INTERVIEW: What I Find Most Attractive In A Man — Genevieve Nnaji

Genevieve Nnaji attends the 13th Annual Essence Black Women In Hollywood Awards Luncheon at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel on February 06, 2020 in Beverly Hills, California. Image: David Livingston

AZHU ARINZE’S CONVERSATIONS WITH SHOWBIZ STARS

How does it feel to have risen this far within so short a time?

I’m trying to handle it as much as I can. It feels fulfilling. I feel I’m having the best of my time. I feel the Lord is with me. I feel I have been able to make an impact on people and I have a lot of fans and I’m enjoying my life. It feels good.

To what or whom do you owe all that?

God’s gift, talent, determination, pride …

What do you mean by pride? They say it goes before a fall. And now you are saying it is responsible for your success?

You have to have pride to be able to stand the crowd, you have to have pride to be able to stand the intimidation and arrogance of people. Especially people who feel you have to pay dues to get to where you are going. You have to have the pride and stamina to tell them boldly you know what you are doing; they didn’t bring you to the industry, you will leave when you want to and you leave because you want to.

Where do you want to or hope to be in the next 10 years?

In the next 10 years, I know I will be married with kids. But I think it all depends on what God has fashioned out for me. I know I will still be in the entertainment industry or the fashion world or whatever.

What do you like most about stardom?

The fact that it opens doors for you is what I like most about it. You walk into a place and every other person is queuing up for one thing or the other, they just start to recognize you. Oh! come in, come in… it’s actually a door opener for us or for me. It has brought respect, especially when you do what you are doing well. What I hate most about it is the price that we get to pay for stardom- negative publicity, the untrue scandals; actually, the only thing I hate about is the bad press.

What will you say is the worst story ever written about you in the press?

So many bad things. But the one I hated most was the one of Fred Amata and I, which I don’t know where they got it from. It hurt me so much. It was not just fair.

How do you feel anytime you read negative things about your person in the media?

Certainly, I don’t feel good…

What if the stories are true, but maybe you were not expecting them to be published?

It’s rarely been the truth . Maybe a bit of it, but that’s not how it happened. The press never tells the story the way it is. It’s usually a bit from here and a bit from there. For a very long time, they have not written anything true about me…

How did you come into the movie industry?

I have been acting since I was eight in Ripples. that was how I got into acting. For movies, I think that should be 1998 in Most Wanted. I met Torino (Emeka Ojukwu) in a bus and to my greatest surprise, he recognized me, from Ripples, when I was about eight, nine. He asked why I left the industry. He later invited me to this audition- Most Wanted. I got a role, a ‘waka-pass’ and that was it.

But the story we heard was that Kunle Coker brought you in and that both of you even dated?

Yes, Kunle Coker was actually my boyfriend. But he did not bring me into the industry.

What do you find most attractive in a man?

The fact that a man will take me for who I am, not for what he hears or what he believes. I like people who take me for the me they see. That’s the most important thing. And have regard for me. And trust too.

What do you think is the biggest mistake that men make with women?

Everyone makes mistakes. But to me, I will not tolerate any man who

hits women. To me, that’s evil.

Do you believe in love at first sight?

I believe in infatuation at first sight. Love is a very strong feeling. It does not just come. People think infatuation is being in love. They are two different things. You don’t know anything yet until you get to meet the person and you begin to fall in love. Not just physically, but externally with the person.

Can you recollect the first time you fell in love?

Yes!

Tell us about it.

I think we met at a show. This was when I was in secondary school and we shared a lot of things in common- singing. It was a case of two compatible people who were so much in love with each other and…

So, what eventually happened?

Like I said, relationships must come and go. You can’t help everything that happens. Some things just happen for no reason .

What’s your definition of love?

Love has to be understanding, caring. Love, to me, is being with somebody for 24 hours without being bored. Love is catching your breath every time you see whoever you are in love with· Love is friendship, love is understanding and love is trust.

Do you believe in being faithful in a relationship?

Yeah! I’m very faithful.

Can you date a fan?

I’ve never dated a fan. And I don’t know if I can. But people come around to toast as per fans. But it’s a matter of nicely telling them off. There are different reasons why fans like or love artistes. So, it actually depends on why my fan loves me. It depends. Although, I don’t think it is advisable to date a fan. The reason being that people are in love with what they see on the screen, not the real you.

What’s your greatest wish?

That God continues to bless me. Especially with the right man and a good family.

What’s your favourite colour?

Blue.

What are your hobbies?

Singing, dancing…

Let’s have your bio-data. People don’t seem to know much about you?

