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Chinua Achebe turned thirty in 1960, the year Nigeria became an
independent country. His novel, ‘Things Fall Apart’ had been published only two
years earlier. That same year 26-year-old Wole Soyinka returned home after a
six-year sojourn in England. Soyinka’s ‘A Dance of the Forest’ made its
Nigerian debut during the Independence celebrations.

50 years later, none of the initial promise that accompanied
Nigeria’s birth has been fulfilled, and both men, understandably, are
frustrated.

In September, Soyinka, now 76, launched a political party; “an
experiment… that directly challenges those who grumble that there is no
platform, no springboard from which they can provoke the political arena with
fresh and innovative ideas.”

Like Soyinka, Achebe, now 80, is deeply aware of the urgent need
for change in his homeland. “Nigeria has passed the alarming stage and entered
the fatal, and will die if we continue to pretend she is slightly indisposed,”
he told the audience gathered to hear him speak at the Law faculty of the
University of Cambridge, on a chilly Friday evening in November.

Achebe’s relationship with independent Nigeria is fraught with
unrequited love. His achievements as writer (of ‘Things Fall Apart’ and several
other books) and editor (founding editor of the highly influential African
Writers Series) have played a significant role in placing Nigeria on the world
map.

In return, Nigeria has (admittedly) been generous, but only in a
perverse way: setting up the conditions that compelled Achebe’s ethnic group,
the Igbo, to embark on a secession attempt (Achebe suffered heavy losses – his
home, library, his close friend, Christopher Okigbo – during the war that
followed); destroying the local publishing industry that once sustained the
AWS; proving incapable of providing decent medical attention after the 1990 car
crash that paralysed him from the waist down; mocking him with the offer of a national
honour while his home state lay under siege from government-backed thugs. (He
publicly turned down the honour, an action that both incensed and embarrassed
the government).

Flawed beginnings

Achebe was in Cambridge to deliver the inaugural African Studies
Lecture, in honour of Audrey Richards, founder (in 1965) of the University’s
Centre of African Studies. I was twenty minutes late when I arrived at the
venue of the lecture. I met a full hall, with a crowd gathered outside, some
standing on chairs, straining to listen. Unable to squeeze into the hall, I was
forced to mount a chair and struggle to catch his words from behind a glass
wall, until squatting space opened up for me on the floor of the auditorium.

Achebe’s words bore a vigour that belied their speaker’s frail
appearance. The trademark wit remained undiminished. When I arrived he was
reading, from his forthcoming memoirs, a section, set in the distant past,
about “small Ghana” and “big Nigeria”. The difference between Nigeria and
Ghana, I heard him say, was that between “sixpence” and “one penny”.

The period, of course, was 1957, the year Ghana got her
independence. Small Ghana had achieved what Big Nigeria still struggled for –
freedom from British rule. Achebe recalled staying up all night to celebrate
with Lagos-based Ghanaians “only to wake up the next morning to realise we were
still in Nigeria.”

Nigeria would not make the transition from colonial state to
independent nation until three years later. That transition, Achebe said, was
flawed. The British handed over power to “that conservative element in the
country which had played no real part in the struggle for independence.”

Nigeria was thus born tense – its birth the beginning of its
unravelling. Seven years later, the ‘giant of Africa’ was on her knees, ravaged
by war. External influences (“the big powers”), said Achebe, played a
significant role in perpetuating conflict amongst the “small (expendable)
people of the world.”

Victorious Nigerian Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, proved to be a
clueless leader in peace-time, leading the newly-united nation into “decadence
and decline”. Achebe attributed this to Gowon’s being “ever so cocksure
following a civil war victory.”

Political adventure

Democracy would evade Nigeria until the very end of the 1970s,
when, Olusegun Obasanjo (the man who, almost a decade earlier, received the
instrument of surrender from the Biafrans), handed over the instrument of power
to Shehu Shagari, who became – not without controversy – Nigeria’s first
democratically elected civilian President.

In the early ‘80s Achebe joined the “left of centre” Peoples
Redemption Party (PRP), where, he says, he was “right away” appointed Deputy
National President. He found himself “the most unlikely candidate in politics.”
It didn’t take long for him to quit politics. He realised that the majority of
Nigeria’s politicians were in politics “for their own selfish advancement.”
Persons like PRP leader Aminu Kano (“a saintly man”) were rare.

The great paradox

Underlying Achebe’s deep frustration is pride in Nigeria’s
potential – its “very distinguished people” and their “great energy”. “Don’t be
misled by the fact that some of us are always complaining,” he joked.

Nigeria’s size is one of the reasons for that pride; the fact,
Achebe cheekily declared, that “God arranged that every fourth [person] in
Africa would be a Nigerian.”

This paradox – of a failed country of great people – is at the
heart of the Nigerian dilemma. “Why is it that we don’t seem to be making anything
out of these gifts?” Achebe queried.

He equated leadership with “priesthood” because of the “sacred
trust” required by both. Noting that there was a direct link between crude oil
and corruption in Nigeria, he said functioning anti-corruption and judicial
systems are necessary to make corruption “unattractive”.

