals held in Toronto and Marrakesh. It has a rating of 5.5/10 on IMDb - a remarkable feat for a non-Hollywood production.

It is sad, however, that the cinema distribution cabal in Nigeria refused to show this film when it should because of some odious self-interest, hiding under the excuse of late booking. 'Lionheart' is the kind of movie that everyone should support. I'll call it a "diplomatic product" because it represents Nigeria culturally in the global marketplace. It is not just another Nollywood movie, but a universal flick that reflects our individual and collective dreams. You should go and see it.

After 'Up North' (the movie), give us 'Down South'

After 'Up North' (the movie), give us 'Down South'

By Ibrahim Sheme

Yesterday, Saturday, I watched the Nollywood movie, 'Up North', which was released two weeks ago on September 28. It is a movie in which the North and the South (read: Kannywood and Nollywood) meet in a marriage of convenience ending in tantalising results. As comedies go, 'Up North' comes with twists and turns that make it too serious to be regarded as one. Bassey Etuokong (Bankey W) is the foreign-trained son of a construction magnate who wishes to carve out his own life away from the one designed for him by his father. An opportunity for him to break away and make his life meaningful comes in the mandatory NYSC posting to the northern state of Bauchi, where, after an egregious one-month stint at an orientation camp, he is posted to a girls' secondary school in rural Kafin Madaki.

He and his boon-companion Sadiq (Ibrahim Suleiman) are drafted to teach the students the P.E. class. They also meet Maryam (Rahama Sadau), a widow teaching in the school. After a redoubtable brush with each other, Maryam and Bassey soon hit it off as they prepare the girls for a state-wide racing competition.

As they train the girls, an amorous relationship seems to develop between them. Largely undefined, the relationship serves as the fire which goads them on. But Bassey has since discovered his humanness and works hard to achieve. To accomplish his desire, he must surmount the difficulties presented by culture shock, his sentimental attachment to an overseas girlfriend, and the interruptions of his censorious father. There is also the problem of persuading Malam Usman, the overprotective father of one of the students, the asthmatic Aisha (Amal Umar), who has the magical speed needed to win the contest.

All's well that ends well as the school wins the competition, Aisha triumps over her illness to pursue her dream, Sadiq weds his ever-smiling, shy heartthrob Zainab (Adesua Etomi Wellington) and Bassey returns to Lagos where he and his father strike a deal that appears to work well for them. Maryam is, however, left in the lurch without any visible alternative that will give her hope.

Poster of the movie 'Up North'

I enjoyed the movie. It reflects so much about life in the North even if overdramatised. The panoramic views taken by the drone camera, the many laughters, etc., are appealing. Some of the best scenes are also the biggest - the Sallah durbar, the holiday at the Yankari game reserve and the SheRunsBauchi sports finals where, interestingly, the actual Governor of Bauchi state, Mohammed Abubakar, makes an appearance as himself.

However, there is the usual stereotyping of the North by a southern filmmaker, writer or journalist. The scene showing Bassey traveling together with a man holding a goat in an overloaded taxi is the worst in this regard. So also the clear attempt to portray the region as backward and gutter-poor. This is in contrast to the Southerners who are portrayed as rich and capable of speaking polished English (even university-educated Northerners like Sadiq have to combine their English with Hausa words in order to prove their "northernness" in the movie; in contrast, there was no single Igbo, Efik or Yoruba word uttered in the film).

Nevertheless, the actors have put in their best. I doff my hat to Banky, Kanayo O. Kanayo, Rahama Sadau, Ibrahim Suleiman and Amal Umar.

The story-telling is superb, though it fails to meet up in several places. For example, no one (not even Sani Mu'azu who plays the role of a Muslim jurist) bothered to indicate that the idea of a marriage between Maryam and Bassey is an anathema considering the fact that Islam forbids such a union between a Muslim woman and a Christian man. Also, Rahama appearing in many places with her head uncovered and resting her body on Banky's would be unacceptable in a Muslim town like Kafin Madaki. The cinematography is also great. 

I will give the director, Tope Oshin Ogun, and her crew more than a pass mark. 'Up North' is the type of flicks one expects to see in this era when we hope to bridge the yawning gap between our multicultural peoples. After 'Up North', the producers, Anakle Films and Inkblot Productions, should now give us 'Down South'!

Kannywood: A Luta Continua!