I’m from Aboh-Mbaise in Imo State. I went to Kemistar Nursery and Primary School, Surulere; Methodist Girls High School, followed by one in Ikeja. I kept on moving. But ended up at Girls Secondary School, Akwakuma in Owerri, Imo State.

Why have you not furthered your education?

Life is not the same for everybody. Some people are so lucky, they come out of secondary school and they go straight to university because they have the back-up of people and it’s so easy. It looks simple…mine was different. But I’m determined. Definitely, I’m gonna go back to school. I wanted to make money, I love my money, I cherish my own money. So, I will go back when I’ve made enough. But even while I’m there, I won’t stop working.

Tell us about your parents, what do they do?

My parents are there. My mum is a teacher and my dad is retired.

What was your dad into before his retirement?

He was a bank manager with African Continental Bank (ACB) …I’m the fourth of eight children, the third girl. We are four girls, four boys. I come from a very strong Christian family. And I think that has been able to have an effect on my life, especially since I came into the industry. You see, even when people go out to say all sorts, my mother knows the kind of daughter she has. She knows the limit that I can go.

She must have been devastated when you took in, in your teens?

Well, well …I think so.

What was your childhood like?

My childhood was fun. It was fun. You don’t get to get all that these days.

What’s the greatest complement that has ever come your way?

My complexion.

.......VANGUARD

From Living In Bondage To Lionheart: Nollywood's Thorny Path To Its Digital Future

Living in Bondage: Breaking Free, produced by Charles Okpaleke and directed by Ramsey Noah in his directorial debut is a Sequel to the 1992 release.

BY EDWIN OKOLO

In January 2019, American media giant, Netflix, made a splash by premiering Genevieve Nnaji’s directorial debut, Lionheart, exclusively on its streaming service. In a deal brokered by Funa Maduka, months before, at the Toronto International Film Festival, Ms. Nnaji became the first Nigerian filmmaker to debut their project to an international audience in this way, paving the way for the flurry of Nigerian films that would follow in the coming months and closing the circle of digital distribution for online content that began exactly 10 years before with a little show about sexual awareness. To understand how Nigerian media made the leap from video clubs and viewing centers to a winner-takes-all streaming war, we need to go down a tunnel of tax havens, gambling banks and the rise of social currency.

The Internet knocks but once

The first media wave began in 1992 with Living In Bondage (which 27 years later has been revived with a second installment). There are many accounts of how the film was made, but what was not in contention was how successful it became. Funded almost entirely by businessmen turned financiers, the first iteration of Nollywood was almost entirely profit-driven and rode the direct-to-video wave for most of the 90s churning out the bulk of content that today has a second life as Tumblr memes and the subversive work of the sisters behind Instagram account Nolly.Babes. The mass of films from that era eventually led to the rise of the first generation of Nollywood A-listers, whose ascension led to controversies like the G8 ban of 2004, and set in motion the eventual decline of the O.G Nollywood marketer and the rise of what we refer to today as ‘New Nollywood.’ That decline was marked by a decided shift in the viewing habits of Nigerians.

There are many reasons for this decline. The first generation of Nigerians raised on some form of cable television came into adolescence hungry for global content. Piracy soared in response to their demand, competing with and eventually decimating Nollywood pulp cinema.

A presidential order by Olusegun Obasanjo in 2001 led to the introduction of Global Systems for Mobile (GSM) Telecommunication networks into Nigeria. New licenses and impressive waivers on operational taxes drew major South African players MTN to invest in the Nigerian markets and usher in privatised, profit-focused mobile telephony. By 2005, MTN, Glo and Econet had introduced mobile internet services to the media market. A direct consequence of this was that it became significantly easier for young people to not only curate the content that they consumed but to also seek out niche content that was either unavailable because it was currently out of syndication or unavailable because terrestrial television stations could not afford to license them. Hunched over desktop screens and cheap Chinese disc players, Nigerians gorged themselves on content.

The second major catalyst was the Blackberry Internet Service (BIS). A unique feature of the Blackberry Service Suite, created specifically as a business tool for Blackberry, a major mobile player in the 2000’s; the BIS was a closed Internet Service Provider network that clients could access for a certain fee and it offered a heavily discounted alternative to the exorbitant data charges of the mobile networks offering similar services at the time. While created primarily for businesses, the BIS network’s significantly cheaper data services encouraged early experimentation with streaming and downloading of digital content for entertainment. Websites like NotJustOk and Jaguda were the first to capitalize on this new craving for digital media created by Nigerians for Nigerian consumption. Early P2P sharing platforms like Limewire were all the rage.

