What I did for Jonathan as Deputy Gov of Bayelsa – Kanayo
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Kanayo
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Little has been heard from you for a while; are you trying to repackage or have been involved in other things?
I have been divesting and diversifying. When people ask me these days, I
feel safe to say that I am on sabbatical. This could be time you use to
test and train yourself and relax; it does not mean that you are out of
it. I try to reflect on what I have been doing in the past 15 -20
years, and see whether I have been providing the right leadership in my
industry and creating political or economic value with my job. It has
been a period to look back at where I am coming from and ask myself
questions to which I will be able to give my children constructive
answers. I think the most important thing is that you have to be happy
with whatever job you are doing. All these factors are the reasons you
have not heard from me for a long time. I have not quit the job. I am
trying to be the best in what I do and I am also trying not to do what I
have done 20 years ago, the same way.
You tested the murky waters of politics and you slipped.
Have you jettisoned the idea?
(Laughs) No! First, I don’t know what you mean by slipping, it’s like
saying I failed. You don’t lose in politics; you postpone your winning
to another day. It’s a game you must get interested in because the
democratic process thrives more when we take active interest in how and
who governs us. That’s why the charge has always been that everybody
must take interest in active governance because the right to vote and be
voted for cannot be transferred. So, you must make every attempt; if
you don’t want to lead, that means you must be led by other persons. If
you are willing to be lead by others, that means you must try and make
contributions so that one head does not think out everything. If there
is an issue you are concerned about, you must make contributions to it.
So, it comes to the reality of not just good governance, but providing a
platform by which other members of the society can gain. I made an
attempt, and I tell you, it was a good one. It wasn’t a do-or-die affair
- that I must win. But if I did not make an attempt, maybe looking back
now, I would not have forgiven myself.
But you felt bad loosing?
I didn’t feel bad because I didn’t go with the mindset that I must win.
As a Christian, I prayed about it and I said if I go in good, and if I
didn’t, I will not hold anybody responsible. That I am a green horn or
that I did not carry a bag is an issue to be discussed on another day.
Showing that I want to lead and that I want to be given the opportunity
to represent my people matters a lot because some people will begin to
tell you that politics is dirty and so on. If it’s dirty, let’s go and
clean it up. If human beings are dirty, let’s clean whoever is going
there to represent us.
Some of your colleagues are still romancing President Jonathan’s government even in the face of obvious hardship. Why?
I will tell you that the man inherited a lot of things and the baggage
is not what can be put down in one day. I don’t also want to be seen as
speaking for government, so I will offer my humble opinion about what I
think is happening. Building a country or an association is done brick
by brick. A lot of us that decided to join his campaign train did that
with the understanding of the man we knew. Personally, I have known him
from his days as the deputy governor of Bayelsa State. I didn’t know him
as governor, vice president or president. I knew him as deputy governor
and he calls me K.O.K and I relate with him on that basis. While he was
governor of Bayelsa, he came for the African Movie Academy Award (AMAA)
event at the City Hall, Lagos. I walked up to him; we spoke for about
three minutes and I told him I believe in him. I know he is transparent,
humble and has a listening ear and I will like to make a little
contribution to his campaign. I told him I wanted to produce some
jingles for him. He called the Commissioner for Information and told him
to give me the necessary information I needed.
He was about contesting for which office then?
Governorship! He called two commissioners and told them to work with me
and give me all the information I needed to produce the jingle. Four or
five weeks later, while they were still in the studio working on the
jingle, they elevated him to the position of the Vice President. This is
the man I have known, and joining his campaign train was just on the
strength of my relationship with him while he was the deputy governor.
It was not that I used to go to Aso Rock Villa to see him. But if he was
in any ceremony and I was there, he would have a handshake with me and
go his way. That kind of friendship was not based on money. When he
eventually became President and the circumstances surrounding his
ascension - where some people in this country swore with their
grandfathers’ grave that he would not be president, I thought I should
do something. If you are a discerning Christian, you will see the hand
of God in each situation that played out in that. The hand of God has
written that this man will be President and he did. So, when we joined
him in the campaign, it was just a further confirmation and
establishment of our friendship. We felt, okay - these people and I
still believe till tomorrow that Jonathan will end up being one of the
best presidents this country has ever produced. Jonathan’s matter is
personal to me because the same people who swore with their
grandfathers’ graves are the same people troubling him and not giving
him respite to see whether he can perform.