“Hold people responsible for misconduct and punish them if
they’re guilty.” He also called for the abolition of the Official Secrets Act,
and the speedy passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill.

But here was a man as hopeful as he was critical. “Nigerians
have begun to ask themselves the hard questions,” he said, adding: “The
Nigerian solution will come in stages.”

‘I want to see Chinua’

A drinks reception followed the lecture. Achebe was swarmed by
adoring fans seeking handshakes and photographs; wielding books in need of
signing.

Guests at the lecture included the Acting Nigerian High
Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Dozie Nwanna; Etisalat Nigeria Chairman
Hakeem Bello-Osagie (one of the sponsors of the event); Royal African Society
Director Richard Dowden, and Cambridge’s Vice Chancellor Leszek Borysiewicz.

Thurstan Shaw, long-time Achebe friend, and Emeritus Professor
of Archaeology at the Universities of Ibadan and Cambridge, arrived after the
lecture. It was Shaw who, in the late 1950s, led the excavation of the bronze
pieces in Igbo-Ukwu, South-eastern Nigeria, groundbreaking evidence of the
existence of an ancient Igbo civilisation dating back to the ninth century.

His wife, herself a Cambridge professor, accompanied him.
According to her, the 97-year-old Shaw insisted he wanted to “see Chinua”. And
so she had brought him. Unfortunately Achebe had left the lecture venue by the
time they arrived, and Shaw was too frail to make the trip to the venue of the
dinner holding in honour of the father of the African novel later that evening.

Shaw would leave without seeing Achebe. I left Cambridge pondering on the
poignancy of that missed opportunity.

Foremost cinematographer in Nollywood, Tunde Kelani, bounces
back from the setback of the heavily pirated ‘Arugba’ with a new film,
‘Ma’ami’, starring Funke Akindele. In this interview with NEXT, Kelani talks
about the making of ‘Ma’ami’ and his plans to get the film to the masses.

How did Arugba do commercially?

‘Arugba’ is a flop. There is no doubt about it because we were
really modest in our expectations; we bought the recommended holograms, 100,000
from the National Film and Video Censorship Board and we didn’t sell 50,000. We
still have thousands and thousands of copies of the film. There is no way we
can sell with that level of piracy. Right now, we have in our possession three
pirated versions and then one London pirated version. All our films have been
pirated but there had never been such an orchestrated attack, like that of
‘Arugba’.

How do plan to forestall
this with your forthcoming film, Ma’ami?

I think that generally this is a reflection of the Nigerian
society. The industry is suffering from lack of the necessary infrastructure so
this is going to go on for a long time. I don’t believe the government at this
time has the capacity to deal with it, especially now when elections are
coming. If I carry a few samples of pirated films to any police station, I’m
sure that I will meet more difficult issues that need the attention law
enforcement agencies.

We have to adopt the physical division model in Nigeria where I
have to release VCD or DVD and we have to physically move it from region to
region, town to town.

Broadband internet access is at the moment less than two percent
penetration in Nigeria. So, that suggests that we have to do physical
distribution for a long time. The desperation in piracy since ‘Arugba’ has gone
worse… I understand that in the market today on any release, in the evening of
the same day the pirated versions will come in the market. It suggests that
there is no way we can risk physical distribution of ‘Ma’ami’ so we have to
come up with another model for making sure that it gets to the people.

Can you talk about your
new strategy?

I’m passionate about reviving the cinema going culture. That’s
why I initiated the mobile cinema project and I got support from the Lagos
State Government. We screened ‘Arugba’ in the 57 local governments and
development areas of Lagos State. We took the film on the road and it showed
free, in the open air to Lagosians. I’ve been toying with the idea of
developing at least 30 cinemas in Lagos State, working with the local
governments. I’m already in discussion with the Association of Sports Viewing Centres
in Lagos State and I’m hopeful that perhaps we can put together a chain of 200
such centres. Secure, comfortable centres that can seat a minimum of 100
people. This way, I plan to take the film to the grassroots.

What about the rest of
the country?

First of all, my focus is on Lagos State because it is viable
and accepting; and we have Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola who is keen and he’s
been very encouraging and supportive. If this model works in Lagos State, then
we can explore the possibility of exporting it to the whole of the South West
and by extension the whole country.

What can be done to widen
the acceptance base of the Yoruba film?

I don’t think that’s a problem because now we are moving into
the area of indigenous cultural expression. Countries like China, Japan or
India for instance, how [have their films] been accessible? The whole world has
been waiting, but the film has to be of a reasonable quality and standard.
Japan and India [make] films of quality standard, so that’s all we have to do.
Already, some of the films we have produced (at Mainframe) have been subtitled
in English, French and in the case of ‘Saworoide’, we did a Portugese
subtitling. So that’s what we should do. Of course, I will be excited about the
possibilities of meeting a great indigenous cultures like, for instance,
Japanese and Chinese, rather than looking to following Hollywood. So for me,
Yoruba cinema has a great prospect.

You’ve been filming
‘Ma’ami’ with Funke Akindele, Wole Ojo and the young man you are introducing to
cinema for the first time, Ayomide Abati. What has that experience been like?