Why is Kannywood - the Hausa film industry - both more backward and more despised than Nollywood, and its promoters poorer in terms of material comfort? Why did Nollywood, the English language movie industry based in Lagos and Onitsha, grow so exponentially within a few years than Kannywood to become, according to UNESCO, the second largest film industry in the world in terms of the number of annual film productions, placing it ahead of Hollywood and behind Bollywood? Some reports say that Nollywood is estimated to rake in between US$200 million and US$250 million per year, churning out some 200 videos for the market every month.

Some would think it is foolish to make this kind of contradistinction because the two industries appear to be operating on different turfs. On a closer look, however, it is possible to glean the factors that make the two similar and why the fortune of one should ricochet on the other. The greatest point of divergence is language, which may appear to present certain restrictions on the Hausa industry that could militate against its growth. But if you look closer, you will wonder why Bollywood movies were able to penetrate societies globally even though they came loaded with Indian cultural motifs. If Hindi melodramas could have a universal appeal, why should the Hausa ones be restricted to particular audiences? The answer to these questions will tell us why our movies remain in chains twenty years after they began while those of Nollywood wax stronger. First, let’s take a look back at the origin of the problem. The Hausa movie industry is going to celebrate its 20th year anniversary next week, but of course not many outside its circle know this. And this is very instructive. This momentous milestone is generally lost on most people, including those who should know better, because this is an industry that has always suffered the fate of being misunderstood, misreported and even cast in the wrong league of Nigerian entertainment history.

Official history says the “Nigerian home video industry” had origins in the release of the movie ‘Living in Bondage’ in 1992. This drama thriller, written by Kenneth Nnebue and Okechukwu Ogunjiofor and directed by Chris Obi Rapu, is believed to have been responsible for the beginning of the shot straight-to-video ventures that came to define what is generally known as Nollywood today. This wrong historicisation of the art form does not take cognisance of the “other” movie industry known as Kannywood, which is so named because of its main base in Kano. It is a home video industry that is as big as Nollywood in terms of number of productions per month and the sheer population of stakeholders - stars, directors, producers, crew and marketers. Its viewership transcends northern Nigeria because its flicks are watched all over West Africa and the Hausa Diaspora.

The truth also is that Kannywood predates Nollywood. As Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu, unarguably the leading scholar on Kannywood alive, told an audience in Kano on November 25, 2010 at an event to mark 20 years of the industry, Kannywood began in March 1990 with the release of the home video ‘Turmin Danya’. Written by the late Aminu Hassan Yakasai, it was produced by the pioneer drama group in Kano, Tumbin Giwa, and directed by Salisu Galadanci. The relative success of ‘Turmin Danya’ caused an upsurge in Hausa filmmaking as more and more production outfits, called companies even if they were not formally registered with the authorities, emerged, mostly as breakaways from older groups. Kano, with the biggest army of unemployed youth in the north, got an industry that was self-created, independent of government intervention.

According to Adamu, “Another landmark in the history of video films in Africa was recorded in August 1999 edition of Tauraruwa magazine - the first magazine in Africa devoted to indigenous African video films - edited by Sunusi Shehu ... that Sunusi created the term ‘Kannywood’ to refer to the Kano-based Hausa video film industry. It is significant that the term ‘Nollywood’ to refer to the Nigerian English language video film industry was created by Norimitsu Onishi, in an article titled ‘Step Aside L.A. and Bombay, for Nollywood’ published in The New York Times on September 16, 2002. This was three years AFTER Sunusi Shehu created ‘Kannywood’.

“Of further significance was the fact that ‘Turmin Danya’ was released in 1990, two years BEFORE ‘Living in Bondage’ - the video film generally acknowledged as the first in English language Nollywood film industry. So either way, the Hausa video film industry - both in terms of an industry as well as a label - is the first full-fledged video film industry, not only in Nigeria, but also in Africa.”

So, why should an industry that made this milestone be licking its wounds today instead of licking the juice of its labour? The answer is that Hausa movies veered off culturally by their adoption of alien cultural mores - Indian, Western and even southern Nigerian. They lost their uniqueness. The early movies were responsible for the monumental growth and popularity of the new art form. But when some producers in the heat of deadly competition injected the ‘Indian-type’ movies - the singing and dancing aspect, forms of dress, storylines, and even posters, etc - the audience began to shrink. I watched with keen interest, as a reporter deeply embedded within the industry, as the market went into a spin, crashing a lot of hitherto legendary production outfits and names.

