…Dan-Kazeem, Saka Goro, Others Lament
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Femi Abdul Lateef Adebayo is one of the sons of veteran actor Adebayo Salami better known as ‘Oga Bello’. He is known for his masterly interpretation of scripts and roles in the movies, he has indeed paid his dues in the Yoruba movie industry.
The Ilorin born Oga Bello no doubt had the experience of inner joy, a father whose son has made him proud. Femi was appointed Special Assistant to Governor Abdul Fatah Ahmed on Arts and Culture recently. Within his first two months in office, Femi launched his arrival into the government circle in a big way; it came with a bang that you can hardly ignore. Considering the mood of the nation and the financial challenges faced by the country which trickled down to the states, it was a difficult task pushing the idea of elaborate or any form of event during the Democracy Day celebration but Femi racked his brain and introduced one that not only had an event staged to mark the governor’s fifth anniversary but protected the government from bearing huge financial burden as fund was sourced from major companies in the state, top personalities and individuals. It was a stage play to showcase the different cultures in Kwara State. Ticket for the VIP section went for 5000 naira while it was 2000 naira for the other category.
Odunlade Adekola, Bimbo Oshin, Yinka Qadri, Olaniyi Afonja, Muyiwa Ademola, Fatiha Balogun and others were in town and got featured in the stage play.
An after event party tagged ‘Celebrities Nite’ with all the visiting screen stars in attendance also took place at the Deluxe Arena, a Nite Club run by Yemi George in Kwara Hotel. The programme was the brainchild of another son of Oga Bello, Kunle in partnership with the Deluxe Arena boss. According to a source, money realized as gate fees was agreed to be on a sharing formula of 60/40 and having seen the project as viable, George reportedly invested about 340,000 naira on the programme. The alliance between George and Kunle, however, didn’t end on a good note as George alleged that Kunle absconded after the event and didn’t show up for accounts of the money realized as gate fees. George was busy lamenting his fate to friends five days after the event; efforts to get the Deluxe Arena boss on phone to confirm if the issue had been eventually resolved proved abortive. The stage play titled ‘ASA’ held at the Banquet Hall government house on May 27th has, however, attracted torrent of reactions. While the dude got a thumb up for introducing such a brilliant idea, not many are aware that it caused rumpus and bickering in the Kwara State entertainment sphere and that it earned him knocks too. Cries of marginalization reverberated from the Kwara based artistes, fuming with anger was members of the Kwara State chapter of the Theatre Arts and Motion Pictures Producers Association of Nigeria (TAMPPAN) who levelled allegations of being sidelined and not given due recognition and opportunity to feature in the stage play. Nevertheless, the two camps managed to live above the unease as leaders quickly moved to stem the drift. There is, however, no cause for alarm as things have been under control. It has also been observed that despite being a state where the Bello’s, Ray’s and the Afolayan’s hail from, the situation of things in the Kwara axis of the movie industry is a sad commentary on the records, profiles and legacies of the movie gurus as Kwara is lagging behind when compared to Ibadan, Osogbo and Abeokuta axes where there are a good number of artistes based there who are now screen stars. In this report, Akinlolu Abayomi writes on the intrigues, developments surrounding the issue and spoke to four Kwara based dudes who have spent more than two decades as professional artistes.
ABDUL FATAH DAN KAZEEM –Kwara TAMPPAN Gov.
“For obvious reasons, I am actually reluctant to speak on this issue and you know the effort you made before getting me to talk; well, I heard about the pragramme that it would be done in conjunction with the Art Council and Nollywood, if it were to be the Art Council alone, we wouldn’t have protested because it is a government agency but once you mention Nollywood, it means the film makers, immediately I heard that, I visited Femi and advised him to carry us along as Kwara based practitioners; that we should be involved because culture in Kwara is to be celebrated and that is the theme and he promised to involve us and stated that even TAMPPAN Kwara State was on the proposal to the governor. He even asked me to produce the Yoruba Jingle; I reported back to my people who were already saying he might not get us involved and they took his promise of getting us involved in good faith. He said he would get in touch if the script was ready, but surprisingly, no message came and it was being alleged by members that I had compromised and I called Oga Bello and briefed him and the father assured me that we would be carried along. Dan Kazeem as a person is different from Dan Kazeem, as TAMPPAN Governor we wrote to the government to complain that we are celebrating Kwara culture and not get carried along. It is not a sin that he brought those people as commercial faces; even in films we use commercial faces but we only asked that we should be involved. We are not against him but he should regard Kwara as his base and his main duty is to develop artistes in Kwara. Nothing stopped him from making a local artiste a member of the organizing committee to gain necessary exposure.”
FUNSHO ALIYU
“Was it really Asa Wa? If so, then the likes of Odun, Bimbo Oshin, Sanyeri, Golugo among others shouldn’t be here as we have veteran artistes here. Again, what was the motive behind the Asa Wa? We have enough artistes here better than some of the artistes especially when it involves stage play. But probably they are concerned with the faces and money they intend to make from it. They could spend less with the faces and use the home based artistes, therefore developing the talents here, as it’s said that ‘talent without opportunity is like a cry in the wilderness.”
CHIEF ISIAKA SAHEED a.k.a AWOPEGBA
“How the stage play ‘Asa’ was done was not okay but the programme was okay. TAMPPAN didn’t benefit, we were supposed to be the main beneficiaries but we can’t fight because we are one. We believe it won’t happen again because we have protested and we have resolved the issue. We are the ones based here and know the culture; it is in us we live with it. How would a man from Abeokuta speak Nupe, Ibolo or Ilorin?”
- SEGUN OLORUNFEMI
“The programme had no advantage or disadvantage. Staging a play titled “Asa wa” is not an easy thing. As professional artistes; they would have added more value to it if it had been all inclusive, there is no local government in the state that we don’t have TAMPPAN chapters. The ‘Asa’ event should not have been a day programme, it has to do with the socio-cultural heritages of the people though I wasn’t there but I was told Fatiha Balogun did the symbolic Fulani girl hawking Fura, we would have got members who are real Fulani in Ilorin South to act such a role.”
SAKA GORO
“I would say the simple reason Kwara is far behind in the movie industry is because of religious and social factors. In those days in Ilorin, anyone seen following a theater group around was considered and viewed from negative point, including the parent of such a child. When I left to join Funmilayo Ranco in 1972, it was like I did something sacrilegious. Definitely, a gap was created and it would still take some years to bridge the gap. I have featured in movies like Ogulutu, Opa Afoju, Asiri Nla and even produced my own films like Ona Abayo, Olorun Etutu and Ogun Oloro, in spite that we still don’t have a popular screen star based in Ilorin. Speaking in defence of the Bello family, a close associate of Oga Bello described the veteran actor as peace-loving and one that is not interested in causing trouble in a state he hails from and that Femi acted in good faith.”
–stories by Akinlolu Abayomi