Filming ‘Ma’ami’ is exciting because it has some element of my
childhood in it. For example, when we combed the whole of Abeokuta looking for
a primary school that has a football field, I realised it was becoming rare
because education standard has fallen so low that they don’t consider such
development part of education anymore. I had to return to my own Oke-Ona United
Primary School in Abeokuta and luckily we still had a kind of a field that we
used 50 years ago. It’s still there but in bad shape. The buildings are still
standing although they are crying out for [renovation].

Again, we scouted for possible appropriate locations but we
didn’t find any, so we had to return to my own family compound; and for me it
was like going back home. We had to repaint all the houses in the neighbourhood
and our single interior set for Funke Akindele and the boy actually was shot in
our own house. I found a boxfull of documents which my father had kept away.
Going through these documents, I found a Christmas card that was sent to me in
1960 – from a girl and it was ‘With love from Yetunde’. I couldn’t even
remember who it was! It was going back to my own childhood and my own
neighbourhood and I knew the terrain like the back of my hand. That’s why
making the film is special to me, I could see things from my growing up years.

There were reports you
had dropped Funke Akindele from the film but she’s still in it. What actually
happened?

It was a misunderstanding. After I had talked to her and
released the script to her, I was coming from my ophthalmologist and there was
a video shop. I saw the poster of a film called ‘Iya Mi’ and it was Funke
Akindele on the poster. I was shocked because of the closeness between the
titles, ‘Ma’ami’ and ‘Iya Mi’. For a moment I was concerned that it might
mislead some of the audience because I had received a few calls from people
asking me if the film was out. I was apprehensive that ‘Ma’ami’ might be
mistaken as Part two of ‘Iya Mi’. I sent for the film, I saw it and what I saw
was that Funke was not even playing the mother in the film, she actually played
the daughter.

I thought something was funny… I decided that we were going to
change her, to do another film entirely. She heard this news and came to me and
explained her own side of the story. I thought Funke needed the film, she
wanted to do ‘Ma’ami’. I thought she genuinely wanted to be in the project and
I was convinced.

Of course, there is a reason why I decided to work with Funke
Akindele because I have followed her career closely; and in (my films) ‘Narrow
Path’ and ‘Abeni’, she had played minor roles, supporting roles. I was waiting
for the right story to cast her. What was strategic for me, it was not a
glamorous role and in the film, she had a change of costume only once; wearing
the same thing again and again. She’s not the glamorous star that everybody
expected. I think this was a challenge for her and she had to play convincingly
the mother of a 10-year-old.

And the young man that
you cast as her child – you know what they say in Hollywood: never work with
animals or children. How was it?

Ayomide is a child in the neighbourhood in Oshodi where we live,
he’s quite lively and gets along with everybody. But my worry… at this point
I have to appeal to parents because we are gradually getting to a point where
it is becoming very difficult to find young or adult Yoruba actors and
actresses who can speak the Yoruba language. I think it’s becoming a challenge.
For about two or three days, we were really disturbed – both the young
Kashimawo (Ayomide Abati) and the adult Kashimawo (Wole Ojo) – because it’s now
a problem and this is a result of when consciously parents discourage their children
from speaking their own language or practicing their own natural culture.

I think that’s the result of an identity crisis and we had
identity crisis on the set. I think that Ayomide has learned from that
experience and I think he will be redeemed. But I think it’s a crisis in the
Yoruba nation. There is no doubt in my mind that the children of the elite and
the lower class no longer speak Yoruba in their homes. I doubt even the
lawmakers, if any of their children speak Yoruba at home.

Can you tell us more
about the making of Ma ami from a filmmaker’s point of view?

I think ‘Ma ‘ami’ is the beginning of another era because we are
at a point now in digital media where we have access to great technology and it
is the first and only film that I have shot digitally in what can be called 35
mm. You know they talk about shooting 35mm celluloid; this is the digital
equivalent of it. In other words, we shot in 4K-to-a-35mm-censor. I think this
is exciting. It is just like when I discovered photography in those days when I
was young, I was excited every day of my life. Now, I’m excited all over again
because of the various possibilities in the delivery of the content.

If there was demand and corporate sponsorship, we could get a
35mm print in celluloid for cinema release and we could do digital projection
on any of the four formats since our original format was resolution 4K. For me,
this is as topmost as you can get and I am happy I was supported by at least
four companies. ‘Ma ‘ami’ is a high-low budget film. It [cost] around 150,000
dollars, but I’m hopeful that it will be worth something like 700,000 dollars.
I have the objective to achieve more with less.

When can we expect to see
the film?

Work is going on on ‘Ma’ami’ everyday and I still have some bits
to shoot. We designed it in such a way that we rigged an editing system, work
is going on everyday. We have a digital laboratory and presntly we are doing
our first primary colour correction and then encoding into the editing format.
The rough cut of the film is almost complete.There should be a workable version
before the end of December because for Funke and some of the various expertise
on the film, I have to enter the film for the Pan-African Film and Television
Festival of Quadadogou (FESPACO). I think I’ll be in time to enter for AMAA
which closes December 15.

You have been able to
sustain a blockbuster career, what are you doing that the other filmmakers are
not doing?