Then in 2007 came the infamous Hiyana affair. An A-class actress and her non-industry lover had foolishly made a video clip of themselves having sex in a hotel room, using a cell-phone camera, apparently for the fun of it. Even though it was a non-industry event, the inadvertent release of the clip into the society created a consternation and opprobrium against an industry that had for some time been struggling to remain popular and tolerated. The scandal forced the Kano State governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, who feared a backlash from Islamic clerics at a time he was instituting a Sharia law regime, into a clean-up exercise in the industry. He appointed a new boss for the state censorship board known for his heavy-handedness while working for the state Sharia police. The man, Abubakar Rabo, took it as part of his duties to emasculate the industry in any way he could. Acting on his weird understanding of the functions of a public officer and a pitiable misreading of the public mood, he battled the industry for three years, using the instrument of government power, ensuring that many actors, producers, directors, etc., were jailed or fined heavily on false charges. Many stakeholders migrated to other states. It took the sudden occurrence of his own sex scandal to check his acts of injustice and persecution and make him mellow down and seek rapprochement with his opponents.

At 20, Kannywood needs to take a pensive look at the progress it should have made but hasn't. The stakeholders, most of whom are young, need to train for roles in moviemaking, especially the technical aspect. Skill acquisition is low. The marketing system is rudimentary and pedestrian. Piracy, a big spectre, is gobbling up potential profits and keeping producers on the verge of bankruptcy. Movie stories are shallow and thematically restricted, lacking in unique cultural motifs that can create a universal loyal audience. Unity of purpose is almost absent, leading to an individualism that is injurious to the common interest of stakeholders; this makes it impossible for outfits to collaborate on productions and sometimes lead to court cases such as the current one between a leading director and a famous actor/producer. Overall, government empowerment is necessary in growing the industry as a private sector capable of sucking in thousands of school leavers and dropouts, as well as gearing the movies towards the common good.

Kannywood, as its struggles continue, can learn a lot from Nollywood, where collaborations and norms and conventions have created a cohesiveness that promotes the common good. There should be rules and regulations that everybody should be subjected to. The Motion Pictures Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MOPPAN), Hausa movie industry's main trade association, has a role to play in this. Education is of paramount significance; an under-educated class cannot even write grammatically correct subtitles, talk less of producing captivating box office hits. A cursory viewing of Kannywood flicks on Africa Magic’s Hausa channel today shows just how backward Hausa movies are in this regard. If Kannywood refuses to start cleansing itself of its present imperfections, it cannot hope to make any headway in its next twenty years.

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Published in LEADERSHIP WEEKEND, last Saturday

Tsugunne ba ta kare ba

Akwai alamun cewa sau}i ya fara zuwa masana’antar finafinai ta Nijeriya, wato Nollywood, domin kuwa mako uku da su ka wuce ne Shugaban {asa Goodluck Jonathan ya yi wani ho~~asa na kyautatawa ga masu aikin fasaha da basira na }asar nan. Ku]i ne zunzurutu wuri na gugar wuri har dalar Amurka miliyan 200 ya bayyana bayarwa ga masu sana’ar nisha]antarwa a matsayin rance don ha~aka sana’ar su. A ku]in Nijeriya, sun kama kimanin naira biliyan 30.

Shugaban }asar ya fa]i haka ne a Legas, a wurin bikin cikar shahararren kamfanin nan masu gidajen silima da shirya gasar sarauniyar kyau mai suna Silverbird Group shekara 30 da kafawa. Mamallakin kamfanin, wato tsohon Darakta-Janar na Hukumar Talabijin ta Nijeriya (NTA), Mista Ben Murray-Bruce, shi ne ya ro}i shugaban da ya yi wani abu don karrama masana’antar, wadda ta }unshi masu shirya fim da kuma mawa}a. Jonathan, wanda ya halarci taron da kan sa, ya ce wannan jari da gwamnati ta zuba an yi shi ne “ba don komai ba sai don a mara wa masu sana’ar fasaha baya da kuma ha~aka masana’antar mu ta nisha]antarwa.”

Mutane da yawa da ke da ruwa da tsaki a masana’antar sun yi murna da wannan ku]in, su na ganin su a matsayin agajin da ya zo a daidai lokacin da ake bu}atar sa, wato a daidai lokacin da ruwa ya kusa }are wa ]an kada. Su na ganin sa a matsayin wata babbar karramawa da amintaka ga gudunmawar da wa]annan ]imbin masu basirar su ka bayar wajen sa a }ara sanin Nijeriya a fagen ayyukan nisha]i, wato fim da wa}a.

