The Challenge of Single Motherhood

Ali Baba

Single'ton, by Ali Baba

Every now and then, I meet and get messages, from ladies, who either lost their jobs, widowed, pregnant and no job, the guy who impregnated them absconded, or is around but DOESNT give a hoot, or working but can't meet the financial demands of raising kids on their own, or the guy agreed to having the babies and to support with their upkeep... But things happened and he couldn't come through with the promised support...

Single mothers are increasing in numbers consequent on one or two of the reasons mentioned above. And this always makes me ask, is it not possible to avoid being caught up in some of these tough situations? I know it’s impossible to know if you will be a widow and left with 2 or 3 kids to raise by yourself, as a mother. But when it happens, what is the solution?

Some ladies just want to have kids, because they attended a birthday party and they saw Kemi with her 2 lovely kids. They also know Kemi has no visible source of income. Wake up!!!!! Kemi has sources of income. Ruff n Tumble DOESNT dash kids clothes weekly... To be honest, you don't want to know what she does to make those kids look desirable enough to make you want to have yours. Maybe Kemi has a job. Maybe she has a rich husband. Or maybe she has a loaded boyfriend. Saved up wealth. She could be the "saving grace" of a guy who has been looking for a child. She may have rich parents. She could be a surrogate mum. Who bore the kids and is caring for the kids for the true parents.... Maybe, just maybe...

As Our Actors Seek Public Offices, by Charles Novia

I applaud the guts of some of my colleagues in Nollywood who have been coming out on social networks with Posters and Press Releases about their intentions to run for elections for Public Offices in 2015.

And I really must commend them. Wholeheartedly.

They deserve a platform to contest. And that is as far as my commendation goes. Because the question they should be asking themselves should be:

1. Do they really think screen popularity translates to poll popularity? If they do, then they are in for the greatest shocker of their lives.

2. Have they made deep political incursions into their wards and councils to intimate the voters about their ambitions? I am talking about real tours of political duties and not some silly wave-of-the-hand tour at the fawning crowd who are more delighted at seeing the screen gods than going out to vote.

3. Are they just coming out to declare their intentions to contest, knowing in their hearts that they stand no chance of even getting the tickets from their Parties but just hoping to be game changers by ‘settlement’ in which later in the next dispensation they get one plum Government appointment?

4. If they are following in the footsteps of their predecessors in the industry, RMD, KOK, Tony Oneweek Muonagor, Onyeka Onwenu etc then they need to know something. Those guys WORKED for their positions. They did not just wake up one day and jumped into politics.

Nigeria's Entertainment Industry and the Bane of Piracy

Movie lovers hunt for the latest Nigerian films in the streets of Kingston, Jamaica, and Guangzhou's Little Africa; Nigerian songs play in clubs from London to Kuala Lumpur. But the lion's share of the profit goes to pirates who didn't invest a penny in studio time or camera equipment.

"By some estimates, for every legitimate [movie DVD] copy that is sold by the producer, another five to 10 copies are sold by pirates," said a World Bank study last year. Music CDs are also mass-replicated, leading to losses valued at hundreds of millions of dollars for the film and music industries.

Developing countries have increasingly been looking to creative goods as a source of revenue, according to the study. Asian economies accounted for more than three-quarters of total exports of creative goods from the global south. In Latin America and the Caribbean, exports of creative goods more than doubled – from £2.1bn to $5.3bn – between 1996 and 2005. But Africa, which accounts for less than 1% of creative goods exports, has been left behind.

When Nollywood Tells Our Story

Each time the swashbuckling Minister of Communications and Information (read Re-branding), Mrs Dora Akunyili shares a podium with Nollywood practitioners or adventurers, she takes her time to give Nollywood a good dressing down. She cuts the picture of a stringent headmistress cautioning errant school children.