I don’t think the films can really be called blockbusers but at
any time, they meant something. They show a progression and at any point, they
have been experimental either from point of technology or digital media. If I
thought that the future of African Cinema or world cinema will be in digital
media, then I think I’m right because officially the year 2010 has been mooted
by experts (as) the death of the chemical process of making films.

The collection of films that I have made have been successful ,
both universities both home and abroad use them as resource. Particularly for
‘Arugba’, there have been one or two universities that ordered copies for
African Studies. For me, that has been a kind of satisfaction and
encouragement.

You relocated to Benin
Republic where you shot the ‘Abeni’ series and the ‘Narrow Path’ but you are
back. What happened?

I couldn’t relocate totally because I’m one of the people who
subscribe to the notion that ‘ibi ori dani si laagbe’ and it was clear
throughout my career that I had options of staying abroad. I am happy and
grateful to God that I have been created in Yorubaland and so far He has made
it enjoyable. It is exciting for me, not only Yoruba culture but all Nigerian
cultures. What happened was that I went there to see the Yorubas staying there
and see how they are faring.

I didn’t stay just in Porto Novo, Akete, Isede, Pobe, Ketu; I
went as far as Dassa up north , Sabe. I did spend quite some there, about three
years. If you watch the ‘Narrow Path’ for instance, the marriage scenes, where
they sing marriage songs, that is the song in that community. It shows that
this is Yorubaland and these are Yoruba people. That was really exciting for me
and obviously we reaped good things because the experience kicked off the
Beninoise film industry. Now, they make a lot of home videos just like in
Nigeria. I believe that our cooperation started that film industry up to a
point that they make films regularly and I am not needed anymore.

Why don’t you do
collaborations with other filmmakers?

It depends on the project. For instance, I would gladly
co-produce any Nigerian film from other cultures if they will do things from
their vast literary resources like ‘Danda’ by Arthur Nwankwo or any of Cyprian
Ekwensi’s or any of Chinua Achebe’s work. ‘The Passport of Malam Ilia’, things
like that. Most of [Mainframe’s] works spring from literature because I read a
lot when I was young; I love novels and literature and I will be willing to
work with [other filmmakers]; it depends on the orientation, if they want to
follow Hollywood. I don’t want to follow Hollywood, I’m an indigenous filmmaker,
I believe in telling our own great stories and finding expression and taking
the audience through my own cultural background. So I’m not really comfortable
making a film the Hollywood style. The prospect of a co-production where Samuel
L Jackson will play Sango, I don’t think it excites me.

Or because I want to penetrate international or American market
and I would use Danny Glover as Kabiyesi in my story. That’s not quite what I
want.

Mainframe recently
collaborated with NANTAP and Dance Guild of Nigeria to stage ‘Yeepa! Solarin
Nbo’. Can we expect more of such?

Yes, theatre has always been my passion because when I was in
Form Two at the Abeokuta Grammar School around 1963, I was part of the
excursion team that travelled all the way from Abeokuta to watch ‘The Palmwine
Drinkard’ at the 0bisesan Hall in Ibadan. It was a privilege watching Kola
Ogunmola on stage and it was a production of the University of Ibadan. It was
the first time I sat in a theatre where I witnessed the effect of lighting; when
the light changed to black or came on, my head was this big. It must have made
a lasting impression on me. Again, I was privileged to have [seen] all the
great plays, like ‘Oba Koso’ and ‘Kurunmi’, for instance, and ‘Danda’. For me,
it’s seeing those people live on stage, appreciating them. Sunny Oti, Shodipo.
The thrill I got looking at Duro Ladipo on stage or Ogunde on stage, I thought
they were not human beings. It’s a disaster that we have not documented any of
the great classics, so I would really have loved to do ‘The Palmwine Drinkard’
on stage for the 50th anniversary of Nigeria Independence but of course we
couldn’t because of the shortage of time and then Lagos State came in at just
the time for us to stage ‘Yeepa! Solarin Nbo’.

What was exciting for me is the the possibilty of doing the
standard Yoruba presentation where you do an opening glee, because the Yoruba
theatre which has influenced me was ‘Total Theatre’. Before we watch the play
they will do an opening glee which is a song and dance routine – perhaps a
summary of the whole play in dance. And at the end of the day, they will do a
closing glee, so I conceived that and wanted to work with NANTAP and the Dance
Guild of Nigeria to do an opening glee and to use Ogunde’s ‘Yoruba Ronu’ and ‘Petepete’
by 9ice to give it a contemporary touch. We tried to bring it back during the
Ileya (Eid) festival with LTV and corporate sponsors because, coming out of the
play, I am seeing things like people saying: I have never watched a Yoruba
stage play in my life. People saying: we have never watched anything like this
in 25 years. This doesn’t even speak well of the country.

It’s a pity, a shame really and I think somehow, we have to find
a means of continuing and in my lifetime produce ‘The Palmwine Drinkard’ before
all the original cast die. I know where the material is. One or two people are
still alive and its been studied… I befriended Pa Amos Tutuola before he
died, I visited him at Odo Ona, Ibadan, several times.

What next after Ma’ami?