Nollywood, wadda masana’anta ce da ke bun}asa a koyaushe, ta na tafiya kafa]a-da-kafa]a da masana’antar da ta girme ta a fagen, wato ta ki]a da wa}a. Duk an san su a duniya. A wani rahoto da hukumar UNESCO ta buga a cikin watan Mayu 2009, an bayyana cewa masana'antar Nollywood ce ta uku a duniya wajen fito da yawan finafinai, wato ta na bin masana’antar Hollywood ta }asashen Turawa da kuma Bollywood ta }asar Indiya. An }iyasta cewa darajar Nollywood ta fuskar ku]i ta kai kimanin dala miliyan 250, kuma akwai mutum a}alla miliyan ]aya da ke aiki a masana’antar. Wannan masana’anta ta haifar da ’yan wasa wa]anda sunan su ya zama ruwan dare a cikin }asar nan da }asashen waje. Sunaye irin su Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Ramsey Nouah, Kate Henshaw-Nuttal, Pete Edochie, Ali Nuhu, Segun Arinze, Funke Akindele, da sauran su, sanannu ne. Akwai kuma irin wa]annan sunayen a fagen wa}a. A dalilin haka, akwai manazarta da dama da ke tururuwa daga }asashen duniya su na zuwa nan domin yin nazarin irin tashin gwauron zabon da wannan masana’anta ke yi. Abu sai ka ce tsafi! A yau ]in nan akwai tashoshin talabijin na satalayit da dama da ke nuna finafinan Nollywood dare da rana, ciki kuwa har da shahararriyar tashar Africa Magic, kwatankwacin yadda tashar Fox Movies ke nuna finafinan Hollywood da kuma yadda tashoshin B4U da Zee Aflam ke nuna na Indiya. Wa]annan mutane, mazan su da matan su, wa]anda yawanci matasa ne, su na rayuwa cikin jin da]i a matsayin attajirai, a cikin aikin da su ka }ir}ira da kan su, ba tare da sa hannun hukuma ba.

To amma kuma akwai mutanen da ke kallon wannan gara~asa da Jonathan ya yi ga ’yan fim da mawa}a a matsayin wani abu bambara}wai. Su na ganin cewa ya yi abin ne da ka kawai, ba tare da ya numfasa ya yi tunani ba, don kawai Mista Murray-Bruce ya ro}e shi da ya yi masu ko ma menene don nuna kulawa. Tun daga lokacin da aka bayyana gara~asar, na ji 'yan fim da mawa}a da dama su na yin wasu tambayoyi a kan ta: Shin wannan kyautar yaudara ce ko kuwa? Shin siyasa ce? Shin Jonathan ya na }o}arin samun goyon bayan masu sana’ar nisha]antarwa a daidai lokacin da ’yan adawa ke girgiza kujerar sa? Shin kishin }asa ne ya sa ya ba da wannan babbar kyautar? Ko kuwa ma gwamnati ta na so ta yi wa ’yan fim da mawa}a }ofar raggo ne, wato ta biyo ta bayan fage domin ta mamaye harkar saboda gudun irin sa}wannin da ake iya jefawa a cikin finafinai da wa}o}i?