 

The Academy Awards disqualified Lionheart in its foreign language film category.

The third and most influential catalyst was social media. Before the advent of Facebook in 2004 and Twitter in 2006, it was incredibly difficult to build local communities around media interests. Fandoms were rare in Nigeria, and it was difficult and expensive to organize or participate in events that celebrated mutual interest in any kind of activity. Yahoo Groups and Yahoo 360 had offered rudimentary versions of fan-based platforms but they had been targeted primarily to Western audiences. Facebook groups, however, were easier to navigate and provided a neat and impersonal solution that simply allowed fans of a TV show or musician to ‘opt-in’ to groups and pages that had relevant information about these interests and allowed fans to find each other virtually. By 2010, it wasn’t uncommon to find fan-managed celebrity Facebook groups and pages with 100,000 fans. Twitter would accelerate the process through live-tweeting, real-time reviews and analysis of shows as they aired. Combined with the ‘opt-in’ feature of Twitter’s follow model, fans were incentivised by social currency to offer their opinions on digital content and media companies were more likely to create content that would trigger that kind of engagement.

Social media, in combination with cheaper mobile internet, meant there was a steady stream of conversation happening at any point in time in already segmented audience groups. All that was left was to create media content that specifically catered to the needs of these groups and a pioneer to get things started.

Media moves online
That pioneer turned out to be MTV. The product was MTV Shuga, a YA-oriented television show that drew from the true-grit model of Western tween television shows revolving specifically on how a group of teens and young adults dealt with the fallout of either living with or interacting with people with HIV. The hysteria around HIV was at its peak in 2009 and MTV Shuga was one of the first shows that did an excellent job of destigmatising the condition. The show also launched the careers of Lupita N’yongo and Nick Mutuma. Released originally only to Kenyan audiences, the enduring buzz around the show led to an online release on YouTube and its second season in 2012. The concurrent release of the show online opened MTV Shuga to an otherwise ignored demographic and most likely inspired the showrunners to move the show West to Lagos for a follow-up season. It seems too much of a coincidence that Ndani TV, Guaranty Trust Bank’s innovative media offshoot, was launched in the same year.

MTV Shuga Naija was a runaway success. Like it had with Lupita, the show launched the careers of Dorcas Shola Fapson and Timini Egbuson, proving unequivocally that there was an audience for content accessible only by streaming. There was an audience, primed for conversations, looking for content to engage with.

Until that point, Tajudeen Adepetun of Consolidated Media Associates and AlphaVision Productions had been the only showrunner to find a sweet spot between accessible storytelling and passable execution. He had conquered television with shows like Everyday People & Treasures, and engineered Nigeria’s enduring obsession with Mexican telenovelas but seemed unwilling to expand into digital. Even his archive of beloved television soaps remained in syndication on terrestrial television. It would take the intervention of Nigeria’s banks to change things.

Guaranty Trust Bank was the first to launch a digital media imprint. Ndani TV, its imprint, was launched early 2012 evolving from a quarterly newsletter of the same name. In its primary role as a content marketing platform for the bank, the platform was helmed by Lola Odedina and Jade Osiberu with Mohammed Attah as the channel’s first showrunner. Without any prior experience in creating content specifically for a digital platform, Ndani experimented with interview style shows, before striking gold with scripted web shows. Gidi Up, their first web show, was a huge gamble.

The studio invested heavily in the show’s production values and hired relatively unknown actors as the show’s six leads. Even the choice to have a multi-lead cast and flesh out multiple storylines was a gamble itself. But the storytelling and Osiberu’s understanding of youth culture helped transform their ambitious ideas into a cult-making season of entertainment. Overt with their branding and ruthless with their advertising, Ndani became synonymous with new media; following the success of Gidi Up with tailored shows like the Youtube juggernaut Skinny Girl In Transit and Rumour Has It.

United Bank for Africa, (now defunct) Diamond Bank, and Access Bank launched RED TV and Accelerate TV to carve their own niches on YouTube and tap into the goodwill that Ndani extended to GTB. Emboldened by the success of Ndani’s programming, both platforms began to experiment with finding their own formats. High profile partnerships with EbonyLife’s Temi Abudu and director Kemi Adetiba led to Accelerate TV’s scripted reality TV show On The Real and their wildly successful interview series King Women. RED TV experimented with meta-comedy, hiring comedian Koye Kekere-Ekun to expand his social media shtick into a detective series called Inspector K.

