Yemi Olakitan: All you want to know..

Saturday, 31 March 2012

BOLA TINUBU AT 60

From the chambers of the Lagos State House of Assembly and the pitch of Teslimi Balogun Stadium,the celebration of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu at 60 years moved on to the stage yesterday. On show at the prestigious MUSON Centre, Lagos ,was the play, Nigeria The Beautiful, telling the political story of Nigeria from Lord Fredrick to President Goodluck Jonathan through spectacle, dance and poetic dialogue. It was written by the renowned activist-poet, Odia Ofeimun, who said Asiwaju Tibubu’s impressive contributions to the progressive political movements inspired the staging of the play.He described the host as an activist, a political gladiator. Indeed Nigeria, particularly Lagos, is beautiful, Ofeimun said, declaring that Tinubu is one forthright politician who has worked to defend her political core. It was no surprise that the portraits of the nation’s founding fathers: Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Mallam Ahmadu Bello along with that of the Asiwaju, welcomed dignitaries from all walks of life into the Shell Hall. They came to celebrate Tinubu who was also featured as a character in the play. Ofeimun said: “To think of it, although many objective assessors have acclaimed the Hornbil House performances as grand showpieces, as we have named them, the point is that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu never managed to sit through any of them. But, sweet sensation, on his 60th birthday, here we are together with Nigeria The Beautiful. I think I am obliged to send him a ‘Happy Birthday Card’ because he sent me a properly signed letter of congratulations on my 50th birthday, when he was a governor, and another on my 60th, when he was no longer a governor. I need to register this because, outside the heckle of ceremonial occasions, he had, very consistently, showed me such unwonted deference… I never managed to get such opportunities. It was beginning to hug my mind with pin-pricks of conscience when his 60th birthday came to let me say that I am happy at the opportunity to ‘retaliate’. I mean, to reciprocate.” The portraits, which are parts of the play’s poster, were representative of the progressive movement that has evolved in the polity. He commended Tinubu’s contributions during his tenure as governor, saying his defence of the state against focused depredations was significant. “It was after he became governor that I saw the other side of him that resonated with a concern of mine, which connects imaginative city building with a sense of grand nation building. As readers of my poetry can tell, I have a very personal relationship with Lagos, my city by the lagoon, in accordance with which I judge whoever gets on board as the harbour master. “What is significant for me is the city’s representativeness of the ‘variousness’ that is Nigeria in a way that no other city can yet claim. The mode of Tinubu’s defence of Lagos state against the focused depredations was bound to pass into legend, especially in the face of federal voices insisting that Lagosians under him wanted to be treated as special citizens of the country. His road map to the future gave assurance that real roads can be built, which will not be washed away by the next rainy season. It got stuck in memory that Tinubu built roads to last and he established parastatals like LAWMA and LASMA to defend the citizens of the city.” The poet recollected Asiwaju’s role in the forward-moving progressive movement from the military days, when he became governor and a political force to be reckoned with. Ofeimun noted that the ‘birthday boy’, who was a senator in the Third Republic, was one of those whose support gave fillip to the pro-democratic movement as a serious project. “A politician, in the craw of a military regime who could support such a guerrilla outfit (the defunct TEMPO) had something to be said for him. Effectively, Bola Tinubu was acceding to centrality as a defender of progressive politics from his chosen stride. He was not only with those who marched on the streets, but those who provided what stasiologists, students of political parties and movements call the sinews of war.” Ofeimun compared Asiwaju to the late Pa Alfred Rewane, who supported the progressive movements and individuals with his hard-earned money, saying; “Bola Tinubu was like a latter day emanation of the same spirit. With the difference that Rewane never had to run for any elections but Tinubu was a steadfast gladiator.” He said: “In his days, after many NADECO stalwarts had to live in exile to escape military harassment, Tinubu proved his political mettle. At home or abroad, he never abandoned the turf. Throwing stones at dictatorship from some distance, he remained as close to the world of guerrilla journalism, with the panache of a warlord…Dealing in practicalities, he let idealism slip in as bonus after taking care of the necessity to run shop. There is no question that this was what made all the difference in how he ran for and became the Governor of Lagos State at the end of Gen. Abdusalaam Abubakar’s transition to civil rule. At the end of the drama presentation, Asiwaju said: “Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, the cast and Ofeimun have gone through political history. The hope to transform our country is still alive. You just need to work harder. God bless Nigeria.” In the audience were Tinubu’s wife, Senator Oluremi and their son, Seyi; Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Mrs Joke Orelope-Adefulire; Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola; Chief Bisi Akande; Aremo Segun Osoba; the publisher of Vanguard newspaper, Mr Sam Amuka; celebrity couple, Olu Jacobs and Joke Sylva; Chief Bisi Olatilo, among others. He praised the Committee of Friends for putting the programme together.

