Excerpts from Nollywood actor cum Anambra Governor
Senior Special Assistant on Entertainment, Bob Manuel
Udowku.
What Does Your New Job InvolvesIt involves evolving strategies for engaging a lot of
youths, discovering talents and making the state an
entertainment hub through the relevance of the
entertainment industry in the contemporary Nigeria and
how it will impact positively on the society.
What idea have you given to the governor on
entertainment that can generate revenue to Anambra
State government?There is something that happens in the creative industry.
You may have plans to do something innovative. Once
you discuss it openly, people will steal the idea. What I
would like to say is that there are things we are already
doing, there are things we are putting in place and these
things will generate employment; they will impact
positively on the society, but, then we don’t want to
discuss them openly to avoid plagiarism of one’s ideas.
It has happened before and I have learnt from that
experience. So we don’t want to start mentioning our
ideas one by one here. Don’t forget that with the
situation in the country at the moment, various state
governments are becoming more creative. We don’t want
somebody else to run away with our idea before we start
to implement it. I can assure you that there is a lot. The
Governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano, is very
much interested in developing the entertainment, culture
and tourism sectors of the economy of the state. That’s
why he created the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, Culture
and Tourism.
Now that there is recession, how do you think the
entertainment industry can boost Nigeria’s economy?The policy of the current administration is not
encouraging the entertainment industry, because the
government has not even adopted any policy that will
seem to encourage the entertainment. The last
administration was the first and only one so far to see
the viability of the entertainment industry. Former
President Jonathan actually did something by
encouraging the industry through provision of different
sources of funding.
People seem to forget so easily that at some time during
the last administration, Nigeria overtook South Africa’s
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) due to two components:
oil and gas, which is naturally given to us by God, and
Nollywood, which we created virtually out of nothing. I
am glad and proud that I am part of the foundation of
Nollywood, so if you say given the situation of the
country, what is Nollywood doing to sustain itself, I will
say Nollywood has always from the beginning sustained
itself till the last administration intervened.
The industry is in doldrum and has gone back to self-
help. There is no more government assistance at the
moment, rather government agencies have been creating
road blocks and unhelpful policies for Nollywood, but we
have persisted. Jonathan administration supported the
entertainment industry and the result came out
positively, so much so that it helped Nigerian GDP to
overtake that of South Africa.
What is the implication of what I am saying now? What I
am saying is this: let the federal government look into
the entertainment sector, and call few select
professionals in the industry. They don’t need to make
noise or propaganda about it, but quietly convoke a
meeting of core professionals in the entertainment
industry for us to meet with the authorities and devise a
way forward, so that Nigeria will gain. But the
government is ignoring a very viable and lucrative
industry which is the highest employer of labour outside
the civil service.
There has been a deafening silence about the
entertainment sector. Tourist sites abound here but the
leadership of this country has made them unattractive to
operate, so Nigerians go and buy what they have already
in the house from outside. Why don’t we develop the
ones we have here? That is what Nollywood has done
here, to show Nigerians that we have home grown
talents that are world class and recognizable.
So the government should evolve a strategy where
entertainment, culture and tourism sectors of the
economy will be given priority in its economic recovery
programme. As rich as America is, it does not joke with
its entertainment industry. They are exporting
entertainment across to the globe. If America as the first
world country can see the viability of that industry and
utilise it to the full, why do we always pretend as if it
does not exist? The creative community here is very
resilient, very hard working. The industry has nothing to
fall back on; we don’t have the technology, we don’t
have the funding yet, Nollywood remains number three
globally in terms of output.
You have acted in more than 100 films and they were
shot on locations outside Anambra State, yet there is no
film village in Anambra State, why can’t the government
build a film location to attract investors?I think there is a misunderstanding of the usage of that
word film village. I think we use it in a very wrong way.
People look at film village as a place where you go to, a
large expanse of land to put a sign board to say this is a
film village. Did anybody see any film village before
Nollywood started? We have shot movies that depicted
cities, 21st century cities in Nigeria.
We have also shot movies that depicted Nigeria in the
1800s in this same country, yet you cannot go to a place
and say this is a film village. Hollywood, for instance, is
not a film village in America, but a section of Los
Angeles where a lot of film corporations have their
offices. People outside the industry talk about film
village so much; the whole of Nigeria is a film village. I
was the longest anchor of the Gulder Ultimate Search for
more than five years.
It exposed me to most spectacular topographies that this
country can boast of. There were locations that we came
to and if anyone had told me that they exist in Nigeria, I
will not believe. The answer is, Nigeria is one huge film
village, and if you are talking about Anambra State
creating a film village, Anambra State is already a film
state.