Daily Triumph Newspaper of November 2009 carried just an ounce of Minister Akunyili’s peppered vitriol against the forces aligned against her mission to rescue Nigeria’s image. She blamed Nollywood for Nigeria’s poor image and charged her to tell our own stories. She said the same thing few weeks into her appointment as Minister at an interactive workshop with Nollywood practitioners in Lagos. And I suspect, she says it everyday. She’s after all a Minister; all they do is say things.

Had Dora Akunyili not being a Minister, she might have understood the inanity of her assertion but as I fear the cordial distance Nigerian public officials maintain with reality has a way of deodorising the embarrassing stench of empty reason. But that is hardly surprising as it emanates from a Ministry where trite ideas are routinely granted a new lease and executed with zeal that borders on mania. 

Nollywood, iROKOtv and A Global Audience

An episode of Shuga, a popular soap opera set in Kenya, is playing on a screen at the offices of iRoko TV - an online platform commonly dubbed the "Netflix of Africa". In a corner of the room, facing the rest of the operation and separated by a glass partition, sits Jason Njoku, the company's founder.

Born and brought up in London, Mr Njoku is now Lagos-based and building what is proving to be a revolutionary tool, as Nollywood - Nigeria's Hollywood - moves on from DVD to digital platforms.

Since 2011, iRokoTV has racked up millions of views, its founder says, "connecting African films with fans globally" with its huge online catalogue. The company pays filmmakers about $10,000 (£5,900) to $25,000 for the digital rights to stream their content for a period of time.

In fact, Jason Njoku says the group spends $3m-$4m a year on licensing and producing content, hoping to make back the money in two to three years. Subscribers pay a monthly fee of $8 with unlimited access to movies from around Africa on the iRoko TV platform, although most productions come from Nigeria and Ghana.

Nollywood, Piracy and Poor Distribution

Nollywood: A Thing or Two About Piracy and Lost Revenues, by Jide Rotilu

Nigeria’s movie industry ‘NOLLYWOOD’ has witnessed a year unlike none other with a $200 million stimulus package from Mr. President and more international producers interested in our heart land stories, it is certain Nollywood’s future is extremely promising.

The triumphant rise of home video production began in the early 90’s with the production of ‘Living in Bondage’. In the early years, there were strong story plots with passionate film makers sweating to ensure the viewers felt their passion. This trend dwindled fast as demand for content increased and marketers were eager to see faster returns on investment, which meant hastened movie production. The demand increased and the production supply had to be rushed which inevitably replaced passionate film making with only a thirst for money. The movie productions got so fast that on average about 2000 movies were made annually. This sales figure led to Nollywood’s recognition as one of the largest Movie Industries in the World in terms of ‘quantity’ while Quality was a concept not understood by many.

Nollywood: A Resource That Needs Control

Resource Control has become an important political and economic lexicon in modern geo political realities. In the emerging economies of the world, most especially in Africa, resource control has accounted for numerous armed conflicts, political instability, and economic stagnation.

Resources in emerging economies like Nigeria are primarily ascribed to natural & physical properties like oil and gas, agricultural products, gold, diamond and like products that are discoverable fro under the bowels of the earth.

The attraction to tangible properties like oil, commonly called the “black gold” in Nigeria has resulted in the neglect of other resources which could compete, if not out-rank oil in terms of wealth generation. Intellectual property rights are resources that Nigerians have neglected or unaware of as a property. It is an intangible property that has generated economic growth and wealth in counties like United States, India, Japan, France and United Kingdom. In the United States, Hollywood has contributed  immensely to the nation’s GDP. In India, Bollywood has contributed greatly to the nations economy. It is the strength of its intellectual property  regime that has propel these entertainment capitals of the world to become economic and cultural model, that most of the world desire to emulate. The copyrights, patent, trademark & publicity rights policies of these countries have been a motivating factor for the economic growth of their entertainment industry.

Looting Nollywood, by Pius Adesanmi

Last week, I travelled from my base in Ottawa, Canada to Johannesburg, South Africa. It was one of those dreadfully long trips that I have grudgingly come to accept over the years as an inevitable feature of my professional calling as a peripatetic man of culture.