I have a string of projects lined up. First, I will like to do
an adaptation of Yinka Egbokhare’s ‘The Dazzling Mirage’, about sickle cell.
Then I will have to quickly do another Yoruba film to pacify the Yoruba
audience so I will do an adaptation of Femi Osofisan’s ‘Wuraola’ and then I
will love to do ‘Cordelia’, which is another Osofisan stuff. This is set
against a popular military coup and I have always wanted to do something about
one of our military coups. Then I will do ‘Dog’s on Lions Trail’ which I have
shelved for about seven years. It’s an adaptation of Kola Akinlade’s ‘Aja To N
Lepa Ekun’. It’s interesting because all those five or six films I have
mentioned are adaptations from literary resource.

We don’t have as much
production anymore in Yoruba literature; will there come a time when you run
out of resource?

It’s not possible because if I take to Ifa corpus, for instance,
those are more than a thousand stories. Our ancestors have already done all the
work and passed all these things to us. It’s another thing if we close our eyes
and turn our back on it and never look. It’s not possible in two lifetimes to
exhaust literary resource. We haven’t even touched any of Fagunwa’s works. Two
pages of D.O. Fagunwa is about two films. It’s all there.

Recently, the
Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) published the latest edition of
its journal titled ANA Review’. The journal commemorates ANA’s 29th
International Convention which held in October this year. The
publication is divided into three parts, which are sectionalised into
poetry, stories and essay sections. To say the journal is poor and a
ruffling of the dignity a national literary body like ANA is supposed to
possess may be an understatement. It brought home the glaring paucity
of good writers and editors. Ranging from elementary grammatical
blunders to desiccated ideas that shouldn’t even make a worthy
publication, not to talk of the pervasive typographical errors, the ANA
journal is simply an intellectual failure.

The poetry section
has 13 poems, most of which are not worthy of public consumption. A
poem like Chukwunonso Ezeiyoke’s ‘Better a Nightmare,’ which is full of
grammatical inconsistencies poorly, treats its seemingly elegiac subject
of a lament at the death of a loved one. The poem lacks the suitable
mood and tones that are worthy of the sorrowful subject. Same goes with
Richard Ugbede Ali’s ‘Wedding Feast at Qana’. Tade Ipadeola’s ‘The
Damned Echo Tree’ reeks of what a writer termed “a vaporous haze of a
mirage”. The writer should attend lessons in grammar to distinguish
particularly between “it’s” and “its,” and such other elementary
constructions.

Ironically too,
some of the poems supposedly dedicated to literary icons like the late
T. M. Aluko were deformed pieces that would have obviously made the late
writer tweak his nose at the bumbling pieces that were written in his
honour. Poetry is supposed to possess the power of feelings and a force
on words that speaks to the humanity of the audience.

If the poetry was
poor, the short story section of the journal is simply abysmal. The two
stories that made the publication, ‘The Taxi Fare’ and ‘Balls and Nets’,
written by Alpha Emeka and Olubunmi Julius-Adeoye respectively, lack
depth and such poetic cadence that good short stories often exude. ‘The
Taxi Fare,’ chronicles a humorous incident in a taxi cab and the
eventual violent turn-out. The story would have perhaps been close to
average if the writer spent ample time on the plausibility of events. In
trying to thematise on the absurdities of human character, he creates
improbable, unrealistic characters. The driver is too sophisticated for
his profession to the point of being somewhat intellectually more
advanced than his passengers, including a civil servant. The supersonic
kaleidoscopic ending of the story conclusively renders it childish. For
‘Balls and Nets,’ one can only say the writer struggled to piece a
feminist tract but failed woefully. The popular themes of sexual
harassment at the work front are not treated with depth.

The bulk of the
journal is filled with six essays, most of which were papers presented
during the October 2010 ANA International Convention. Many of the
essays, though poorly written, are informative and incisive. Of
particular mention is the long piece by Nwokedi nwa Nwokedi titled
‘Children’s Literature and the Challenges of National [the poor editing
ensured the title was incomplete though I suspect the missing word
should be “Integration”].’The paper moralises on the need to exploit the
valuable tools of literature in the various stages of children’s
education.

The richest of the
papers should be Austin Amanze Akpuda’s ‘A Dream Beyond Pyramids:
Ferment, Harvest, Bazzar and Carnival in Nigerian Literature of the
Post-Soyinka Nobel Prize Era’. Akpuda documents the various stages of
Nigerian literature and the ground-breaking leaps made by the younger
generations of Nigerian writers. The writer argues that literary laurels
have been dubiously awarded to unmerited writings of some popular
writers, to the detriment of more valuable works by younger ones. This
trend, he argues, has been used to deny younger generations of Nigerian
writers of deserved recognitions. Some of the other essays lack focus
and literary merit. Damola Awoyokun’s ‘The Yahoo Generation and the
Triple Tropes of Sleaze’ lacks the sleaze of a good essay. Ideas are
discordantly presented in some carelessly written English. Punctuation
and spelling errors riddle most of the essays and almost snuffed
scholarship out of the journal.