As we speak, so many films are being shot in Anambra
State like Ogbunike Cave, Owere Ezukala Cave and Water
fall etc. There are spectacular sites in Anambra that are
unbelievable. To answer you, Anambra State is seriously
doing a lot through the newly created Ministry of
Diaspora Affairs, Culture and Tourism. If I begin to tell
you what Anambra State is doing about encouraging
movie making in the state, you will marvel. Anambra
state is indeed, “the life of the nation” in every
ramification.
Why has Anambra State government not made people
like Chika Ukpala, Pete Edochie and host of others as
brand Ambassadors?The government does not need to invite them and
pronounce them brand Ambassadors; by the nature of
what we do we are brand ambassadors of Nigeria
already. I am glad you mentioned Pete Edochie and
Chika Okpala. Nigeria has already recognised them with
national honours, and Anambra State holds them in very
high esteem.
Two weeks ago, I was with two of them in a function in a
Owerri where another colleague in the industry opened a
radio station. They are people we respect and Anambra
State has virtually more entertainment people than any
other state in this country. When government is having
function, they are invited, but if you say for them to be
singled out for appointment that is political. That
decision resides with whoever is the Chief Executive.
Their place in Anambra society and in the eyes of
government is much higher than political appointment.
You made a provocative statement when you said only
bloodshed will improve the power sector. Meanwhile, we
have not forgotten the scar of the civil war and you are
drumming for another?I was quoted out of context in the social media. The
question was, do I feel that steady power supply will be
back in this country? I said no, if that will be achieved
there will be bloodshed. The issue of power problem in
Nigeria did not start overnight. It was a gradual thing. I
remember 20 years ago, those who owned generators
were out of the ordinary.
Today if you don’t own a generator, that is out of the
ordinary. That is because successive governments failed
in maintaining whatever was left for us in the power
sector due to corruption. Some people became richer
than the state and there was a serious decline. Today
some people import very big generators, what they call
“silent generators “.
I don’t want to call any brand name. Then the small
ones that are called “I better pass my neighbor”, today is
no longer I pass my neighbour but “I be like my
neighbor” because everybody has it. Today, people
import container loads of generators every day. The
problem we have in this country is that we pretend as if
certain things do not exist until things get bad and the
result becomes very catastrophic. People are spending
money importing these generators and the big
generators are imported by very big influential people in
this country.
From my research, some of them own shares in the
companies that manufacture these generators abroad.
How do you think the people that have been importing
these generators will fold their hands and allow
government to make power available 24 hours in this
country? They will lose money and their businesses may
collapse because they have been tied up with foreign
exchange.
Consequently, they will sabotage government’s effort,
and for government to fight back that sabotage, people
will die. That was what I meant, that we will have
bloodshed before we can have steady power supply in
this country. It is not about warfare. It is a war you fight
with the people you don’t know.
You were appointed in the last administration under Mr.
Peter Obi and now with present government; do you
have any political ambition?Sometime in 2013, like you rightly said that I was in the
twilight days of former governor Peter Obi’s
administration. In 2014, His Excellency Chief Willie
Obiano, the current governor of Anambra State,
reappointed me, but I had to resign at some point to vie
for a ticket to represent my constituency in the State
House of Assembly. I didn’t get the nomination but the
governor graciously reappointed me.
The entertainment industry is all comers affair, a
stepping stone to make quick money, do you agree?For those who aspire to be in the entertainment industry,
first of all I advocate education. In Nollywood , most
scripts are written in English which is our lingua franca.
Good education in a relevant field is pertinent. Where
somebody who studied medicine or electrical
engineering suddenly wants to be an actor is not
acceptable. You are depriving those who studied Theatre
Arts, literature, English alike.
But we have many who studied other fields and still find
themselves in the entertainment industry.I know but it’s wrong. It is an aberration. Of course for
professionalism the industry is trying to put some
measures in place. The creative industry is not an
industry where there are strict rules. I have seen people
who are science inclined and they are talented, but it is
always good to go where you can develop that talent in
you. Acting is not all about reading script and dishing
out the lines. It goes beyond that and the viewing public
knows. We need guide the younger people who are
coming into the industry.
It is not bed of roses. There are lots of challenges. We
also need to evolve a system of training and retraining
our talents. A lot of higher institutions offer Certificate
and Diploma courses in Theatre Arts. It is a practical
based to lay good foundation to grow. If you have a
degree in another discipline you should take one year
off to go to some of these institutions and enroll for
professional grooming. That would also ultimately help
you to learn the discipline that comes with the
profession.
[By Flora Onwudiwe, Daily Telegraph]