As I boarded the first flight in Ottawa, I made a mental map – as I always do – of how to fill up the void of time. I had an hour ahead of me to Washington DC, nine hours from Washington to Dakar, and another nine hours from Dakar to Johannesburg.

Ain’t funny! Add to the distance the fact of not knowing how and where the pendulum of the international writing prize that was taking me to South Africa would swing. Only the thought that I would reunite with my bosom friend, Temitope Oni, a successful medical doctor in Durban whom I hadn’t seen since the end of our Titcombe college days in 1987, made the distance bearable. Tope Oni would redefine the meaning of brotherhood, human bond, and loyalty for me in ways that I am still too positively emotional to talk about. He is a subject of another essay. Another day.

Suffice it to say that in such long-flight situations, I usually oscillate between nap time, reading time, writing time (my laptop’s battery allowing), movie time, and alcohol time – with strong emphasis on the last. This time, I wish I had skipped movie time and concentrated on alcohol time. That would have spared me the agony and anger that did not abate until I landed in Johannesburg.

Happinezz Iz Everytin, Tonto Dike

Tonto Dike recently posted this on her Instagram page: I waz asked Wat I wntd to b wen I grew up, I replied I WANT TO b HAPPY* Dey looked at mii n said Child 'YOU DNT UNDERSTAND D QUEZTION* I Smiled n Replied "NO ITZ YA'LL WHO DON'T UNDERSTAND LIFE** #HAPPINEZZ IZ EVERYTIN 

Oscars Recognizes Nollywood for Awards Category

Ahead of the 2015 Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has approved a 12-man committee of Nollywood stakeholders, the Nigerian Oscars Selection Committee (NOSC), to consider Nigerian entries for the world's most prestigious awards for films.

Each year, countries with an approved selection committee may submit one film for consideration for the Foreign Language Film Award Oscar; only five films are chosen from all international submissions for Academy members to cast their votes and choose a winning foreign language film.

"This is a great opportunity for Nigeria to have a voice in the international film arena," said Chineze Anyaene, filmmaker and committee chairperson.

The NOSC members comprise of outstanding professionals who have over time proved their mettle as some of the finest in the movie industry. They include Chineze Anyaene, Ngozi Okafor, Olumide Amure, Ramsey Nouah, Kene Mkparu, Emeka Mba, Chioma Ude, Akin Salami, Mildred Okwo, Biola Alabi, Charles Novia and Shaibu Husseini.

According to Academy rules, the members will consider submissions on seven criteria, which are: story, direction, acting, cinematography, sound, music and universal theme.

Shaibu Husseini, another member of the board agrees. "The Nollywood film industry needs to play globally so people will begin to look towards us."

Nollywood Creates 2 Million Jobs in 20 Years

Zulu

The Association of Movie Producers in Nigeria (AMP) says the film industry in Nigeria has created two million jobs plus in the last twenty years.

In a "Friends of Nollywood" award ceremony held on Saturday by the Abuja Chapter of AMP, the associations's President Zik Zulu said the upsurge in jobs in the billion-dollar industry has had a substantive impact on the nation's economy and its growth.

“Today, you have an industry that is worth over two billion dollars, employing over two million Nigerian youths, helping in a way to check the restive situation in the country,” Zulu told the audience, made up of industry players and sponsors.

Zulu further suggested that the Nigerian film industry has had a significant role in the shift in image that has taken place for Nigeria internationally. “This is a department of life that has done a lot to change the impression and the image of this country positively,” he said.

Zulu implores the government to continue to consistently fortify efforts to support Nollywood and acknowledge its impact on Nigeria. “I think the federal and state governments, and the private sector in Nigeria have to do more for Nollywood, because this is a department of this country’s life,” he said.