The best way to treat journals like this would have been to ignore
reviewing them. Paradoxically, this review may even popularise the
journal and make some persons wish to have a first-hand grasp of the
content. This, I advise nonetheless. It is quite saddening that ANA
could choose to produce something as unworthy as this journal. The
publication is highly unrepresentative of the ANA Achebe and Soyinka
graciously established to give identity to Nigerian writers. The ANA of
this era has brought literature to a near dead-end. No wonder the
Association lacks a firm backbone to put in hefty and weighty voice to
the present literary discourse in Nigeria. The editorial team that
worked on this journal needs to be sacked. No apologies!

Kogi State will not
relent in preserving its historical relics and monuments, the
commissioner for culture and tourism, Edward Olu Akpata, has said. Lord
Lugard’s office and residence (now the Kogi State Government House); the
Iron of Liberty; the first primary school in Northern Nigeria, Holy
Trinity Bishop Crowther Primary School; Inikpi Statue at Ega and the
Cenotaph in Lokoja are some of the buildings of historical significance
that dot the state’s landscape.

“We are maintaining
them. We allocate funds for the maintenance and we do periodic checking.
In fact, only recently we took the governor to a site, the Holy Trinity
School. A section was falling and he had wanted to start its renovation
immediately but there was the issue of ownership. They said you have to
clear with the Archbishop of Lokoja Province, Anglican Communion before
doing anything,” Akpata said during an interview at the recently held
Abuja Carnival 2010.

Akpata, the third
person to head the ministry established during the incumbent governor,
Ibrahim Idris’ administration, explained that government created the
ministry to consolidate on the gains of culture.

He said that though a
young ministry government wants to grow, it doesn’t receive any special
preference. “There is inter-sectoral balancing; government can’t do
anything to disfavour others,” he said, adding that the current
administration is keenly interested in the activities of the ministry.

Akpata further
disclosed that a labour strike in the state was why it didn’t have a
motorised float during the street party and parade of the carnival.

“There was a warning
strike, from the warning strike to a major strike and this affected our
preparation. Nonetheless, we felt we should be here. To be here is
better than not to be seen. When money was released, before we could
access it, it was late. The Governor had actually granted approval in
good time but to get process it was the problem.”

Asked if the
ministry was projecting any of the attractions in the State to attract
tourists, Akpata said, “We spread our effort. Except that we are working
on a subsector of tourism which is hospitality. We are re-constructing a
100-room hotel, the Confluence Beach Hotel, at the cost of N1.3
million in Lokoja.”

The commissioner also disclosed that the State wanted to organise its
own carnival as a test run before the Abuja Carnival but shelved the
idea because of the strike. “By next year, that will happen. It’s as a
result of strike, that’s why our plans were aborted.”

Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Abubakar
Sadiq Mohammed, spoke with journalists before the closing ceremony of the Abuja
Carnival held at Eagle Square on Tuesday, November 30. Mohammed discussed
issues surrounding the hosting of the 2010 fiesta tagged the Jubilee Carnival.

Funding the carnival

The Abuja Carnival is a government initiative initially funded
by government. It was based on the premise that when government creates
awareness about its benefits, the appropriate funding will come from the
organised private sector. For up to four years, government was able to fund it
though it was expected that a carnival of this nature should be fully funded by
the private sector. The private sector has a lot to gain if they can fund it in
two ways; as a brand and as a corporate social responsibility. We have tried to
show them over the years that it is a Nigerian brand they can leverage upon.

We have tried to market it to organisations we feel should key
into supporting Abuja Carnival. It has been supported for a while by some
corporate organisations in their own small ways but it needs more than that.
That is why government has been withdrawing funding because if you look at
carnivals all over the world, they are not government funded. Even local
carnivals in Nigeria have a lot of support from the private sector more than
the Abuja Carnival; the Calabar Carnival, the Port Harcourt Carnival. If we
improve on our marketing, we should be able to fund Abuja Carnival and even
earn from it. That’s our target.

Preparations

The committee was inaugurated early this year and going forward,
after this carnival, we intend to immediately sit down, x-ray it and kick start
the process for the next carnival. I can assure you that we have some ideas of
engaging the committee beyond just a mandate.

This is in order to ensure planning because for anything to
succeed you must plan properly and it is our belief this time around that we
have to plan early. Of course, you have to keep members of the committee beyond
just a carnival. In that direction, we will improve and you can be sure that
before the end of this year or early next year, this will be our objective.

The 2010 Carnival budget

Unfortunately, there are still releases. As for the expenditure,
I would probably say after the carnival because we are still spending from what
has been released. I don’t have it at my fingertips. At the end of the day, the
accounting officer will be able to tell the press through the appropriate
officer what has been expended on the carnival. From there, you will see the
real constraint and appreciate the position of the committee and the ministry
vis-a-vis what you have seen on ground in the carnival.

Selling off the carnival
as a product

For now, it will be very difficult. How do you coordinate the
participation of states if a private organisation is in charge? We are just
trying to be coordinators because government backing brings the participating
states and other nationalities. If that is not there, you may find it extremely
difficult for the private sector to organise and invite the states. I believe
private organisations can be involved and they are involved to the extent that
they are part of the management team. They can be involved to the extent that
they can buy into this product. If you give out the carnival to somebody, the
problem you may encounter is how to mobilise participating states.