Ndani has remained the front runner in the race to dominate YouTube despite tragedies like the loss of all its footage for a highly anticipated third season of Gidi Up, and scandals like its reactive decision to scrub the Ndani channel of its 2019 show Oga Pastor mid-season to avoid getting entangled in a co-incidental religious scandal involving a high-profile pastor. But it has also lost significant ground to shows like Accelerate TV’s The Shade Corner (which took three years and two seasons to find its level) and RED TV’s surprise hit The Men’s Corner.

The only real contender for the Big Three on YouTube at this time is LowlaDee productions, an independent production company run by Dolapo ‘Lowladee’ Adeleke. Adeleke’s production company made its name with This Is It, a crowd-pleasing rom-com manufactured to leverage the combined West African and East African digital biomes.

A free for all

The big three (Accelerate, Ndani and RED) got a few years’ head start before the technology evolved enough to shed much of the prohibitive costs that had kept independent players from entering the market. Now that those barriers are gone, digital media content is well and truly anyone’s game.

Long-time veteran Jason Njoku, in partnership with his wife and business partner Mary Remmy Njoku, were early adopters of streaming apps whose primarily sell is exclusive, locally created content. Her shows Husbands of Lagos and Festac Town helped streaming platform IrokoTV pivot away from its archive of vintage Nollywood content and build a contemporary fanbase.

The Njokus have been so successful at creating digital content and courting digital audiences that Mary Remmy was able to broker a major takeover deal with French media giant Canal+. The sale speaks to the current state of Nigeria’s digital media and the growth that has occurred in the last decade. Mrs. Njoku’s sale is phenomenal because Rok Studios is less than 5 years old and until its sale was run independent of external funding.

There is, of course, Linda Ikeji’s attempt to expand her media empire beyond blogging with her Linda Ikeji TV streaming service that had early viral shows like King Tonto and Oyinbo Wives of Nollywood. SceneOneTV (owned by Funke ‘Jenifa’ Akindele) is a niche but self-perpetuating vehicle for Akindele’s personal projects that include the now-labored Jenifa’s Diary and a spinoff show, Aiyetoro Town. Even media mogul Mo Abudu got in on the action with EbonyLife ON (which was sold to audiences by exclusively streaming its glossy legal drama ‘Castle and Castle’ on the platform). Streaming is such a competitive market that even DSTV, feeling the burn of digital media, created ShowMax, its own answer to the streaming wars and the primary distribution vehicle, for its big-ticket show, the Big Brother Naija franchise.

An inevitable consequence of the local audiences finally paying top money for their entertainment is that they now have demands. After nearly 8 years of majorly phenomenal press, Ndani suddenly found itself in a maelstrom of bad press. Agitations have long simmered about the firm’s alleged disinterest in the fans’ concerns, as encapsulated by their refusal to release an official statement on Gidi Up, and consequently the decision to pull its preacher thriller, Oga Pastor, off-air mid-season and replace it with Phases, a show shot and released so hastily its working title was changed after the first episode had aired. Fans have openly promised to boycott and are voting with their clicks and money.

How will the next decade of Nigerian film and television media evolve?

It is hard to predict. Nigerian innovators like Joel Benson are already experimenting with 3D imaging and augmented reality in the same market, ‘Asaba Nollywood’ still coughs up enough pulp cinema to keep the poorest Nigerians entertained. However, it is more difficult to predict if the big three will stay fascinated with their content marketing platforms enough to finance them for another decade without a clear path to independence and profitability. Cheaper tools mean Nigerians are directing and attempting ambitious projects at much younger ages than we’ve ever seen; figuring out the logistics of distribution and revenue channels as they go along.

In a nutshell, while the industry has never been this potent, it remains to be seen if this potency will lead to an expansion or an implosion.

Edwin Okolo is a journalist, fashion critic, and artisanal crocheter. He has written for the New York Times, Native Magazine, African Arguments, and Sable Lit. He is the editor-in-chief at YNaija.com

Nnaji's 'Lionheart' Disqualified For The Oscars, Sparks Social Media Uproar

BY YOHANA DESTER

Back in April, the film Academy announced that it was renaming the best-foreign-language-film category to best international feature film. The reason? The term “foreign” felt “outdated within the global filmmaking community,” the Academy said in a press release. At the time it didn’t stir as much of a debate as the quickly scrapped best-popular-film category had the year before. But now the Academy is taking the heat this week because Lionheart, Nigeria’s first movie submitted for best international feature film, has been disqualified, according to the Wrap.

Lionheart, a drama starring and directed by Genevieve Nnaji, was reportedly disqualified because even though it is filmed partly in Igbo, a Nigerian language, it is mostly in English. That means it violates the Academy’s rule that a submission to the category has to have a “predominantly non-English dialogue track.” Voters were made aware that Lionheart would no longer be eligible on Monday, just days before the Academy was set to screen it for voters in Hollywood.

