Those who witnessed the birth of Nollywood in the 90s would readily remember most comic characters of which some are late like Sam Loco, Mr. Ibu, Amaechi Muonagor, Mr. Shanana, among others. Other living legends such as Nkem Owoh, Emeka Ani, Victor Osuagwu, Charles Awurum, Chinedu Ikediezie, and haveOsita Iheme, among others, are still serenading television screens with their craft. One of such popular names then was Kingsley Ogbonna aka Dauda, who took comedy to another level.
However, Dauda suddenly left the industry and joined politics where he served as Special Adviser to former Governor of Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu. He went on to study Law and now he is back to his first love-acting. This time, he is fully into content creation –skitmaking.
He speaks with The NATION’s SAM ANOKAM on his reasons for dumping the wig and gown as well as other relevant topics.
We had not heard much from you after you left government; have you abandoned acting for Law?
The truth of the matter is that law is a good profession. It was to add to my profile but you also know that my first love is the entertainment industry with a bias for Nollywood and comedy if you like. With what is happening in the industry now, Law is good but it is usually very hard for you to start practicing when you are 50 and above as a new wig. The least is 10 years before finding your bearing. The best thing is to go back to what you know how to do best, what the world knows you for, which is entertainment, and going by the trend of events as the industry has left the normal Nollywood television. Though those come sparingly, the real thing now is the skit, the online entertainment. I am talking about content creation and people will like it. My first course was marketing. There is this definition of marketing, it is a management process responsible for identifying, satisfying, and anticipating consumer wants efficiently and profitably. That profit is very important. Whatever thing you are doing and it is not profiting, leave it. I’m not saying that Law won’t profit, but I am looking at the age bracket and what the Nigerian legal system is all about right now. I am not seeing Law as something I will rely on, I will keep the wig and gown aside. It wasn’t easy after 7,8 years, going to Law School, and coming out, but I liked it. It has exposed me to many things. It has opened my eyes. I see myself as educated, learned. I can handle any organisation anywhere. I can fit into any organization. I know how to make money right now. I know what company, establishment means through Corporate Law I learnt in school. I can fit in anywhere. But that is not the thing. The thing is that whatever thing you do at this age, it must be profitable because you have kids growing. They are all in school and you want to achieve a lot before you get to a particular point in life where you will not be able to do anything again. When you are 65 years old, you are weak and tired. If you have the grace to get to 70, or 75 years, then you should be relaxing. Law will not give it to me because I am just starting, I just left law school last year and I am 50 right now, how do I cope with responsibilities at home; my parents, my younger ones, and all that? I think Law is for the profile. But the main thing is to go back to entertainment which is content creation. I have started.
So, are you returning to entertainment because of the ‘conducive’ social media environment for content creation and not for passion?
I am very blunt when I say this. What people like to paint, I don’t paint it. The Igbo man says, ‘I am not dancing now to be seen but to get something from it.’ If it is being popular or being a celebrity, we have tasted that, we have tasted stardom. We are talking about the end result, we need to make money. Yes, it is a passion but the passion that is not yielding anything is useless. Do I need to die because it is a passion? And I can tell you that, that is what ridiculed a good number of people in this industry. Those who said they are directors, scriptwriters, especially the directors, have the passion to do this job without looking at the business side of it. This is showbiz. I don show finish, na business I want do now. A lot of people are falling by the roadside. Some are suffering, some do not even have accommodation right now. I don’t want to mention names. Those who started in the 90s, into 2000 actors, and directors who so much love this business and would want to get it right at all times have still not found their feet because of the influx of the Idumota unto Alaba people who saw it as business and not what you are doing that you love. They are talking about doing it and making money and they are making money. That is the business in it.
The world knows me, but the problem we are talking about now is not only about knowing you but what you got out of it for tomorrow and legacy’s sake. I have a legacy in the entertainment business. I had love for it and I got into it. I have been in entertainment right from kindergarten. I have been there, I didn’t just start. I danced for my school in kindergarten to the extent that the proprietor of the school took it upon himself to cater for my education. He told my father not to bother about that aspect anymore.