NAFEST and Abuja Carnival

These are products in the arts and culture sector but they are
different products. We know certainly what a carnival is; carnival emphasises
more on creativity apart from just the culture aspect. And that is what we are
trying to do because the major challenge we had over this last period, though
things have improved tremendously, is that people seem to come to the carnival
the same way they go to NAFEST. That’s why people have the notion that carnival
and NAFEST are the same. They are not. The challenge we had this year of
hosting NAFEST close to the carnival was because of some communication problem
we had with the hosting state.

As for the financial challenges, I believe that each participating
state, aside from probably de-emphasising sponsorship from the corporate world,
has a budget. They should be able to focus that they have these two events in a
year. They are two distinct activities; you should make preparations to fund
them separately.

They are two different products; you in the critical sector
certainly know that they are different products. It’s for you to tell the
world, to tell Nigerians the differences and we will ensure we continue to
maintain the time interval we are supposed to maintain. NAFEST normally holds
in October; the first or second week of October, and we still will like hosting
states to make arrangements to host within that period while Abuja Carnival
continues where it is. We are now talking about in-bound tourism; NAFEST is not
a product we sell to the outside world as we sell the Abuja Carnival. They are
distinct products and in terms of content, they are supposed to be separate.
That’s what we are now trying to ensure, that the content reflects the true carnival
package.

An international workshop on Pan Africanism themed ‘Sustaining
the New Wave of Pan-Africanism – Youth Shaping Global Africa’s Development in
21st Century’, has held at the University of Namibia, Namibia, from December 6
to 9.

It was jointly organised by the Centre for Black and African
Arts and Civilization; the Nigerian High Commission in Namibia and Pan-African
Strategic and Policy Research Group, headed by Ishola Williams, a retired
Nigerian Army general. The Pan-African Centre of Namibia and the National Youth
Council of Namibia were also co-organisers.

About 45 participants from Nigeria, Namibia, Mauritania, Sudan,
Congo, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Tanzania, Jamaica, United Kingdom, Eritrea,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and the USA took part in deliberations at
the meeting.

The objectives of the workshop, a prelude to the celebration of
the International Year of the People of African Descent holding next year,
included focusing future generations of Pan-Africanists on the outcomes of
previous Pan-African conferences and discussing ways of implementing the
resolutions.

Making recommendations on the role of future generations in the
ideological movement was another goal of the conference which noted that youth
in Africa and the Diaspora have significant roles to play in achieving the
goals and visions of Pan-Africanism.

Founding president of Namibia and patron of PACON, Sam Nujoma,
delivered the keynote address and opened the workshop on December 6 at Safari
Hotel, Windhoek, Namibia.

Depleted resources

Nigeria’s ambassador to Namibia, Adegboyega Ariyo, also spoke at
the occasion. He lamented that despite becoming independent decades ago and in
contrast to the dreams of the founding fathers of Pan-Africanism, most African
countries don’t control their economies. He blamed the development on the
extant political systems, which allow a few to become millionaires by
exploiting resources while the majority remain in penury.

Ariyo also identified the culpability of Western countries, as
to whose benefit it is for Africa to remain under-developed. “The African
middle class has been reduced in size. 80 percent of Africans in Africa and its
Diaspora today live below the poverty line because we have allowed too many
millionaires. African resources are being depleted everyday to enrich a few
Africans and many non-Africans,” noted Ariyo. He called for a review of the
social contract between the people and their governments.

The diplomat however noted that the onus of charting a better
future for Africa lies on the shoulders of leaders and youth. “African leaders
and youths have very serious questions to answer in order to chart a better
future for Africa. Certainly we know that there are many hungry lions probing
the world for means to sustain their self-centred sybaritic economy. Because of
the current architecture of the world economy and the limitedness of what it is
intended to accommodate and for who, there is need for Africa to chart a new
“Africonomy” based on our historical evolution as a people. The African economy
of old cared for all members of the community. African development should be
based on our historical experience. African Development must be based on a
holistic understanding of what development means. It is used to denote what is
new.”

Social engineering

Ariyo further decried the pervasiveness of Westernisation which
has impacted negatively on the study of African history and social engineering.
“We look at our civilisation and assess the state of our being from other
people’s understanding of their civilisation and state of being. We tend to
forget that there was a period in our history when we existed without any
interaction with the Western world. What constituted our state of being then
should have been what we should be developing, though mindful that there are
new things, to which we are now exposed and must relate to, for us to develop.”

The diplomat noted that the great civilisations of Africa could not have
been achieved without social, economic and political systems obliterated under
colonialism and suggested that, “we need a road map to empower ourselves
economically” for Africa to make move forward.Members of the Namibian executive
council and National Assembly were among guests at the opening of the
conference, which followed another hosted by CBAAC and PANAFSTRAG in October in
Abuja, Nigeria.

Nigeria is a richly endowed country with enough human and
material resources to make her one of the most advanced nations in the world.
Sadly, she is ranked among the world’s poorest. The pervasive poverty is
however attributable to the greed and insensitivity of elites occupying
leadership positions, and not lack of resources. To make matters worse, the
people, major stakeholders in the electioneering process, appear undiscerning
as they either sell their votes for cash or lack the courage to exercise their
power and stand by their convictions.