The announcement has sparked a debate online, with some users noting that Nigeria’s official language is English. “Are you barring this country from ever competing for an Oscar in its official language?” Oscar-nominated director Ava DuVernay wrote in a tweet directed at the Academy’s official account.

Nnaji herself also addressed the controversy, responding to DuVernay’s tweet and saying Lionheart “represents the way we speak as Nigerians. This includes English which acts as a bridge between the 500+ languages spoken in our country; thereby making us #OneNigeria.”

“It’s no different to how French connects communities in former French colonies. We did not choose who colonized us,” Nnaji added. “As ever, this film and many like it, is proudly Nigerian.”

The disqualification marks a divide between the category’s name change and its perhaps impractical, uncomfortable application in the real world. As film critic Guy Lodge noted on Twitter, the broader title does not specifically disqualify films in English, even if the rules do. “If you permit an English-language film from Nigeria to compete, then you have to permit English-language films from the UK, Canada, Australia, etc, to compete,” he wrote. “If you do that, the category's purpose in giving a platform to under-represented cinema is effectively compromised.” After all, he noted, best picture should technically be the best international film.

But perhaps the disqualification should come as no surprise to Oscar watchers. As Bong Joon-ho recently declared in a Vulture interview, the Oscars “are not an international film festival. They’re very local,” a sly burn of the century that highlight the awards ceremony’s myopic view of the global film community. Meanwhile, Bong’s latest film, the Korean-language Parasite is predicted as one of the front runners of the best international film category.

Lionheart’s disqualification now brings the number of international film contenders from 92 to 93 entries. Qualified films in the category will be announced on October 7.

Uche Elendu Interview

Uche Elendu. Image: Google

BY YETUNDE OLADEINDE

Uche Elendu is a popular actress and producer. In this interview with Yetunde Oladeinde, she opens a window into her world and speaks about things that make her tick.

IT is the tail end of 2019, how has the year been for you?

I am having a fantastic year. I am so fulfilled. God has been very faithful this year. This year has been an amazing year. I have achieved a lot of my goals; meeting my expectations. Though the year is not yet over, I have been able to achieve all my goals for 2019.

What’s your best achievement so far?

For me, it would be setting up my personal brand and pushing it to limelight. In addition, I have also been helping a lot of women to achieve confidence with their body which is something I am really passionate about. I feel so fulfilled that my brand is reaching out to a lot of people and they are getting good results. Also working on my personal movie this year. I hope to get it to the cinema this year. The plan to start filming has taken off and I must say that things are falling into place; the right way and I am grateful. One other amazing thing is getting sponsors in my favour. Things are really working in my favour.

Your fans have been asking if you took a break from acting recently?
I didn’t take any break from movies; it is my first love. So, I am still very much in the sector. The only thing that happened is that I only slowed down because the movie sector doesn’t pay like before. Of course, it isn’t as if I am into movies just for the money, but it is my job. So I am supposed to make a living out of it.

Recently, there have been a number of challenges, especially privacy issues. That is why producers no longer invest in movie productions. There was a drop in the production and marketing of movies. That’s the main reason most of us decided to go into other businesses to boost our finance.

Tell us about your favourite movie(s) in 2019?
For me, my favourite movies in 2019 are Lion King and Aladdin.

What are the things that you won’t do in the name of fashion?
I will not be caught dressed scantily in the name of fashion even if it’s the trend. That, I think, is what I would not do when it comes to fashion.

What was your greatest challenge as an actress?

My greatest challenge as an actress was having to choose between my marriage and my career. I just got married at the time and I would refer to this as the peak of my career and I had to face family life. I got pregnant almost immediately, so I had to deal with being absent from the scene and also trying to come back three months after having my baby. I also recollect going to location with my little baby and having my husband frown at it. I must say that it was not easy to reconcile. So, I had to give movies a break. 

When was the turning point for you?

That would be my bounce back in 2012. I had given acting a long break and decided to come back with an A game and that was when I was given a script to film an Igbo movie titled “Ada Mbano”. Unfortunately, I lost the role due to my inability to speak the Igbo dialect required, that almost threw me into depression because that was the kick I needed to bounce back. However, another opportunity came with Seven rivers where I brought in the A game I had nursed and by God’s grace the movie hit the market big time.

Let’s talk about life as an actress. How did it all begin?

