Anybody who says there is no sexual harassment in Nollywood is lying —Actress, Sandra Omo Idugboe

Sandra Omo Idugboe is a Nigerian international model and actress. Commencing her modelling career at the tender age of 17, Sandra won the MBGN screening in London, coming  to Lagos for the Grand final to win the MBGN Model 2008 crown and was featured in the highly rated historical American TV series, “Secretes of the Dead: Slave Ship Mutiny,” narrated by X-men actor Liev Schreiber. The Edo State-born actress told Newton-Ray Nkwuoma in this interview why she decided to return to Nigeria, among other things. Excerpts:

As a model, do you think beauty should be less emphasised during beauty pageantry?

I think people have a wrong mindset about pageants. I don’t see how you can separate a woman and beauty. Every woman is beautiful for me. The celebration of beauty should be complete. Just as every woman is beautiful, every woman is intelligent. The celebration of a woman’s beauty is the celebration of her brains. It is a wrong mindset to talk about smart women during beauty competition. A beautiful woman is just as smart.

If beauty pageantry is about the celebration of the woman in her completeness, what do you say about the idolisation of make-up or other ancillaries to beauty?

Make-up is a norm. We live in a society that already makes it hard for a woman to go out without make-up. It is like dressing. However, whether you wear makeup or you don’t, you are who you are. People say a lot of things about beauty pageantry; but are we looking at the number of lives these beauty pageants are changing; the scholarships they give to young women; the difference they make in the lives of kids?

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Between acting and modelling, which brought you out?

Modelling. I started with modelling. I’ve been modelling since I was a teenager. I left Nigeria for London when I was about 17 for my first degree. That was where I started modelling. I got my first modelling contract in London before I went to Cape Town South Africa. Also, I lived in London for 5 years where I won the MBGN.

Since I still had my modelling contract in London, I went back and I won the competition. Winning the competition meant I would have to come back to Nigeria to compete for the grand MBGN. I won MBGN Model 2008. There were five different crowns for grab, and I came specifically for, and won the MBGN MODEL CROWN, I went back to London. However, I was awarded a High Achievement Award by the Nigerian government in the UK in 2008. Only two models have been so honoured: Agbani Darego and I. Then I came back home for a lot of things like modelling jobs for brands. In 2010 during the World Cup, I was in South Africa. I did four World Cup adverts for South African sports channels. I also got into acting while in 2010 in South Africa.

Have you ever been in a major role for Hollywood?

No. They were all minor roles. I only had my first feature, which was for PBS America TV series, “Secretes of the Dead”. It was one of the series that dealt with slave ship mutiny. I was the only female cast in that series and it was nominated for the series part of the Oscars. It was directed by Nic Young and Joe Kennedy and had American actor Liev Schreiber (Salt and X-men Origins: Wolverine) as part of the cast. That was my first major role.

When was the first time you appeared in a Nollywood movie?

I came back home in 2012. I did my first movie in Nigeria, Royal Palace and then a series called School. I was in Nigeria for a year, did few movies before I went back to the UK. I went back to school full time and I also tried to produce my own movies.

Are you back in Nigeria full time?

Yes. I should say so.

You recently started the “No Sugar Daddy” campaign. What inspired the initiative?

It has always been my dream to be an ambassador. I studied International Relations. When I finished, I realised that I didn’t want to be a diplomat, that is, a working office diplomat. I wanted to be a goodwill ambassador. That is the part I am working on now. I want to make a difference. ‘No Sugar Daddy, Brighter Future’ campaign is not the regular HIV/AIDS campaign. It is targeted towards curbing intergenerational sex and the high rate of HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa caused by it. We want to stop old men from preying on teen girls.

The reason we are focusing on young girls is that when a younger girl is with a much older man, it is more like a slave-master relationship. They don’t even have the mental capacity to negotiate sex. Teenager wouldn’t be the one to tell the older guy to use a condom because she may not even know why he should. And a lot of this older men want younger girls because of the popular motive of refreshing their blood. So, in the agencies that I founded and headed, we want to use film to educate young people about what is safe about sex.

How was growing up for you?

I grew up in Benin (Edo State) with my grandmother. I had an amazing grandmother. I grew up in a very strong woman family. I have had examples of very strong women in my life. My mother was a diplomat. She travelled a lot. My grandmother was also a strong woman. My family is very crazy about education. We went to school, came back did our work. Above all, my grandmother’s story had the most influence in my life.

Would you like to share a remarkable example?

She and her brother came from an extremely poor home. So poor that when she was 12, her parents used her to pay a debt of 12 pounds they took from an old rich man in the village. Since they didn’t have the money to pay him back, they had to give my grandmother to him as his pay. She was only 12 years old. She moved in to live with the man and at the age of 14 she had her first child. It was a slave-master relationship between her and the old man. She was maltreated to the extent that her second child died. She later ran away at the age of 16; met a younger man, fell in love and was about to marry him.

But the older man would not let that happen because he claimed he owned my grandmother because the family still owed him the 12 pounds. He insisted that if my grandmother marries and give birth for any man that the child will be his. So, my grandmother had to continue living with the old man for about a year, while this young man, who came to marry her, had to go back to Lagos to work for the 12 pounds. It took my grandfather one year to earn 12 pounds with which he used to pay the old man for my grandmother’s freedom. This was how my grandmother got liberated from this old man and she left with one surviving child and married my grandfather.

Have you considered adapting her story into a movie?

Yes, in the near future. My grandmother did not go to school, but her brother did. Her brother later became governor of Edo State, late Chief Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia. He is my grandmother’s elder brother. She sold rice in Benin. She used that to train her brother in school. She later became one of the most successful women in Benin.  She was the one that made her brother governor. Before she died, she spoke six languages, including English. She had a personal teacher who came to teach her English every day. She had a company that rented out trucks and trailers called Esther Osaigbovo Ltd.

. She became a very successful woman, but she never went to a formal school. So, she was very outspoken about sex and sex education. I remember that she would call us into the living room because we all grew up with her; my mom was always travelling. She would sit us down and tell us, “Don’t let any man touch you” and all that. She was very outspoken about sex education.

Should we say that your grandmother story inspired your fight against sugar daddy?

Yes. She put it right in me.

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Modelling is often associated with a number of vices. How did you handle them?

That was one of the reasons I took a break from modelling to go back to school in 2012 for my Master’s. After my first degree. I had friends from all around the world; beautiful girls and accomplished models, some of whom were marrying very old men or following men for money.

I already had my second degree, a lot of the models I met were modelling since they were 14, never had the chance to further their education. Some of them sometimes resulted in marrying old men to survive since they had no education to fall back on.

That brought fear to my heart. And when I came back to Nigeria and was auditioning for movies, of course, I also experienced sexual harassment. Anybody that says there is no sexual harassment in Nollywood is lying. I wasn’t even a Surulere babe, I wasn’t needy. If I could be harassed, how much more girls who are broke and needy?

What year was this?

I am talking between 2011 and 2012 and I don’t think it is better now. And I am proud of the people who have spoken out about it.

What was the nature of your own experience?

It was just people who call themselves directors putting sexual demands before hiring you. There was a time they were using fake auditions to lure young girls. People will show up and they will be given hotel rooms to come to. A lot of my friends had these experiences. A director had once asked a friend of mine to show him her kissing skills.