Democracy Day: Nollywood veterans speak on state of the nation, way forward

SOME veterans in the Nigerian movie industry, ranging from actors to movie directors and producers, have shared their views on the state of the nation as Nigeria celebrates 22 years of return to democratic rule today. They speak on the role they, as entertainers, need to play in the development of democracy, as well as what they think is the way forward for the nation.

Democracy not working as envisaged —Jide Kosoko

In the entertainment industry, we have been doing our best in pin-pointing and correcting the atrocities of our politicians. When we talk about democracy, we talk about the government and the people, there is nothing we can say other than fighting corruption because, if corruption is out of it then maybe we can make do with this western democracy, which is not our democracy. This is not the best way Africans can govern themselves, but unfortunately, so many things have gone bad. The traditional rulers that are supposed to be playing important roles in the governance of their people, but unfortunately in a situation where we have various types of Obas in our land, especially in Yoruba land, and other tribes too, it is funny, some of them, sometimes I doubt if I can prostrate for them because if you look at how they all got there, it is very questionable.

This means the country is bad generally, we are equally corrupt, not only the politicians because it is the people that make the politicians who they are and also become politicians. Democracy is not working the way we have envisaged, I am only hoping that one day, we will all have the opportunity to sit and design the kind of democracy we want for Africa, especially in Nigeria. So, since democracy is not working for us, we need to search our conscience and know what we truly want because if we look at the level of development we are experiencing, nothing is working.

Look at the agitations for a new nation by the Yorubas and the Igbos, I’m not against our having a Yoruba nation, but for us to be able to fight one course together, we must make sure we are one. I don’t see reasons why we should be fighting ourselves as a nation, be you Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa, but I think the northerners should think, if truly they want ‘one Nigeria’, then they should be ready to respect other regions and their things. If restructuring had come earlier than now, there wouldn’t be all these agitations and maybe things would have gotten better. It has gotten to this stage now and we are all in the hands of the almighty God. I cannot say I have any concrete solution, but I will continue to say that may there not be any war, even if we are separating region by region, it should be done on the table.

Our democracy is still growing —Akin Lewis

Our democracy is still growing and right now the place we are is not a good place to be, but I am sure we will get out of it. Our industry can be very useful in shaping our democracy through plays, writing good stories that tackle issues that affect our social and political lives. Again, the stars can be used to talk to the people because the audience trusts the stars more than they trust their leaders and they would listen when the stars talk. Going forward, I think the president doesn’t want to use his executive powers to sort this thing out, so let everybody sit down and talk, everybody has to sit down and talk. To me that is the only way forward, rather than fighting each other or agitating for a new nation, that may not even be the solution because, to tell you the truth, those rooting for separation, I don’t think that is what we need now. Let us sit down and find a way forward.

Attitudinal change is what we need —Dele Odule

Democracy should be a government of the people by the people and for the people, but unfortunately, what we are experiencing now is far from what democracy is meant to be. It is quite unfortunate that we are still in this situation in this country. The state of security is nothing to write home about, welfare of the people is gone, no access to power – electricity supply.

The standard of living of an average Nigerian is very poor; it is very sad why it has to be so after many years of independence. This is not far from the greed, self-centeredness of our leaders. I am one of those people who thought our president would have done so well. But unfortunately, I see no reason why he should remain in the system if he cannot make any progress, he should have resigned. Not resigning means he is comfortable with what is going on. I don’t blame him, maybe he needs to go through several processes to make things happen, he cannot make a decree like when he was a military dictator, but if you are telling them this is the way you want things to go and these people are not ready to let you have your way, then I think it is more honourable for him to just take his leave.

Remaining there means he is in support of all that is going on, so he has disappointed someone like me who had great respect for him. The only way we can contribute our quota to the development of Nigeria’s democracy in the entertainment industry is to focus more on movies or songs that tackle and talk about our societal ills. We should emulate legends like FelaAnikulapo Kuti, Sammy Okposo and the likes. So, we need to start producing movies the way they should be done, proffer solutions through our movies, let us go to the roots of problems and put them together into a good script. We should make movies that will have a great impact on our nation, rather than all these we are doing all about.

I am not condemning the whole producers; we still have producers who do good stuff. Entertainment is a very strong medium to help shape this nation, so we should project Nigeria in a very positive manner. Moving forward, what we need in Nigeria is attitudinal change; we need to change our attitude from the top to the grassroots. We cannot keep making life miserable for ourselves even as a people and expect positive changes, it cannot work that way. So, we need a change of attitude in Nigeria.

We must all support agitation for Yoruba nation —Kola Oyewo

Nigeria is on the verge of a serious collapse and our leaders don’t seem to give a damn about it, rather, they are preoccupied with what they want to become and don’t think about the rest of the society. They are only thinking about how they will be reelected for a second term, or a governor who will leave and move to the senate and so on. I think it behoves us in the movie industry, to write plays that will expose them and put them on the streets in a form of gorilla theatre. I think we need to play an important role in the liberation of our people so that we will not be crucified at the end of everything because what is going on is very bad. In the east, police stations are being attacked everyday and even in the southwest here, we are being kidnapped and so on.

For example, last week, this Ilesha to Akure road which I am plying now, people were kidnapped there. We just have to play our role because we have a very crucial role to play in the society. We should be the ears and eyes of the people and not just keep quiet as if nothing is happening, a lot has gone wrong. Moving forward, everybody needs to support the agitation for the Yoruba nation, because what we have been doing for the past 60 years now and we can’t get anything out of should be dropped and another thing be tested. It is very annoying that people are not giving the desired support to the agitation; I think we need to do that, do the campaign so that we can liberate ourselves.

Entertainment a critical sector in any society —Rotimi Adelola

Entertainment, through the performing arts, is a critical sector in any society. It is the pivot of relaxation, education, enlightenment and societal transformation. More often, the predominant values in a society reflect in the performing arts: music, drama and audio-visual story telling or filmmaking.  This explains why the contents of most music and movies in Nigeria today focus excessively on the pursuit of material wealth and crass celebration of  hedonistic activities. Today, there are so many depressing issues in Nigeria, from our self-serving politics, nationwide insecurity, injustice, corruption, impunity , lack of leadership accountability and to, of course, pervasive and endemic poverty of majority of Nigerians. Given these realities, in my opinion, performing arts in Nigeria should be catalysts for social change. This is why my latest movie, ‘The New Patriots’, which will start showing in the cinemas from June 11 focuses on the positive and non-violent roles that the youths can play to sanitise the polity.

We should embrace unity, honesty —Adewale Elesho

God will help us in Nigeria. The roles we can play in the entertainment industry have been played by the people before us, people like Pa Ogunde and the likes, but it has always been the same old stories. The only advice I can offer presently is that we should all embrace unity and honesty in all things. If we have all these, things would be better. We cannot go to Europe and not keep to their laws over there because their laws are very much important to them. But here, we are not bothered about our laws, even when the leaders are not even law-abiding. Maybe if the leaders are playing their parts by being law-abiding, things would be better. How many elections have been free and fair in Nigeria? Except if we want to be deceiving ourselves, there is no election without fouls and manipulations. Only God can help us in this country.

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