Well, it all started over 10 years ago when I was still in the university. At that point, I got introduced by a friend to her father who was a veteran actor at the time. He saw the talent and passion I had in interpreting roles. That was the beginning for me and he decided to give me the opportunity to express myself. That was a great turning point; you can see where I am today.

I must also say that life as an actress has its up and downs. The popularity is a plus and also a minus too. Once you step out of your house, automatically you become other people’s business. I don’t usually have that freedom to do what I used to do freely before, like taking strolls, going to the market and so on. But all the same, I thank God because it is by His grace that I am where I am today.

Asides acting, what else are you into?
I’m into beauty generally. I am a beautiful woman and I know what it takes to keep being beautiful. So, I have extended this to other women who don’t know how to keep their body in good shape after delivery. I am also into skincare, hair, body sculpting, everything that makes a woman beautiful. I actually run a beauty store basically.

What prompted the birth of your product known as Killer Curves?

It is the passion for beauty, passion for looking good, passion for helping women to achieve their beauty goals. It is actually something that I’m passionate about and fortunate to benefit from. Interestingly, it was a product that I was introduced to by a friend of mine in the United States. It was very good for waist training. So, I gave it a shot for like five months and when I came back to Nigeria, everybody was complementing my new look. It was a very exciting experience for me at that time. Then I thought if I could achieve this for such a time, why would people risk going under the knife for same purpose? So, I ordered for a few friends of mine and after using it for a while, they all said to me, ‘Uche, this thing really works. This is really good.’ That’s how I decided to do more research on it with the mind of making a living out of this. After that particular experience, I travelled and checked other products.

I can now proudly say that I have the best effective waist product in Nigeria.

I really wanted to touch lives with my products and Killer Curves gave me that satisfaction. I was able to touch lives and help women achieve their body goals without surgery.

I started in November 2018. That was when I brought my first batch of products.

So far, it has been awesome.

How does Killer Curves work?

Killer Curves has different kinds of products that include what I call the sculpting garment. I gave it that name because of the way it defines the body. It flattens the body, takes inches off the waist, lifts the breast and has a butt lifter. I made sure I have the best quality ever with the sculpting garment. I make very little profits from it, but seeing the customers satisfaction makes me more fulfilled.

I also have waist trainer, slimming product that burn fats and detoxifies the body. They work together with the waist trainer and sculpting garment.

To achieve a curvy shape, can one combine dieting and exercising?

Yes, we have the fitness belt, strictly for exercise. Slim teas; I give diet plans to my client. I advise you do not eat late night foods and take lots of fruits, water, vegetables.

You need to diet and exercise for longevity and good health. So, yes, our products work with diet or without diet and exercise.

With constant usage, you would get amazing results. My products are the best in the market. I did a lot of research before I kicked off mine.

As a business woman, how do you feel reading or listening to great feedbacks from your customers?

I cannot estimate the way I feel about the reviews I get about my product; feedbacks, referrals and I’m like so amazing. When I check my Instagram business pages and see lots of women praying for me, thanking me, I feel touched. I am excited women are getting their desired shapes back. It doesn’t come easy, but with consistency.

I feel it’s an idea God put in me. So, with my product, we put things together to make every woman appreciate and love her body again. It might take time but there must be adherence to instructions and determination; nothing good comes easy. We have products for high, middle and low classes for everyone to partake.

By the grace of God we have gotten a store in Lekki Phase 1, where people can come in and consult, fit their product and size. I’m totally grateful to God for everything.

You picked some Nollywood colleagues as your ambassadors, what did you spot in them?

Actually, I have only one actor as my ambassador, which is Destiny Etiko. I picked her because she’s one person that encouraged me in the business. When I started my business, she bought my products, used them, was supportive and told her social media followers about the product. She’s also a hard working girl, uses herself as an example because she has killer curves. She is the Killer Curves Queen.

So, I don’t regret using her as an ambassador.

You run multiple businesses; you act, produce and a proud mum of two, how do you cope with them all?
Yes, I run multiple businesses. From CEO Killer Curves, CEO Lendy Hair and more, I’m also a mother of two lovely children and I’m an actor extra ordinary.

Actually, I won’t say it’s easy as an entrepreneur that’s still trying to get her brand well recognised because I have to be in the picture at all times. My business is not something I can employ people to run. Killer Curves has like four staff, Lendy Hair has like two staff. I have people handling my social pages, those in charge of logistics and taking orders. But it’s not enough; it’s something that has to do with the body, so I have to be there. It’s not easy. It is very tasking and I have to create a time table for myself. Of course, I have kids that are my world. But I also have siblings that help them with their home works. I also have an amazing mother that comes around whenever I’m out of the country for a shoot to make sure I keep in touch with my kids. So, basically, I try to attend to every responsibility in a very responsible way.