These and many more are the focus of Tunji Fatilewa’s voter
education play, ‘Bombshell’. The play was staged at the Cyprian Ekwensi Centre
for Arts and Culture on Friday, December 3 by the Abuja Playhouse in
conjunction with the FCT Social Development Secretariat’s Department of Arts
and Culture.

Corruption as a norm

‘Bombshell’ contains important electoral education messages,
delivered in a distinctive, uncommon theatrical manner to show our capacity as
a people to effect change by holding politicians, public office holders and
others accountable to their pre-election promises.

As it is typical of most politicians, there is nothing tangible
Akinfunmilola (Kayode Aiyegbusi) can point to as a development project for his
people in spite of holding public office for 10 years. Two of these was as a
local government chairman and eight as Commissioner for Works and Transport. A
pauper before coming into power, he acquires the mannerisms of the ‘nouveau
riche’. He moves to the capital, away from the ordinary people and acquires
about 20 state of the art cars for his fleet. His children attend one of the
best private schools in the capital while the older ones attend universities in
the Europe and America. The only primary school in his community, the same one
he attended, is without roofing and the pupils sit and write on the bare floor.

The highpoint of the play which highlights the deceit Nigerians
are subjected to, is the revelation by Engineer Jonah as to why water doesn’t
flow from the boreholes Akinfunmilola inaugurated as a local government
chairman. Jonah discloses that the bore-holes were not completed and that
tankers were used to supply water to them prior to the inauguration ceremony
performed by the governor and covered by the media.

The money meant for the project, of course, disappears into
private pockets. In spite of failing to give pipe-borne water to the people,
Akinfunmilola has two bore-holes in his mansion from which his wife sells water
to the people.

People power

Democracy vests in the people the power to elect and to eject.
Sadly, many lack the requisite knowledge and understanding of the electoral
process, thus they are easily deceived by greedy politicians.

‘Bombshell’, which was first staged in April 2001, demonstrates
the potency of the people’s power. Oladipo, a retired school principal played
by Jibrin Ahmed, invades Akinfunmilola’s political rally where he is declaring
his candidacy for the governorship positin. He instigates the people to demand
an account of Akinfunmilola’s previous stewardship, saying it will be the basis
to decide whether he deserves to represent them once more or not.

He says, “You have the power. Not the power to work in the
factories. Not the power to till the soil. Nor the powers to exhibit great
dancing skills as you are ignorantly doing now. No! It is the power to elect
whom you want to lead you and to eject him when he breaks his promises…”

Right environment for
business

Speaking at the end of the play, Mike Oko, a representative of
ExxonMobil Nigeria, sponsors of the production, disclosed that the oil company
supported the play because its financial and business stability depends on
Nigeria’s political climate. “We are doing this to educate the people so that
they can take the right decision when our politicians come calling, for we need
a stable environment for business to grow.”

Actor, Ropo Ewenla, commended ExxonMobil for the initiative. “I
am shocked to see that ExxonMobil is putting its money in theatre as a tool for
change. This is highly commendable and I hope other companies will do the same.
It is high time our corporate organisations begin to see that they can do much more
than just making money. Their corporate social responsibilities must be
channeled towards activities like these that have direct bearing on the
people.” Ewenla added that a few technical lapses he noticed in the play should
be addressed as the group plans to take it around Nigeria in due course.

Nigerians are known
for being go-getters or what some people call hustlers. Watching the
episodes of the second week of the Nigerian Idol, the popular saying,
“Warri no dey carry last” came to mind but in place of Warri, I fixed in
Naija.

At the Abuja and
Calabar auditions, it was obvious that there were contestants who had
come to the centres not for a chance to feature on the Idol stage but to
get contracts with the sponsors Etisalat as jingle singers/composers.

There was one guy
who was so determined to showcase his “talent” that even when Yinka
Davies politely asked him to stop he insisted on singing his entire set,
more like giving his entire presentation. “Let me finish,” he almost
snapped out. Still at the end of the day, he went home with the ‘NO’
that the judges had intended to give from the minute he first said:
Etisalat. “They got me down,” he complained to co-host Anis Holloway
when he finally left the room. Another potential jingler who was also
disappointed with a ‘NO’, tried harder to impress the judges by
informing them that he had a rap version.

Then there were the
contestants who just could not own up to defeat. These contestants,
after leaving the audition room with a unanimous ‘NO’, would come to
Holloway and tell him instead that they got two ‘Yeses’! I guess no one
informed them that their auditions were being filmed for not just local
but international broadcast. Or maybe they were told and these are just
folks who, like I said, “no dey carry last”. Talk about lying on TV!

The auditions are
finally over and, according to the organisers of the show, so is the
comedy. As the show moves into the second stage, Theatre stage, we are
supposed to expect more of high drama and tension. The theatre stage is
where the judges would trim down the number of contestants from the 100
who scaled through the auditions to 50. These 50 lucky contestants would
then feature on the main show which is the third and final stage. We
can’t wait.