Language and National Development

Indigenous Languages and Development in Nigeria

By A. H. Amfani

1. INTRODUCTION The present Institute for Nigerian Languages of the University of Nigeria is not a new institution.  It is the former National Institute for Nigerian Languages (NINLAN).  Indeed the function and the objectives are very much the same.  Essentially, the Institute is all out to cater for the development and sustenance of all Nigerian languages.  However, under the new administration of the Institute and especially under the stewardship of Professor Clara Ikekeonwu, and in line with the vogue around, and more so one initiated by women of caliber, we shall all expect a re-branding of the entire activities of the institute.  This public lecture is part of the re-branding.

I have been called upon, in my capacity as the President of the Linguistic Association of Nigeria, to talk on the topic Indigenous Languages and Development in Nigeria.  The topic sounds simple and straight forward, but on a close examination, it is elusive and controversial.  On one hand, it is not easy to say with some degree of precision, the number of indigenous languages available in Nigeria.  On the other hand, it is equally not easy to convince people that indigenous Nigerian languages have any significant role to play in the overall development of the Nigerian nation.  My task in this talk is to try and give a picture of the indigenous Nigerian languages with a view to sensitizing Nigerians on the need to appreciate their mother tongues.  Another task is to explain how indigenous Nigerian languages can play significant roles in various sheds of development.  It must be pointed out here and now that development is a very wide concept and subsumes quite a number of issues.

iROKOtv Exists for Nollywood to Survive, iROKOtv Boss

Abi Ishola, Co-host of Culture Shock: Nigerians in America, spoke to Jason Njoku, the founder and CEO of iROKOtv, at the company's office in New York City. Jason speaks on why he founded iROKOtv, discusses the $8 million investment he received to expand iROKOtv, explains how the money will benefit his company and the entire Nollywood industry, and also gives advice to young entrepreneurs in search of investment deals. And just how much is iROKOtv worth? Analysts say $30 million. Find out what Jason says.

Nollywood and Nigeria's Rebased Economy

The Time Of The Gross Domestic Producers By Okey Ndibe

That Nigeria has passed South Africa as Africa’s largest economy—when calculated by Gross Domestic Product—is almost old news.  The coverage of that feat afforded Nigeria’s image a rare shining moment in the foreign media. As Uri Friedman wrote in The Atlantic, “Something strange happened in Nigeria on Sunday: The economy nearly doubled, racking up hundreds of billions of dollars, ballooning to the size of the Polish and Belgian economies, and breezing by the South African economy to become Africa's largest. As days go, it was a good one.”

But many Nigerian pundits were far from impressed. Some were skeptical about the whole “re-basing” rhetoric. Some went as far as suggesting that Abuja fudged and rigged its way to first place. Others sought to restore perspective to the triumph by drawing attention to Nigeria’s perennial and persistent woes—among them a dismal infrastructure, scant electric power supply, run-away rates of unemployment, and miserable wages for the lowest brackets of workers.
 


In a piece provocatively titled “Okonjonomics Or When a Finance Minister Turns Money-Doubler,” Ogaga Ifowodo, a poet, professor, lawyer and political activist, cut to the heart of the matter. He wrote: “So if Nigerians went to bed in the night of Saturday, 5 April 2014, with N42.4 trillion naira in their collective pocket, and woke up the next day to their statistician-general’s revelation that they had grown richer by N37.8 trillion while they slept, wouldn’t they be fools to believe it if they remain as hungry and angry, homeless and jobless, as they were when they closed their eyes the night before? 

Writing in Igbo Language

Writing in the Igbo Language: Standards and Trends, by M. C. Onukawa

1.0      Preamble

Before the advent of Christian Missions in Igboland (through whose efforts the Igbo language was reduced to writing) Igbo, like several other Nigerian languages, had no written form. The Igbo language, literature, and culture were transmitted orally from parents to their children, adults to young ones, generation to generation. 

Children “were taught the history, geography, literature, civics, etc., of their people through stories, songs, myths, legends, and even contact with the environment” (Nwadike, 2008, p. 2). They were also taught different traditional trades and spheres of life in practical terms. 