How many of us woke up this
morning and prayed for Jonathan to succeed?
Yet we have people who go to
bed at night and the last thing they will say is: “This man, we must
deal with him.” A country does not run that way; we must have a
leadership we all support. We cannot find this man guilty when we have
not given him the opportunity to prove himself. I am not saying that the
man has done all that he has promised; he doesn’t have the capacity. It
is only God that has the capacity to do all He promised. Jonathan does
not have the capacity to do all that he has promises within such a short
time but he has the capacity to do the best he can while still in
office.
If Jonathan appoints you into his cabinet as a Special Adviser, would you accept it?
Yes, because I have what I will bring to the table.
You started off from the stage but diverted. Have you forgotten about stage?
No! Sometimes you need to build on your strength or core competence. It
doesn’t mean that in my curriculum vitae you won’t see stage
performances that I did. But I decided to focus my energy on where I
have my strength. I have my greater strength in the area of TV. I think I
have more visibility when it comes to TV and so I now leave the stage
for those who have more proficiency in it. It does not mean I cannot
give a helping hand to them when they need it. In fact, I recognise
stage actors than TV actors because the stage does not afford you the
opportunity of editing. Whatever you are doing people are watching you
and they are making their pronouncements. If you forget your lines, the
prompting may not come and the audience will notice. So, I see stage
actors as more professionally trained and I give it to any stage actor
because they are more disciplined than TV actors and they also believe
in hierarchy. In TV, there is nothing like hierarchy. You hear of A -
list actors and most times the A- list actor is in terms of
indiscipline. For stage actors, you see people who have to go to set by
3.pm and by 2.55pm they are there. They have more retention because you
have to take in your lines and internalise them because if you miss any,
you are in trouble. Now on TV, if you miss a line they will “cut” and
remind you, and in fact, you go and read your script again. I find it
more professional and more disciplined when it has to do with the people
on stage. I respect them.
After Living in Bondage was produced in
Igbo language, which you were a part, producers shifted their focus to
English movies and that was the end of Igbo movies.
It’s a real sad
development. Onitsha people will tell you that what the market forces
dictate is what they are flowing with. I want to recall a bit; after
Living in Bondage, we did Circle of Doom, Nneka the Pretty Serpent and a
couple of other films before Glamour Girls came on board which was
produced in English. When the marketers saw that it was another vista of
opportunity, everybody began to explore that. I agree with you that we
left the route through which we came with Living in Bondage and that is
Igbo language. Ordinarily, one should expect that the two run side by
side; that’s, Igbo and English movies. I don’t think what is happening
in Nollywood today would have happened if we had films done in Igbo,
English, and pidgin, because the Yoruba still do what they are doing
today in their dialect. It’s a very sad development and it was caused
by the introduction of Glamour Girls. But I think all is not lost. Some
Igbo guys have been trying to do a few things about Igbo movies but how
realistic it will be should be another thing. You would have known that
what you call Igbo language movies sometimes are not real, because
sometimes you see a lot of contemporary things in it. I don’t think a
man in New York wants to see an Igbo movie where they are kissing. He
wants to see the Igbo culture and tradition. Our strength is in telling
stories and weaving them together because we have positive values we can
showcase. We can step up a lot of things. Look at widowhood in the old
times in Africa; for me, it is a sellout because we have lots of things
that have not been explored. The title of that film is Widowhood in Igbo
Land- A Dying Culture. If I take up this, I can tell the story of what
it used to be; I can tell the story of what widowhood was then and what
it’s now. These are stories they want you to tell now. That’s the story
we can take to the OSCARS from our own perspective. If you can tell this
kind of story, well, we can win foreign awards for good films. But
then, people are looking for ones you sell and make money fast. So, it’s
more of commercial orientation and not story-telling. But we have the
opportunity to go back and think.