Bayan haka, wa zai kar~o ku]in daga hannun gwamnati a madadin ’yan fim da mawa}an, wa]anda ba su da wasu tsayayyun shugabanni da kowa da kowa ya yarda da su? A yanzu dai, ba a ma san yadda za a raba ku]in ba. Shugaban }asa dai ya ce gwamnan Babban Bankin Nijeriya (CBN) tare da ministan ku]i su ne za su je su fito da hanyar da za a bi a fito da ku]in da kuma yadda za a yi da su. Jonathan, a jawabin sa, ya ambaci kalmar Nollywood ne a matsayin masana’antar finafinan Nijeriya, to amma don Allah ainihi su wanene Nollywood ]in? Da yawa in an ce Nollywood, to ana nufin ’yan fim na Kudiu kenan, wa]anda ke zaune a Legas da Anacha. To su kuma ’yan fim na Hausa fa da ke Arewa, wa]anda sunan tasu masana’antar Kannywood? Sannan kuma ina sauran Wood Wood da ke akwai - misali masana’antar finafinai ta Nupawa, wadda }arama ce kuma ba ta kallon kan ta a matsayin wani yanki na Kannywood, da sauran wuraren da ake shirya fim cikin harsunan mu na gado? Su yaya za a yi da su? Bugu da }ari, me ake nufi idan an ce maka]an Nijeriya? Shin sun ha]a da masu wa}o}i da harsunan gargajiya, irin su Nasiru Garba Supa na Kano da Musa [anbade na Kaduna, ko kuma ana nufin mawa}a na zamani masu wa}o}in Naija irin su Dapo Oyebanjo (D’banj), Abolere Akande (9ice), Innocent Idibia (Tuface), 2-Effects da Sound Sultan? Sannan ina za a saka su Aminu Ala, Fati Nijar, Maryam A. Baba da ire-iren su? A gaskiya, akwai bu}atar a fito a yi wa jama’a bayani, kuma a fito da hanyoyin da za a bi wa]annan ku]in su kai ga ’yan fim da mawa}a. Idan har ba a bi a sannu ba, to wannan gara~asa ta gwamnati za ta haifar da babban rikicin shugabanci a industiri, ta jawo rarrabuwar kai tsakanin masu fasaha a ~angarori daban-daban.

Ni a nawa ganin, har yanzu tsugunne ba ta }are ba ga masu shirya finafinai da kuma buga wa}o}i a Nijeriya. Industiri ba ta bu}atar wa]annan ku]in. Dalili: an yanke shawarar ba da su ne kurum a cikin irin tunanin gwamnati da ya da]e ya na addabar }asar nan, wato inda za ka ga an watsa ku]i ga matsala a matsayin magani maimakon a gano dalilin faruwar cutar. Abin da masana’antar nisha]antarwa ke bu}ata shi ne a samar da kyakkyawan sararin da mutum zai yi sana’a har ya ci riba. Mu tuna, wasu ’yan kasuwa masu tarar aradu don fa]in kai ne su ka haifar da industirin Nollywood da rana tsaka kimanin shekara 18 da ta gabata lokacin da su ka fitar da fim mai suna Living in Bondage, kuma tun daga lokacin ta ke ta }ara bun}asa ba tare da jarin gwamnati ba. Na san cewa masana'antar ta na fama da manyan matsaloli. Na farko, matsalar da ke damun Nijeriya ma ita ke damun ta, domin abin da ya ci Doma ba ya barin Awai. Matsalolin sun ha]a da satar basira da wasu ~arayin zaune ke tafkawa, ga rashin tsaro da kuma ta~ar~arewar tattalin arzikin }asar nan. [aya daga cikin manyan matsalolin ita ce satar basira, inda wani zaunannen ~arawo zai ]auki kayan ka ya gurza ya ri}a sayarwa, kai kuwa ko oho. Rashin }arfin doka da oda ya sa masu aikin basira sun kasa cin moriyar shukar su. |arayin zaune sun yi masu talala. Ya kamata a fitar da su daga wannan }angin, su samu sa’ida.

Lokacin da hukumar UNESCO ta ce Nollywood ce ta uku a duniya, ta ba ta wannan matsayin ne a kan yawan finafinan da ake shiryawa kawai, ba wai saboda }arfin arziki ko kuma ingancin finafinan ba. Su finafinan mu na Nijeriya, ana shirya su ne bisa ku]i }alilan, tare da yin amfani da kayan aiki masu araha. Yawanci babu ilimin abin domin su masu ruwa da tsakin ba wani horo su ka samu a makaranta ba; duk a lokeshin ake koyon komai. Shi ya sa za ka ga a finafinan ana nuno abu a duk yadda aka ga dama. Idan ka na kallon finafinan Kudu, sai ka yi tunanin cewa a }asar mu ba abin da ake yi sai tsafe-tsafe da aikata laifuffuka da kuma tsiraici. Rashin doka mai }arfi da kuma han}oron samun }azamar riba sun sa lamarin ya }azanta. Don haka babu mamaki, finafinan Nollowood }alilan ne ake ]aukar su da wata daraja a }asashen da su ka ci gaba, in ban da a unguwannin da ’yan Nijeriya ke zaune, masu }awazucin tunowa da gida. Yanzu dubi wani fim da aka yi a Afrika ta Kudu wai shi Tsotsi, da wani da aka yi a Indiya mai suna Slumdog Millionaire. Wa]annan finafinai ne da ake ji da su a duniya. Shi Tsotsi, dalar Amurka miliyan 3 aka kashe wajen shirya shi, to amma an samu dala miliyan 10 daga nuna shi a silima. Haka kuma ya ci manyan gasa guda biyu na duniya, wato lambar Oscar (a cikin 2005) da lambar Golden Globe (a 2006) a matsayin gwarzon fim cikin harsunan }asashe ban da Ingilishi.

