APOLOGIES to Cinema Kpatakpata for borrowing the title of their award-winning film to illustrate the drama that has engulfed the Nigerian film Industry in the last few days over the appointment of a University lecturer as the new Managing Director of the Apex film agency, the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC).
Not a Marine Engineer after all. He is also not Danjuma Dado, as many had speculated, But Danjuma Wurim Dadu, as we were later to find out. I sympathize with the two Danjumas who had earlier rushed to the Information Ministry, laying claims to the position. A movie on that scenario could make a good comic – a laughable drama on wishful thinking by the wrong Danjumas and on the other side, a careless government for not preempting the friction.
In accepting the ‘correct’ Danjuma, perhaps the film industry should take consolation in the fact that, George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars movies was just a race-car driver, who spent most of his high school years racing on the underground circuit at fairgrounds and hanging out at garages. There is also, James Cameron, who studied Physics and English, but did several jobs such as truck driving before his landmark successes as a film director, film producer, screenwriter and editor. What about Harrison Ford who was a carpenter, and Sylvester Stallone, who was a Lion cage cleaner?
Even then, some filmmakers have thought about the creativity endowed in human beings and didn’t rule out Danjuma completely. They had thought of the fact that he could have some knowledge of film. They had hoped that in a worst case scenario, he would have been an administrator or project coordinator somewhere with proven leadership and managerial qualities. But behold, the new Managing Director of NFC happened to be someone handpicked by divine favour; the kind of favour that religious people pray and fast for; asking God to give them unmerited blessings. Our Danjuma got it; just by earning a PhD and teaching at a University for about two years. And guess what, he teaches at the Department of Building, Faculty of Environmental Design. There is no evidence that he has any professional affinity to film, except that on his facebook page, he seems to be a lover of music. Yes, music… Isn’t soundtrack a part of the substance of a movie?
Now that other aspirants have been beaten hands down, we can only hope and pray, that Oga Dadu will turn out to be that unassuming messiah that the film industry needs, irrespective of his inexplicable transition from ‘building’ profession to the art, business and politics of filmmaking. One of the prayer points must also be that God should make him a fast learner, a listening leader and charismatic person, who will be good at steering the ship of existing technocrats? After all, isn’t he supposed to be just an administrator?
However, this is a case of mixed reactions, and as it appears, only the man wearing the shoe knows where it pinches. If acclaimed moralists have got the powers, the word ‘selfishness’ could have been expunged from the dictionary, but if that were to be done, can it be undone from the human psyche? Are we all not selfish by nature, and is this not the reason that a pastor will profess ‘unmerited favours’ for his church members even when he knows that someone will be at the receiving end of that grace? Isn’t it true that one man’s smile is another man’s frown? Otherwise, why would someone work as a civil servant for about 20 or 25 years and at the peak of his career, a man who has worked elsewhere just for two years, in an unrelated profession, is brought to take his place in the name of political appointment?
But even at the Civil Service level, why should headship be a factor of turn-by-turn? Isn’t merit the reason that the private sector is competitive and progressive? Why must headship also be for the most senior? Couldn’t government get people in directorship position tested as potential administrators? Also, why leave people in acting capacity for so long, creating room for ‘ambition’ and so much inactiveness in the system. Just thinking… Thinking still, how much has the industry benefitted from the leadership of administrators who are knowledgeable in the art of film? Pushing their shortcomings aside, how much could they have achieved with so much politicking and bureaucracy in the system? So much confusion about who we are and what we want… even writing this piece is as imprecise as I would have loved it.
So much agitation to review the appointment of Dadu now, when the film industry could have jointly proposed people it trusts long before government made an independent choice. Why would government listen to such agitations now, when between the expiration of the tenure of the erstwhile administrator and now, they had individually lobbied themselves for this position? Why would government respect the views of the filmmakers now? So much confusion in the film industry, so much marking time without matching, but the show must go on!