How do you find time to relax?

I actually find time to relax and my relaxation is spending time with my kids. I’m not really an outgoing person. You can’t find me out there except I’m really forced by friends or someone close is celebrating something. Apart from that, my best moment is when I’m home with my kids. I try as much as possible when I can afford it to go on a vacation with my kids. I eat, sleep, read and search online. Basically, that’s what I do as my relaxation moment.

You made a post in Instagram recently on finding and keeping a good woman; would you say you haven’t been lucky with love and relationship?

I was talking about relationship. I was trying to let men know that good women are scarce. So, when you find one, learn to protect her, love and appreciate her efforts. Make her happy. There are lots of women out there but we have very few good women. Most women out there are materialistic, wicked; they are out to frustrate men because they have been hurt. So, when you get a woman that loves you unconditionally with or without money, appreciate her. Not all women are materialistic; some women just want you to show them love, most of them go to church to pray for their husbands to have money, pray for their husbands’ protection and favour. Most spend their last card on their husbands to make sure they are happy but at the end what they get is rejection. Their husbands leave them to follow slay queens that will suck the little one they are able to get. It doesn’t have anything to do with my personal life. It is just painful and obvious that’s it happening in our society today, that’s why marriages are crashing.

Men feel that when they marry a woman or probably she’s given them a child, then she doesn’t have any other place to go. They prefer to go out and look for those slim girls, wearing bum short, that’s why I say women should stop tying wrapper at home. They should buy Killer Curves, shape up their bodies, so that your man will respect you. So, in one way or the other, men appreciate women because of their looks.

Respect your woman, give her a sense of belonging. Show her love, do not drive her into depression. That’s why I advise that if the marriage is violent and you can’t bear it anymore, my dear, run for your life. Being single is better than single in the casket. I’m not in any way encouraging divorce but rather men love your wives. Women should also know their worth, love their husbands and be faithful. But never stay in a toxic relationship. Run for your dear life. What makes a good marriage?

Understanding, tolerance, love God. Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. When you have a woman that fears God, the marriage is bound to work, but when you have a woman that fears God and a man that doesn’t and you try to make the man fear God and he refuses, be at alert. Because people that fear God are conscious; they do things because they feel He owns their life.

For me, my say is before a woman goes into marriage, make sure it is with a man that fears God, loves, tolerates, share thoughts together and understands you well.

The two parties should love each other, tolerate each other, pray together and share ideas together.

Again, celebrity marriages keep crashing, what’s your take and fear on this scary trend?
Talking about celebrity marriages, I really don’t like to talk about that. Celebrities are human beings and as much as celebrity marriages crash, other marriages around the world also crash. It’s not about being a celebrity, it’s just about the individuals involved in the union.

Marriage is the coming together of two different people with two different opinions, different backgrounds, different understanding of life and marriage, so when that mutual understanding is not there, it’s a big problem. Most men feel insecure and threatened when they marry celebrities as wives. They are jealous because their wives are celebrities and most likely have more fame, more money, meet a lot of people out there and all that.

Most people feel female celebrities always cheat. It is not always that way in most cases. Celebrity women have admirers; they are also admired by their fans, they have male colleagues. But their ability to keep these relationships cordial is the main issue. I don’t like to hear people say female celebrity marriages don’t last.

Do you have any project you’re working on currently?

I am working on my new movie and also my physical store for Killer Curves. Most times when you do online store, people would also want to see you. I will still do a formal opening very soon, but for now, people can walk into the shop and get their desired products; Killer Curves, slimming tea, etc.

What is your definition of style?
Comfortability. I want to be comfortable and classy with what I do, how I dress, where I go to; so I don’t get into undue pressure and get unnecessary attention. Style is all about being yourself. It’s as short as that. For me, I do the things I am comfortable doing, wear what fits me, and never settle for less. Just as all human beings are different in some ways, so are our styles. So anyone who tries to be like another person automatically has no style. That’s the way I see it.

What are some of the items that you treasure most in your wardrobe?
I’m not particularly vain or materialistic but I treasure every wardrobe item; the handbags, jewelleries, shoes, the outfit itself, perfumes and so on, because all these make me complete when I go out.

If you had to advise young people, what would you tell them?

Everything can be achieved by hard work and determination. Never back down on your dreams. You can achieve anything you want if only you set your heart towards it and always talk to God about anything because He is the one to make it happen.