I was the one dancing electric shock, break dance, and all that in the children’s variety programme in NTA channel 6, Aba. Even in primary school, I was the junior choirmaster in a very big church, Seven Days Adventist Church, Umuagu District precisely in Obingwa LGA. I was very popular there. People know me as a junior choirmaster. Then I was bearing Kingsley Anyamele but now Kingsley Ogbonna. I had to change to my father’s name when I got into secondary school. So, I didn’t just stumble into the entertainment industry. I have been doing this for a long time. Thanks to the internet. When we started, the kind of money in entertainment now wasn’t there then. And I know I am funny. I now thought to myself, why not go into the internet world for the younger generations who perhaps don’t know me?
Most of this Gen-Z as we call them may not know you. You were in the industry, you went into politics, then Law, so many years have passed, how do you reinvent yourself with the Gen Z or Alpha generation?
Their parents know me. Most times the encomiums I get when I get to the airport is like, ‘oh, my brother you made my childhood.’ I had a show in Atlanta Georgia in 2022, I and Mr. Patrick. I was in New Jersey and Patrick was preparing for the show. Then he was telling people that Dauda was coming to the show. Patrick saw a man, sized him up, and took him to be elderly. He now asked Patrick if he was sure that Dauda would be coming to the show. The man said this Dauda made my childhood. I was watching this man when I was small. Patrick now called me on the phone and said, Dauda, how old are you? I started laughing. I am 50 years of age. So maybe the man was like 10 years old then. When you see a man of 45 years now, you could think that he is old. And some people grow older than their age. It might be the problem.
This Gen-Z will also get to know me which is why I want to come back and leave a final legacy because there will be a time when I wouldn’t want to appear on television or do a lot of comedy. If you look at Ali Baba, there are things he doesn’t do now because he is a legend. These are people who started standup comedy. There are things he doesn’t do these days. The time shall come when we will finally leave this entertainment for the kids. Maybe in the next 10 years, one would now say I am retired.
My daughter is a very powerful musician. She plays the keyboard, she writes and sings and she has a wonderful voice. I am trying to nurture her till after her studies because I don’t want to distract her. I finished school and after my youth service in 1998, I joined the industry in 1999. I went to study Law, I was a Special Adviser to the Governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu on Arts, Culture, and Tourism for seven years. All these things distracted me and took me off from the industry. I was thinking maybe that was where everything was but you found out that the thing that you are looking for in Sokoto is in your Sokoto. If you are looking for money and you go into government because of the impression that money is in government and that is what is killing this country, there is no money! The money is in the hands of a few. The people that have this money that we are talking about that can get liquid cash are not more than 10. The rest are broke like me now.
How was life in the government house; what is the difference?
The difference is that you are not doing anything. You try to create something that you would do and that is if the governor approves it. The type of government Okezie Ikpeazu ran was an all-inclusive government. He wasn’t there alone. He wanted to carry everybody along. He is a kind-hearted human being. And in carrying everybody along, some of the mistakes he made was in carrying everybody along because if you want to get the government right, you must be mean. From what I saw, there are people that you have to ignore and there are people that if you ignore them you will now have problems. The government of T.A. Orji and Okezie Ikpeazu played with them a lot. They don’t want to offend anybody but that should not apply in a governmental system. If you apply it, you will make a lot of mistakes.
One would have thought that you would have fully joined politics.
This is a good but sensitive question. Then in PDP, I come from Ward 5 and Ward 5 is where Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe comes from. I come from the same village with him. My village is a small village. From my house to Abaribe’s house is a minute drive. He is my grandfather, father, and everything we had. My village is inside Abaribe’s village. Abaribe’s village is called Ohuru, ours is Umu Obasi. By history, they gave our great-grandfather the land that we live in. After my grandfather had issues with his brothers, he ran to Ohuru where Enyinnaya Abaribe comes from. They now gave him a small piece of land. The man was a strongman. Kept him in front in case of any attack, he would defend them. That is where we find our place of living. You see how we are brothers? If the eldest man in my village dies, we must report to their village before we bury him. In Ward 5, Abaribe is a senator. He has been deputy governor. He has been a senator for like 14 to 16 years from the PDP. If you are from Ward 5 and you are vying for anything, they will tell you that you have a big thing like senator, what else are you looking for? Nobody rose from that ward. Nobody can stand from that ward in the then PDP as it were. You cannot have a House of Assembly member from Ward 5 and have the Senate from Ward 5. It is unethical. So we understood that fact. Until Abaribe leaves as a senator, anybody else can now rise from Ward 5 to contest anything. If I want to contest, I must go to another party to contest, not PDP. For Abaribe, it was not by contestation, it is by giving.