Amma mu finafinan mu na Nijeriya, ba su da labarai masu }arfi, sannan da an fara fim za ka iya cankar inda zai }are. Sakamakon haka, za ka ji ana kuka da finafinan a gida da waje. Yanzu haka a Uganda har wata mata ’yar Majalisar Dokokin }asar mai suna Sarah Wasike Mwebaza ta ]ora laifin }aruwar ayyukan tsafe-tsafe a }asar ga yawaitar finafinan Nijeriya a }asar. Gwamnatin Uganda ta na nan ta na shirin kafa dokar da za ta magance matsalar. Wannan ya nuna cewa ya kamata masu shirya finafinan mu su yi karatun ta-natsu, su maida hankali wajen shirya finafinai masu inganci, da nuna gwaninta wajen ba da labari, da kyan hoto da sauti. Ya kamata su nuna wa sauran }asashen duniya cewa ba wai neman ku]i kawai ya sa su ke shirya fim ba, a’a har ma don su nuna bajinta a basira da fasaha. Saboda haka, kada a dubi gara~asar da Shugaba Jonathan ya bayar a matsayin ku]i kawai, maimakon haka a ]auka cewa alama ce ta nuna goyon baya da kuma karramawa. Idan har aka saka ido a kan ku]in, to ba abin da zai biyo baya sai cacar baki da rarrabuwar kai da fa]ace-fa]ace, daga nan kuma zancen bizines ya }are kenan.

Still Living In Bondage

Succour appeared to have come the way of Nollywood penultimate week when, in a rare gesture of goodwill towards the arts in Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan announced a $200 million stimulus for the entertainment industry. The money is worth about N30 billion. Speaking in Lagos during the 30th anniversary celebration of the Silverbird Group, the famous entertainment company headed by former director-general of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Mr. Ben Murray-Bruce, the president said the investment was a lifeline "for the exclusive purpose of supporting artistes and developing our entertainment industry."

The move was hailed by many stakeholders in the industry as an intervention that couldn't have come at a better time. They saw in it a clear recognition and honour of the contribution of the talented men and women who have helped to put Nigeria on the world map of entertainment.

Nollywood, the nation's growing movie industry, which can now be regarded as a twin of the equally soaring, though older, music industry, is a global brand from Nigeria. According to a UNESCO report released in May 2009, Nollywood is the third largest movie industry on earth by value, after Hollywood and India's Bollywood. Worth about $250 million and employing about 1 million Nigerians, the industry has created artistes who are household names, nationally and internationally. Names like Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Ramsey Nouah, Kate Henshaw-Nuttal, Pete Edochie, Ali Nuhu, Segun Arinze, Funke Akindele, etc, are well known. Similar big names abound on the music scene. Consequently, Nollywood has attracted academics from across the world who consider its phenomenal rise worthy of study. Talk of African magic! Indeed, several satellite television channels, including the appropriately named Africa Magic, now offer Nollywood movies 24 hours a day, the way Hollywood movies are shown on stations like Fox Movies or Indian ones on B4U and Zee Aflam. These men and women, most of whom are young, lead comfortable lives in jobs they created for themselves.

For many others, however, the president's gesture was very odd. To them, he acted impulsively - having been begged to do something, anything for the industry, by Mr. Murray-Bruce. In the last two weeks, I have heard questions being asked by stakeholders: Is this a Greek gift? Is it political? Is Jonathan currying the favour of the entertainers as he faces stiff challenge to his leadership? Was his offer inspired by true nationalistic fervour? Is the government coming in to control an informal sector which can communicate political messages not favoured by officialdom? Who will collect the money on behalf of the stakeholders in an industry that has no formal structure or universally recognised leadership?