The Igbo, however, had some esoteric sign writings through which they kept some accounts and records, and also preserved and transmitted some information (particularly secretly). There was also the NSIBIDI sign writing that was popular among the Igbo and their Ibibio neighbours.

1.1      Some Facts of Orthography

Orthography consists of the letters (i.e the alphabet) used in writing the sounds, as well as the rules that govern the spelling of words, phrases and sentences in a language.  A good orthography should therefore provide the following: the alphabet, the spelling rules, the punctuation marks and the rules governing their use. There are five recognized principles

that make a good orthography: accuracy, consistency, convenience, harmonization, and familiarity (Williamson, 1984).

The Dying Nigerian Languages

Language Education: Rescue Mission for Dying Mother Tongues 

By Louis Okoro Ugbagha

In Nigeria, language education is now a disappearing act from the school curriculum. Languages themselves are seen as lackluster subjects that can only be offered if authorities force them down the throat of very reluctant students. That way, they make up their subjects selection with any language of their choice and may or may not write them in any examination.


Nigeria has not strengthened its institutions enough to rescue our waning mother tongues. For instance, the Coordinator and Head of Institute, National Institute for Nigerian Languages (NINLAN), Dr Azubuike Ikediashi recently told newsmen that the institute would be unable to meet its goals in 2014 because it was not captured in the 2014 national budget.


Dr Ikediashi lamented the general neglect the Institute suffers as a result of the ignorance of Nigerians on the importance of indigenous languages and their roles in education, democracy, business and self image. Indeed, we do not seem to care whether our language dies or lives.


Meanwhile, in Nigeria today, there are the French, Korea, Chinese and a host of other Cultural centres, including the German Goethe Institute rendering one form of service or the other, but surreptitiously indoctrinating our citizens on their culture and languages. The reason is because these ‘big friends’ want to rule wherever they can through their language and by registering their culture in the people’s sub-conscious.


Ramsey Nouah On Nollywwood, Career & More

SaharaTV crew caught up with Nollywood actor and director, Ramsey Nouah on the set of a movie shoot in Lagos. In this interview, Ramsey speaks about a range of issues including piracy, conflicts in the actors' guild, politics, his niche as "lover boy" character, controversy about his father and his educational background.

Pope Francis Shares Top 10 Secret To Happiness

Pope Francis smiles as he celebrates Mass at the Royal Palace of Caserta in Italy on July 26.

In an interview published in part in the Argentine weekly "Viva" July 27, the pope listed his Top 10 tips for bringing greater joy to one's life:

1. "Live and let live." Everyone should be guided by this principle, he said, which has a similar expression in Rome with the saying, "Move forward and let others do the same."

2. "Be giving of yourself to others." People need to be open and generous toward others, he said, because "if you withdraw into yourself, you run the risk of becoming egocentric. And stagnant water becomes putrid."

3. "Proceed calmly" in life. The pope, who used to teach high school literature, used an image from an Argentine novel by Ricardo Guiraldes, in which the protagonist -- gaucho Don Segundo Sombra -- looks back on how he lived his life.

And Then, Finally, Death Spoke... By Segun Adeniyi

Segun Adeniyi

Heralded in by drummers, it was clear to all those who were already seated, important dignitaries in their own rights, that the new entrant was a class above them. That was because for the first time, the master of the house, the great Death himself, stood up to receive a visitor whom he allowed to sit on the throne beside his.

Apparently worried that he might have lost his preeminent place in the Kingdom of Death, Terrorism stood up to speak: “Your Majesty, High Chief Prophet Death, Grand Commander of the Earth and all things beneath, I salute you. As all my colleagues here are quite aware, since 2009 when I scaled up my operation in Nigeria, nobody has given you as much blood as I have done yet I have never received the kind of attention you gave this JJC. In recent days, I have brought in the blood of several Nigerians: From the twin-bomb attack in Kaduna to my operations in Kano and Adamawa, now I serve you blood minute by minute. While I am not aware of the area of expertise of this agent who just came in, one thing I am sure of: In the territory called Nigeria, nobody has served your interest as diligently as I have done in the last couple of weeks...”