A look into the Nigerian Entertainment industry

By Yemi Olakitan The huge potentials in Nigerian entrainment sector are no news to many people all over the world; the opportunities for growth and economic prosperity are enormous. From the music industry, to the movie sector and even in the comedy scene, Nigerian entertainment offers opportunities for unlimited wealth, job creation, investments and poverty eradication. It has been described as a goldmine that has not been fully tapped by the Federal Government. With little government support and poor infrastructure in Nigeria, the Nigerian creative artistes have been able to create a very dynamic industry and the prospects for expansion is immense. In the music scene, Nigerian music is well known all over the world. Artistes such as Fela Anikulapo Kuti, King Sunny Ade, and Ebenezer Obey have exported Nigeria music far and near the developed nations. Today, particularly in Hip Pop music, Nigerian artistes are breaking new international frontiers. They are entering new collaborations with global superstars for example; D’banj and Kanye West are in alliance, Psquare recently released a video with Akon, 2 Face and R.Kelly are also reportedly working together. Not too long ago, Fela was on Broadway. The play ‘Fela’ is still being performed in theatres all over the United States. Our artists are daily gaining popularity in Europe and the America and our movies are been shown in every corner of the world. Asa has gained national prominence in France and she is considered as one of the finest musical acts in that country, not to mention Sade Adu, Ceel and many others. The release of the movie Ije directed by Chineze Anyene saw Nigerian movies wining prizes in film festivals around the world. The success of Figurine is another example of Nigeria’s success in the entertainment world. Figurine, the movie was reported to have generated over 12 million naira in box office revenue with major reviews in international media. Nigerian movies and artistes are increasingly becoming popular around the world. It has been said that Nollywood releases more movies in a year than both Bollywood and Hollywood combined. The industry is rated as the number 3rd in global film making after the American and the Indian movie sectors. According to a UNESCO report, the Nigerian movie industry has overtaken Hollywood and closed the gap on Indian to be the global leader in the number of movies released each year. It is the third largest movie industry in the world. The movie industry in Nigeria creates jobs for about 200,000 Nigerians and provides up to I million indirect jobs for Nigerians. The entertainment industry in Nigeria holds huge promise of millions of fortune for possible foreign investments for the benefit of the Nigerian people and yet many problems limit its advancement. It seems that in the coming generation of the world will have to look up to Nigeria as the next haven of the creative and entertainment enadeavour. It is clearly evident that our industry is among the most dynamic in the world today with growth potentials that we cannot adequately enumerate as at yet. However, as lucrative as the sector may look, it still has many challenges that hold it back and these challenges may scuttle any roughrider investor who does not take calculated steps before stepping into the sector. Some of them are the lack of copyrights, intellectual property rights, a loose and uncoordinated market system, an undefined distribution channel, poor government support and lack of infrastructure. These are some of the problems that confront the entertainment sector in Nigeria. In a chat with iconic King Sunny Ade, he said that piracy remained one of the hardest problems in Nigerian entertainment. He mentioned that this was responsible for the disappearance of foreign record companies such EMI and Decca from the Nigerian music scene. According to him, this record companies could not cope with high level of piracy in Nigeria and the government inability to reduce piracy in Nigerian creative industries. Speaking further, KSA consider piracy as one of the reasons why people do not want to invest money into entertainment and why foreign investment continues to elude Nigeria in that sector. ‘‘Nigeria only has record labels and not record companies and this does not help the sector. We need record companies and not labels. Record companies take care of the album from the studio to distribution, to media and promotion. They ensure that the artistes get their royalties. Today, we no longer have that. All we have are individuals trying to do it by themselves.’’ ‘‘I released an album tagged the Grace of God by 28th of December, but it was already all over the streets by 24th of December. The pirates flooded the market with their own products. My fans invite me and pay for my performance, that is why I am still on the scene otherwise pirates are having a filled day.’’ Legendary actress, jokes Silva also pointed out that one reason why Hollywood is ahead of Nollywood is that Hollywood has so many structures that are not available to us here in Nigeria. For instance, when they release a movie, it goes to about 3,000 cinemas simultaneously. We cannot do that yet. Our distribution system at the moment is so informal that it is difficult for any serious investor to take us serious. At the moment, how many cinema screens do we have? Lets say Silverbird has about six, the palms has about six, may be about 20 all over the country compared to thousands that other industries such as Hollywood or the Indian Bollywood have. If you take video as our first window of opportunity and our distribution system is so porous, then pirates will have a filled day. So, until we have a well-regulated, worldwide distribution network, we will remain number 3rd. Speaking further, she said that epileptic electricity supply in the country is a major problem in Nollywood. ‘ The producers usually brings a generator along in order to shoot a scene and he will position it far away so that its noise does not interfere with the recording. However, the neighbours also do not have lights and they are also on generators and they are not part of your production team. You cannot go and meet them and say, please can you turn off your generators because I am shooting a movie. It does not concern them. We need dedicated studios and zones where we can shoot our movies without that kind of limitations.’’ She said. Even comedians complain about piracy. Their CDs are massively pirated and distributed without gains for their pockets. In a chat with ace comedian Julius Agwu, he said, piracy is the first problem of the industry. He lamented that new comedians are coming out everywhere and they use your jokes. I work hard to get my jokes, I am in my observatory tower, in my toilet, bedroom, kitchen and I observe what is going on and I create my jokes.’’ He said. It is very encouraging that the federal Government under President Goodluck Jonathan in response to these problems released US$200 million as the Entertainment industry Fund. Many artistes have however, complained about their inability to access the fund.