For now, it is not clear how the money will be shared. The president said the Central Bank governor and the finance minister will handle that. Jonathan, in his speech, alluded to a group called Nollywood, but who, really, is Nollywood? Many reserve it for only those entertainers based in Lagos and Onitsha, but what of the huge Hausa film industry up north, known as Kannywood? And what of other 'Woods' - such as the miniscule, but silently growing Nupe movie industry which does not see itself as a part of Kannywood, as well other small vernacular outfits? Also, what do we mean when we say Nigerian musicians? Do they include those singing in the vernacular, such as Nasiru Garba Supa in Kano and Musa Danbade in Kaduna, or only those Naija crooners such as Dapo Oyebanjo (D'banj), Abolere Akande (9ice), Innocent Idibia (Tuface), 2-Effects and Sound Sultan? Clearly, much needs to be done to sift the grains from the chaff and then determine the modalities for moviemakers and musicians to access the fund. If care is not taken, this government's bonanza would spawn the biggest leadership tussle ever witnessed in the industry and cause divisions between the various "Woods" in the country.

I believe that the industry does not need the largesse. Reason: it came out of the practice by successive regimes to throw money at problems. What the entertainment industry truly needs to develop is a conducive business environment. Remember that Nollywood was created from nothing by adventurous entrepreneurs about 18 years ago with the release of the flick, Living in Bondage, and has grown in leaps and bounds without government money. Of course, it is bedevilled by problems. It suffers from the "Nigerian factor", which includes anything from piracy and insecurity to the poor state of the economy. One of the biggest problems is piracy. The country's lax laws have made it impossible for producers to enjoy the fruits of their labour. They are held in bondage by these thieves. They should be rescued.

Nollywood's ranking by UNESCO's Institute of Statistics as number one in the world is on production volume rather than quality. Nigerian movies are shot on shoestring budgets with cheap equipment. Professionalism is rare because stakeholders lack training, hence the insensitive portrayals of our society as a haven of crime, fetish and exposed flesh. Lax laws and the get-rich-quick nature of Nigerians worsen the situation. Little surprise, then, that only a few Nollywood movies are of value to foreign audiences aside Nigerians in the Diaspora. Consider Tsotsi, the South African movie, or India's Slumdog Millionaire. Tsotsi was made on a $3 million budget and it grossed about $10 million. It also won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for best foreign language film in 2005 and 2006 respectively.

But our movies have poor storylines and a predictable nature. Complaints, as a result, are reverberating across Africa. In Uganda, an MP, Sarah Wasike Mwebaza, blames an increase in witchcraft cases in that country on the influx of Nigerian movies. The Ugandan government is now mulling a bill to address the issue. This shows that our movie makers need to self-reflect and aim at quality in their stories, storytelling style, pictures and sound. They should show the world that their business is not only about making the quick buck but also about art. The bonanza from government should not, therefore, be viewed in monetary terms but as support and recognition. Once regarded as cool cash, it would divide and distract them from business.


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Picture above: Artistes and crew shooting a Nollywood movie. Photo: BBC

Published in LEADERSHIP WEEKEND, today.

Nollywood Sans Kannywood

I think when the world (or even Nigerian federal officials) talk about Nollywood, they are not thinking about the Hausa film industry, a.k.a. Kannywood. Nollywood is simply the Nigerian movie industry WITHOUT its Hausa component. Surprisingly, Nollywood includes the Igbo and Yoruba productions. The question is: why are Hausa movies not included? In my view, it has to do with the fact that federal officials working in the culture sector - Ministry of Information and its parastatals such as the National Film and Videos Censors Board and the Nigerian Film Corporation - hardly remember Kannywood when they are designing policies. Until in recent years, they scarcely included Kannywood stakeholders in their programmes.

Of course, things have been changing in recent years. Kannywood stakeholders have been making an in-road into the federal culture sector - participating in film festivals, awards and meetings. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go before we get THERE, largely due to the dominance of non-Northerners in the sector and in the mainstream mass media. If you take a look at the entertainment pages of Nigerian newspapers where news and gossip about the Nigerian movie world are told, you will hardly see anything being said about Kannywood. That is, with the exception of northern papers like Leadership, Trust, New Nigerian and Triumph.

The senseless attacks on Kannywood operators by officials of the Kano State Censorship Board in the bogus name of sanitising the industry appears to have taken Kannywood back in reckoning. That's the actual target of the censors. But theirs is a futile exercise because only a dimwit will presuppose that a censorship regime can destroy the progress of the new information technologies, of which movies are a significant part.

This is more so in a democracy, which has a preset tenure. As the Hausa say, "Zalunci ba ya karewa!"