Nigeria, The Arts, And The Critic

(Temidayo Ahanmisi)--A significant number of us would agree that the Arts are altogether not serving Nigeria beyond momentary entertainment.

If we only knew a bit of history we would be appalled and indignant at how much our artists have taken from us in terms of human development and social evolution. This aside the money.

Many Nigerians, by the unfortunate virtue of not having grown up in a critical culture as most now in their late 30s and beyond did, are hampered in understanding that art is a veritable tool for cultural disruption and the motivation of the critical aspects of the zeitgeist culture necessary to force social change for sociocultural emancipation in any society.

When you grow up watching art imitate the worst of life, you think art should serve only one function - to validate mutual perfidies, and to pay homage to brigandage while the artist dances for his supper.

This is partly why a lot of Nigerians tend to become hostile at the whiff of criticism especially of an artist they prefer. It's a kind of indulgent patronage bestowed on a favourite pet.

If your fare is Nollywood movies like Azonto babes, Blackberry babes, (Nigerian) Spider Girl, you would of course bristle when you hear such atrocities being dissected for the immoral socioeconomic criminality they honestly are.

To the average Nigerian, you cannot criticise or critique a movie unless:

Nollywood and Matters Arising: Bob Ejike Replies Ola Balogun

Bob Ejike

Dr Ola Balogun’s recent acrimonious attack on the Nigerian film industry came as a rude shock to most of the country’s moving picture practitioners. Majority of Nollywood film makers murmured their indignation because of the pioneering role Dr Balogun played in the creation of the Nigerian film tradition. But it is my considered opinion that by publicly disowning Nigerian film and acidly castigating the professionals, Dr Ola Balogun has nullified the hallowed consideration accorded him as one of the pioneers of Nigerian film. The doomsday undertone of the doctor’s tirades are to say the least repugnant and reminiscent of the ‘market woman’ criticism that Nigerian film has faced from disgruntled seminal columnists, misguided elites, former specialists, former this, former that, seeking relevance where they have invested no effort.

Since Nigerian film broke out of the chains of NTA hegemony about a decade ago, the high living and low thinking elites have sought to prove their social pre-eminence by advertising their DSTV patronage. The Nigerian media which, in any event thrives on negativity, initially wrote off the film revolution as an exercise in mediocrity, while the often racist western press dismissed Nollywood as ‘how not to make a film’. Admittedly, it is how not to make a Western film, but it works!

Nollywood and the Road to Stardom

(Business Eye) - Despite the numerous challenges facing the Nigerian film industry, the practitioners have remained steadfast and focused and the industry is now the toast of local and foreign investors. In this review, Amarachukwu Iwuala, examines Nollywood’s rough road to stardom as it turns 21.

From a modest beginning about 21 years ago after Chris Obi-Rapu directed and released Nigeria’s first scintillating pioneer movie, Living in Bondage on the 8th of September, 1992, the industry has not looked back in its determination to rule the world.

The box office

The box office has helped the turn the fortunes of the industry around. For instance, in 2009, Stephanie Okereke’s Through the Glass grossed N10 million in three weeks at the box office.  The film went on to rake in a total of about N15 million by the time it ended its run in the cinemas. Indeed, recent films like The Figurine and Tango with Me are reported to have grossed about N25 million and N40 million respectively.

Ije, which remains the highest grossing Nigerian film, raked in about N60 million at the box office while the highest grossing Hollywood films in Nigerian cinemas make between N150 million and N200 million.

Independent Producers, Nollywood's Last Hope--Ejike Asiegbu

Asiegbu

Veteran actor and filmmaker, Ejike Asiegbu, is not in a happy mood at the moment due to lack of unprofessionalism in the motion picture industry as well as the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls. In this interview with Sam Anokam, Asiegbu bares his mind on the many controversies in the film industry, his career and other issues

What has been happening to you lately?

Nothing much, I’m just there watching as usual and also doing my private things. I am in one way or the other contributing to the development of our dear country.

What about the movie industry?

By the special grace of God, I’m one of the forerunners of the industry, an experienced one for that matter. I am saddened by a lot of occurrences, which are quite unprofessional. These days, I hear that actors pay to act; most predominantly women pay to act and they do it with impunity. You can imagine girls who throw caution to the wind, give money to people who claim they are producers just because they want to be popular at all cost. It goes to show you how morally bankrupt the industry has become and professionally so much needs to be done to arrest the situation.

It is unfortunate a lot of unprofessional things are happening. People now pay for their transportation, accommodation, feed themselves and, at the same time, pay for roles, that’s what I hear. That is not how a well thought out professional body or industry should operate. I began to ask what the guilds and association are doing to curb the excesses of these willy-nilly producers who are cashing in on these helpless people because of their hunger to become popular someday. And these are some of those things that I think are wrong and I will never lend my dignity to such excesses and it further gives the industry a bad name. It is a minus for the industry as a matter of fact.

Rethinking Nollywood in the Nigerian Project

(By Dr. Tunji Olaopa) - "There is no doubt that today, Nollywood has become a national brand. It has become the foremost signifier of our cinematic energy as a creative people. Nollywood began small, but to­day it has become a huge contributor to the national economy. In the recent GDP rebasing exercise, Nollywood contributed 1.2% to the national economy. If that ap­pears little, then you have no knowledge of where and how Nollywood began. Its beginning is founded on a shoestring budget and a creative ingenuity of a few entrepreneurs who had to face commer­cial risk and cinematic scorn to achieve their objectives. If you want an exact date for the beginning of Nollywood, scholars point at Kenneth Nnebue’s 1992 movie, Living in Bondage. Today, Nollywood has achieved global reckoning by its sheer capacity to proliferate beyond all its economic, political and social limitations. Nollywood is second only to Hollywood in global entertainment ranking; Bolly­wood, the Indian film industry, has since been displaced to third place.

Nollywood: Still An Untapped Gold Mine?

As an entrepreneur, 32-year-old chemistry graduate Jason Njoku achieved success in a most unlikely way: he is Africa’s largest distributor of Nigerian movies, and has raked in over $8 million since 2010, when he founded the company Iroko Partners. In December 2012 he captivated an audience at a conference in Texas, United States, as he narrated the story of his success after failures in some other business ventures. Mr. Njoku currently has 71 employees in Lagos, London and New York, and often boasts that “these people are working for us in a country with 50% unemployment.” He was recently listed by Forbes, an American business magazine, as one of the top 10 young African millionaires to watch.

The Nigerian film industry is undoubtedly helping create jobs in a country with an economy that relies mainly on oil and agriculture. Over a million people are currently employed in the industry, making it the country’s largest employer after agriculture. Although Nigeria’s economy will grow by 7% this year, according to the African Development Bank, insufficient jobs for a growing youth population continue to be a huge concern.