By Anote Ajeluorou
Veteran filmmaker, Chief Eddie Ugbomah,
has lamented the politics of greed, dishonesty and power-drunkenness at play
among Nigeria’s political class and blames House of Representatives’ Speaker,
Aminu Tambuwal’s current travails on this incurable national malady.
Ugbomah, who spoke at his
Ilogbo-Eremi, Lagos country home, called on Tambuwal to resign his office as
Speaker like the honourable man he claims to be since leaving Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) that earned him the office for All Progressives Congress
(APC).
The filmmaker with notable box office,
celluloid hit films in the 1970s and 80s and former chairman, Nigeria Film
Corporation (NFC), said, “I’m disappointed with Speaker Tambuwal because from
his action, he’s not a gentleman. Common principles dictate that Tambuwal
should have resigned his Speakership after leaving PDP for APC. This means he
is not honourable as he claims. It was such a disgrace for those, who claim to
be leading us to be climbing fences like school children. These are
dishonourable people practising democracy.”
But the outspoken elderly filmmaker did not
also spare the politics of double-speak that characterises the ruling PDP. Ugbomah
lambasted the ruling party for not applying the rules evenly, but selectively
and only when the party was affected. He said while PDP celebrated the
defection of Chief Tom Ikimi from APC and Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko
from Labour Party (LP), they did not waste time in witch-hunting Tambuwal for
leaving their fold for another party.
Ugbomah also blamed lawyers for
giving dubious and misleading interpretations to matters of politics and policy
that leave a majority confused.
On the insecurity in the North
East, the producer of such notable films as Death
of a Black President, Oyenusi, The Boy Is Good, Oil Doom, Apalara and many others has harsh words
for those, who think President Goodluck Jonathan hasn’t been decisive enough in
tackling it. He said, “if Jonathan should act like a radical without
conscience, he could kill both the abducted Chibok schoolgirls along with the
insurgents. What people fail to remember is that Jonathan inherited these
problems that are over 40 years old. Although he’s trying to do his best, but his
best doesn’t seem good enough for many people.”
Ugbomah, who has been contemplating
a political thriller for a while now, said he was ready to make a movie that
appropriately mirrors the current political dispensation titled If Only, which he said would have most
of the political titans playing their often inglorious part in bringing Nigeria
to its present sorry state. He noted that while Jonathan was working hard to
make life better for all Nigerians, some notable players were busy sabotaging
his efforts for selfish political gains, saying, “The result of the film is the
birth of Boko Haram, a political
demon inflicted on Jonathan so he could fail.”
Although he regards Jonathan as
a friend of the film industry in his recognition of the importance of film in
national development agenda and invested in it, Ugbomah has urged him to ask those
responsible for disbursing the N3 billion intervention funds to, as a matter of
urgency, give film producers what is due to them. He noted that although he was
schemed out from benefiting, it was imperative for producers, employers in the
industry, to get their funds so they could start making films.
The N10 million due to each
producer, he said, should not be seen a big deal, as it could only help to make
a small budget film. He condemned those disbursing the funds for favouring only
those building cinema houses and training at the expense of producers, who have
sustained the industry so far.
In the same vein, Ugbomah has tasked actors
eagerly gunning for political offices across the country to fix the mess in
their own industry before aspiring to fix problems of the larger society. While
stating that the actors had constitutional rights to contest political offices,
he said, “They are in it because Nollywood
is dead, or at best, dying. Have they put their industry in order to world
standard? They ought to fight their common enemy first in the form of cable TVs
that have devalued their films. They have an enemy they haven’t conquered.
“What have they offer Nigerians
when their industry has died under their watch? What they don’t know is that
politicians will just ‘chop’ the little money they have made and spew them out.
Perhaps, they ought to learn from Onyeka Onwenu’s failed bids to be elected
local council boss. They are a big joke. And why are they all going to their
state assemblies instead of national assembly; it means they are all local
people.”
The outspoken former chairman of
Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) condemned Kanayo O. Kanayo and Ibinabo
Fiberesima’s political appointments, calling them jokes. Instead, Ugbomah said they
ought to have been made Arts Council Chairmen or even NFC or other
industry-related parastatals, where they could better apply themselves in the
creative industry.
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