You have the clout to make this work.
I don’t know what you mean by clout; but having discussed it with you,
it shows that I am passionate about it. Maybe it’s part of my retirement
plan in this job. Maybe it’s part of what I would do from the comfort
of a school or classroom, to teach those who will want to be part of
what we are doing today.
So, you are retiring very soon?
I am
not going to use the word very soon, but for every job you do, you will
need it. Maybe after this sabbatical, I will come back, be effective for
a while and retire. I am looking at a scenario in a school where there
will be about five classrooms of 40 students each. You go from class to
class and teach. Next week, you are on tour in a particular country to
get knowledge about a particular thing which you come and download for
the students. Then the next one or two months, you are on a particular
location, supervising and giving advice; and over the next six months,
government is calling you to help them do this. There is a lot one can
do during retirement and it does not mean one is crippled. Retirement
means that you now have a cooler head to do things at your own pace.
Why is it that the younger entertainers always court controversy?
Is it that they can’t manage fame or that it’s just a spill over from their upbringing?
While I do not wish to talk about it, it’s also instructive for us who
have been role models for the past 20 – 25 years to offer some way
forward. A lot of people just happened in the movie industry. Don’t
forget that we came from a background where you go through a lot - go
for rehearsals, processes of payment and recording as well. Much as you
don’t pray for your child to go through what you went through to be
successful, you also pray for your child to get the basic discipline.
Now you have a producer in the industry and he does his casting; no
rehearsals and no script conferencing because we stopped doing script
conferencing since 1995. What he does is that he electronically pays
money into people’s account. Meanwhile, the person maybe on a set in
Lagos; he waits for that person to finish. While waiting, he starts
shooting some scenes where the person who is coming from Lagos is not
involved, the person meets them half-way and because he has shot some
scenes where the guys is not involved when he came in either from the
motor park or airport, he is put on costume immediately and he is on
set.
So, there is no chemistry between this person and the other
actors. In this situation, you can’t get the best. The orientation has
to change because it was not like that when we were with the Nigerian
Television Authority (NTA). What I am trying to say is that background
matters a lot. Some come to the industry for pecuniary incentives and
not because of passion or commitment. When you talk about discipline, on
individual scale, it takes the grace of God for somebody who made money
to be humble. Some of them just make the money and the first thing they
do is to buy a car to announce their arrival. We have seen
opportunities wasted in the movie industry where people buy one car and
they find out that they can change to another car and some even moved to
apartments bigger than themselves. The process of growth should be
nurtured and even the process of calling yourself a star.
Which of the movies you have done touched you emotionally?
I have done close to 250 movies in 20 years. I know that when we did
Lost Kingdom in 1999, it was something else. The producers and directors
called me and said they were writing a script about the way I talk,
gesticulate and that all I need was to fly with it and get into
character. And I did my best to interpreter the character. For me,
whenever I do socially-relevant stories, I become emotional about them
because I know somebody believes and that they are helping to touch
somebody’s life. For instance, somebody walked up to me in a restaurant
about 10 – 12 years ago and said: “I didn’t know I will quarrel with my
wife and you people will translate it into drama and it’s exactly the
way it happened. I quarrelled with my wife; we fought and I sent her
packing. I married her friend and I never knew she was the one that
engineered everything.”
I felt embarrassed because the story was
just a fiction. I told the person that we did not come to any home to
watch what they were doing. When you see such a situation, it gives you
hope that people are watching and that they appreciate what you do and
that’s also a clarion call to our producers to say, “please, let’s do
what we have to do differently because we don’t know who is watching.”
Nollywood movies have become a communal religion in most Africa homes.
Nigeria is a developing country, but don’t forget that there are some
African communities where they still bring out the box called television
and put it on a stand and 50-70 people will sit outside and watch. So
it’s more of a communal religion. We can begin to see our movies as a
diplomatic tool to win the sympathy and love of other countries. We must
not just use them to clean up the image of the government; they should
be used to project our cultural image.