With this your new project of content creation, are you done with movies?
I shot a movie in December in Asaba. In my entire life, I have never been paid N1m to shoot a movie before but I was paid N1m to shoot the movie. I was wondering why. I shot over 100 scenes. I didn’t know that the movie I shot was a skit. You break them down, and put them on the internet, into YouTube, Facebook, and Tiktok. Whereas you are happy he paid you money but the money he paid you, one of the skits if being cut can fetch him viewership more than what he paid you. Just one skit on the internet can fetch you like 1,000 dollars. If it fetches that amount of money is it not that money that he paid you? You have not talked about other platforms. You have not talked about YouTube and TikTok. We just have to go to where we know that the internet world has helped entertainers. If I had to shoot for someone now, it would now be for the joy, not the money. There is more money in skitmaking and more current-like and more recognition than movies. I am dropping one today by 7 pm.
Most content creators will never tell you that there is money there. They won’t even encourage you to come into it. Those who love me encouraged me to go into skit-making. One can be a lawyer but the sum total for whatever thing you want to be in life is to be successful. The knowledge would have to be put in good use.
We don’t have much life to live on earth. If you live up to 70 years, life is finished. When you hear life is too short means when you are 70, your life has ended, you are now at the receiving end. That is why the song; Once a man, twice the Child by Bob Marley.
Do you know what killed most of our legendary actors? They weren’t seeing the future. I saw a lot. Before I left the industry, I knew it was going down. What prompted the industry again is the internet. The industry is finished through DSTV and the rest. The movies we shoot in Asaba now, do you know it is not being sold in the market? They sell it to Youtube, then, DSTV will buy the one they will buy. If you shoot a movie for N2m, DSTV will pay you N2m, so what are we doing? We just have to thank the internet. I knew the industry was going, I had to join politics. Luckily for me, nothing much was happening in Abia State, to keep the brain alive, and when my wife told me I had not done a Master’s, I said don’t worry, let me go and study something that would be bigger than your Master’s, I now had to study Law at Abia State University. I will drop the wig and gown, knowing there is an extent you would do things as an entertainer with the wig and gown. Legal practitioners’ disciplinary committee will sanction you.
I will be called to the bar by August, or September.
Talking about the death of some actors recently, what are your thoughts?
Some of us didn’t have foresight. You cannot be in the industry and you are 65 years and you don’t have your own house. Some do not even have a house in the village. In case it is so bad, you can now go back to your village and live. Most villages are a stone’s throw from the town. There is light. There is water. And you can always get your roles from there. Nothing is happening in Lagos and Abuja, everything is in Asaba and Enugu right now except when you want to have sophisticated movies, the ones they call cinema movies, and you get them in Lagos and Abuja, some in Benin. Most of the legends died because of poverty. You cannot be 60-65 years and you are thinking of how to get money to pay for house rent. Most of these problems killed a whole lot of our actors and we don’t know. Most of them didn’t build anything in Lagos because they misused the opportunity. They weren’t seeing tomorrow. Even when we all know that we will die someday, we should also live comfortably and leave one or two for our children. That is how they remember you. Some of them were very irresponsible as well. Now to my colleagues who are dead. It is so painful. I want to use this opportunity to say that Mr. Ibu was a good man. He was one of the actors that I know with a good heart. All through while he was ill, I was at the Law school. Sometimes I would call. I believe that his soul will rest in peace.
Amaechi Muonagor, was a very calm man, may his soul rest in peace. This thing will come to all of us someday. When you are happy that somebody died, give yourself 30, or 40 years, you will die.
Junior Pope, my man, was an epitome of humility. The guy loved to work with his seniors. He will respect you as a veteran. He will tell you that it is you people that we saw before venturing into the industry. His death was devastating. Ibu’s own was anticipated just like Muonagor. But the death that shook me up to date was that of Junior Pope, may his soul rest in peace.