SOURCE: THE NATION

'The Lost Okoroshi': Film Review - TIFF 2019

Image: TIFF

BY JOHN DEFORE

A revered spirit possesses a frightened man in Abba Makama's semi-comic take on tradition versus contemporary mores.

A security guard who spends his days lamenting urban detachment has a startling encounter with the past in The Lost Okoroshi, Abba Makama's semicomic tale of spiritual possession. Set in Lagos, it imagines the man transforming into a spirit that, for generations, has been represented by masked dancers in Igbo ceremonies. The result is low-key mayhem whose impact on characters' lives has a fable-like quality, weighty only in its reflection of real-world cultural concerns. Certain aspects of the film sync up well with hipster American tastes — though the label "Afrofuturism" doesn't quite apply here, its use will draw appropriate attention — making this the rare Nigerian film with some potential in stateside art houses. (The kinship is especially strong in the film's synth-heavy soundtrack, which pairs new music by Shay Who with recent rediscoveries by the late Nigerian funkster William Onyeabor.)

Raymond (Seun Ajayi) is plagued by nightmares in which costumed men dance and chase him, catching up to him just as he jolts awake. When he shares these dreams over palm wine with Okonkwo (Chiwetalu Agu), a man he calls "chief," the older man chides the "city boy" for knowing so little about his heritage. These are the kind of masquerades that routinely visited communities in the past; though the city's evils now prevent spirits from manifesting fully, these dreams are ancestors sending Raymond a message.

Maybe Raymond, who lives in the country but works in a Lagos high-rise, is sensitive to such visions because of his skepticism about the lives of those he works for: He and a co-worker spend their days (when not ogling the women who pass by) mocking the smartphone-zombies who rush through their building's lobby without looking up. Whatever the reason, the spirits of the past soon do more than send messages: Raymond awakens from one dream wearing the costume of his main pursuer, a figure with an Okoroshi mask and a cloak of purple-dyed raffia. He can't take it off, and he can't speak, so it takes an uncomfortably long time for Raymond's wife Nneka (Judith Audu) to understand the creature in her bed is her husband. Before she can get him help, though, Raymond vanishes — teleporting against his will to some strange part of the city. (Nneka literally falls out of her seat when Raymond disappears, which gives you an idea how slapstick and magic collide here; playful jump-cuts extend the vibe of art-conscious farce.)

Voiceless but gifted with some supernatural powers, the Okoroshi seems at first like an accidental superhero; he saves a prostitute's life and, when that's not enough for her, he comes up with the money her homicidal trick refused to pay her. A young boy called Willy Willy (Ejetareme Ajotubu Micheal, giving the film's most entertaining performance) takes the mystery man under his wing, aiming to monetize his attention-getting appearances. He rambles energetically about "packaging" while the Okoroshi dances on street corners, being showered with bystanders' money as if he were a stripper.

Willy Willy isn't the only stranger with his own agenda for the costumed man. A local academic who learns of the phenomenon quickly weaves it into his understanding of the "conduits" through which traditional tribal energies emerge into "the chaos of urban Nigerian life." And a secret society of Igbo traditionalists actually kidnap the spirit, bringing him back to their headquarters to worship him and debate how he can aid their agenda.

In a very long scene, the squabbling among these activists seems to reflect Makama's own amused dismissal of those who would lay personal claim to vanishing cultures. But as the Okoroshi encounters more of Lagos' dark side, witnessing poverty, pollution and violent crime, it's clear the movie isn't just a joke. The scholar returns at the film's end, promising that in a world as imbalanced as this one, further eruptions of ancient spirit energy are inevitable. As the credits roll, we see images of a menagerie of wildly costumed performers. What the film doesn't acknowledge is that these photos are from ceremonies held not in Nigeria but all over Europe; they're from a dazzling photo book called Wilder Mann, whose author Charles Freger has shot similar subjects in Asia and the Americas. The tacit implication is that central Africa isn't the only place where ancient knowledge and technology-driven civilization are in disharmony, and that things are going to get weirder until cultures everywhere do a better job reconciling modern preoccupations with timeless concerns.

Production company: Osiris Film and Entertainment
Cast: Seun Ajayi, Judith Audu, Tope Tedela, Ifu Ennada, Chiwetalu Agu
Director-producer-editor: Abba Makama
Screenwriters: Abba Makama, Africa Ukoh
Executive producers: Rimini Makama
Director of photography: Mike Omonua
Composer: Shay Who
Venue: Toronto International Film Festival (Discovery)
Sales: Osiris Film and Entertainment

In Igbo, Pidgin English and English
Rated PG, 94 minutes

SOURCE: HOLLYWOOD REPORTER