“Point of Information my Lord, Your Excellency”, someone interjected.  It was Strike. With Death nodding his spectre, Strike knew he had the permission to speak. “My advice is to Terrorism. He should please stick to what he knows. Yes, he has killed many Nigerians in recent days; I concede that to him. I even understand that he is now gradually turning one section of the country against another such that at the end of the day the people themselves would begin to do his job for him on a massive scale. That is very clever. But if he is talking about the amount of blood made available to Your Majesty in the last two weeks, I deserve commendation. Now that I have medical doctors working in public hospitals on my side, I supply more blood to this kingdom. Terrorism may kill with guns, knives, cudgels etc but the fact that he helps editors to sell their newspapers doesn’t mean he has done more harm in Nigeria than me. Unlike him, I do my work quietly and I do not inflict needless pains; I simply allow Nigerians to die on the hospital beds and they do so in droves without their people paying much attention. My formula in Nigeria today is simple: From the hospital ward to the mortuary--a seamless journey!”

Don't Be A Follower, Don Jazzy

Don Jazzy

In recent interview with Yes Classics, multiple award-winning Nigerian music producer and CEO of Mavin Records, Don Jazzy advises young artistes to invest time in building their individual brands.

Yes Classics: Where do you think that most up and coming artistes get it wrong; where do you think they miss the point?

Don Jazzy: Nowadays, their [up and coming artistes'] eyes are too big (laughs). They have big eyes; they don't want to crawl before they start running. They want to jump straight from birth to university; they don't want to go to nursery school, primary school, secondary school. They just want to graduate instantly and it doesn't work like that. 

All fingers are not equal. Some people might get it right from the word go, but almost everybody they see they think that oh, they just came into the industry and made it. They don't know how much struggle they've put in behind the scene before they made it. They just assume, but it's not that easy. 

So, they should try as much as possible to study the entertainment industry a bit more before they just jump in and they should also perfect their craft. Don't try to copy people, don't be a follower, reinvent yourself--be somebody that is going to start a trend, don't just jump on another's trend. You'd just be the second best. 

What else? They believe the hype too quick. Just because you put your download link on Twitter and the people in your [housing] estate download your music and they hail you in the morning when you come outside doesn't mean the person in Surulere knows who you are. And you expect to go to the club and fight the bouncer because he doesn't recognize you. "You no know me? I'm the person that put up this download link yesterday" (general laughter).

I Find Joy in Igbo Language, Archbishop Obinna

Archbishop AJV Obinna

We haven’t quite fully recovered from the old indoctrination that everything from Europe or America is the best. Nigerians would have done better, but for the fact that we had people who were not properly educated leading us, and putting undue emphasis on everything Western. 

But when you study the Western culture as a real scholar, like some of us have done, you would discover that there is really nothing to get excited about. I have seen Europe and America, seen the white man, black man, yellow man, and all that. I have rediscovered myself. 

Indeed, when you have not rediscovered yourself, you will continue to look up to the Western world to define yourself. That’s why I define myself much more locally. I’ve found joy, learning and speaking the Igbo language. And that is why, in part, I started the Odenigbo Lecture Series.

The lecture series are conducted in my Igbo language; that every one in the village can understand. And I have discovered that it gives my people a great sense of joy, because I am helping them rediscover their identity, and to know that Igbo language is as good as English, French or any other, and never a mark of stupidity if you speak only Igbo. 

That there are very brilliant people who speak only Igbo because, after all, it was through the natural talents of farmers, fishermen and traders who never went to school, and what they cultivated, that their children were able to become trained as engineers and scientists. Indeed, many children of farmers, wine-tappers and wrestlers, have turned out to be excellent role models, because it is the practical knowledge of our people that laid the foundation for further intellectual or mental development of the later generation.