Domestic Violence. Aren’t we all guilty?

Akolade Lukeman Arowolo allegedly beat his wife and the woman died. Titilayo Oyakhire was a beautiful hardworking mother. Now she’s dead. Her three year old daughter will grow up without a mother and a father.

Domestic violence in Nigeria didn’t start with this family unfortunate lady and sadly won’t end with them. But it is not only Akolade that should be tried for Titilayo’s murder but the entire Nigerian society. From the mother who insists there will be no divorce in her family to the church who constantly harps on submission to the journalist whose only question to celebrities is the date of their marriage.

It’s easy for us to all play sanctimonious now and rebuke the late Titilayo for not leaving her husband while she could. But could she really? Had she gone to her family or any of her friends, would they have taken her in?

An acquaintance of mine was being battered by her husband, one day her brother walked in on them, gave the guy the beating of his life and took his sister out but as soon as he returned to his abode in Canada, the mother took her right back, claiming there was no room for divorce in their family.

When Monalisa Chinda walked out on her marriage, the media went crazy. She was labelled names that I cannot type here. Nobody wanted to know the reason, because the reason didn’t matter, in Nigeria you are supposed to marry and stay married. Period. The name calling even extended to the friend who took her in.

I just read excerpts from a Genevieve Nnaji’s interview in Tell Magazine. You would think that with all the lady’s achievements, the interview would centre on her works, but it doesn’t, it’s the same old marriage questions.

We have made marriage more important than life, than happiness, than the fulfilment of dreams.

We’ve lost Titilayo but we don’t have to lose another woman at least not by the hands of her husband. We die from too many things already in Nigeria, accidents caused by bad roads, during childbirth due to poor hospital infrastructures, and very recently bombings and more.

Several women have been wounded, maimed, killed in marriages. We can help stop or reduce this by reducing the pressure on women to marry. It would be nice if the media were not so interested in the marital status of our celebrities, if our parents were not so eager to marry us off and hear the cries of their grandchildren, and the church, oh, the church did not make the man feel so superior and the woman the greatest sinner for not attending to his whim.

As Akolade gets charged to court, let us each charge our conscience.

The Youths are not smiling.

And the president said, let there be food, and there was. And he saw that the food was good, so he made it better by adding money.


Social media has been agog with news of the Lunch with the president. Was it right? Was it not right? Gloria Edozien, who attended the lunch but left before money was shared has an interesting piece on Bella Naija. Most of the comments do not condemn the lunch in itself, but the distribution of money to youths. The money is rumoured to have ranged from 50,000 to 150,000. Some group leaders may have received up to 500,000, it is said. A commenter asked why it was clouded in silence? I wonder too. Most of the invited youths blog and tweet every few minutes but apart from Tolu Ogunlesi who was several miles away, I did not see it mentioned until after the lunch. It sounds awfully suspicious, like they knew there would be more than just lunch. But twitter or no twitter, we still heard.

It is said that you cannot claim to be a thief until you have been in a position to steal and you didn’t steal. So since I was not at the lunch, was not offered any bribe, sorry, transport money. I will not point accusing fingers at anybody. I am however concerned that it is these same people who chewed D’banj and spat him out for accepting to interview the president. They said he was paid to do so, said he was not a true representative of the Nigerian youths. And I asked, who is the better representative? The bloggers, the twitterers, the ones who sit in the comfort of their homes and claim to be youth activists? While I am not undermining the impact of social media or anybody’s effort at change, it bothers me when these people feel superior to others. When they think that university degrees place them higher than the youth on the street. In my opinion D’banj is the better representative; he is hustler and has achieved much success in spite of.

I am extremely concerned about how our president is doling out money. There have been several gatherings of such in recent times and each time money was shared. 500 people were invited for the lunch, let’s say 400 got the minimum amount shared, that would be 400x50,000=NGN20,000,000. Imagine what this would do in equipping one General Hospital in the country? Could the youths not have said no, we don’t want money, use the money to buy ultrasound machines for hospitals etc and used their activism experience to ensure this is done? But in true Nigerian style, we collected the money, thereby justifying Government’s spending, tomorrow we ask that they be probed.

These youths may have smiled home with money in their pockets but there are several youths on the streets, homeless ,jobless, powerless and these youths are not smiling.

To be a youth activist, you must first be an altruist. Are there any still standing?

MONALISA CHINDA CATWALQS WITH STYLE

In Nigeria today, women are expected to marry, never mind if they have to drag the man screaming to the altar, they are also expected to stay married, never mind if the man is beating here everyday and may soon send her to her grave. And should you decide to go against these traditional beliefs and remain single or get a divorce, then all hell will break loose. You’d think it’s a criminal offence in Nigeria to be 35 and above and still single and worse to be divorced. Our society seems to hate it when women succeed without men beside or over them as the case may be.

But in spite of this, some single women have continued to rise in their chosen careers.

From Funmi Iyanda who was recently honoured by the World Economic Forum as a 2011 Young Global Leader.

To Peace Anyiam Asigwe who runs one of the biggest African movie Awards.

To Emem Isong who is one of Nigeria’s most successful producers.

To Evelyn Oputa, the managing director of Bank of Industry, to mention but a few.

Monalisa Chinda is one of these women, having gone through a messy divorce where her ex husband granted interviews to as many press people as he could, she’s still come out with her head held high.
When asked why she didn’t respond to any her ex-husband’s allegations, she very simply replies that she has a daughter to protect and that the truth was very boldly written between the lines of his allegations, if anybody had cared enough to look.

‘Catwalq is one of the biggest things I have done professionally; it’s not a comeback as I never went anywhere in the first place. When you’re divorced or sometimes even widowed in Nigeria, people always find ways to make it the woman’s fault. You’re expected to cower in shame and fear for the rest of your life. But for God, good friends, fans and family who have been with me through all the pain and hurt, I, too, like other broken women, may never have been able to hold my head high.’

Catwalq tells the story of three ladies who run a fashion magazine. It follows their work, passions and travails. Lisa plays the role of a single mother in the movie but insists it’s not the story of her life. ‘I wasn’t even part of the story writing’ she says.

Catwalq has something for everyone, it was important to me that we didn’t leave anyone out.
Asked why she chose to invest in a soap as against a movie, she responds that the soap opera ,Heaven’s Gate brought her to fame and it was only natural to produce one, perhaps as a way of giving back to the society that had given her so much.

‘I also wanted to discover new talents to whom I can one day pass the baton. In soaps, you don’t necessarily need to use stars, the entire cast of Catwalq were newcomers to the industry.’
On her last words to the newcomers in Nollywood, she says: ‘Hard work, hard prayer, hard faith.’

Catwalq will hit TV screens in the 2nd quarter of 2011.

Enjoy some pictures from the set of Catwalq below.

Happening this month.

Anchor baby which premiered on the tenth of december continues to show in cinemas across Nigeria.

Through the glass: Out on dvd.Available in stores nationwide.

Bursting out: Out on dvd in America.

COMING SOON

Tango with me

Memories of my heart

Ma'ami

Black Gold.

Watch this space.

The new Sodom and Gomorrah

I know recently there have been a lot of sex movies in the market but most of them have come from Ghana so I have ignored them. Until yesterday, when I saw the trailer of Dirty Secrets. It's probably all in a bid to sell( I understand these movies are hot in demand) more copies but isn't this stooping a little low? Particularly when popular acts are involved?

Do people actually find these things interesting? I think nudity on the black man looks disgusting.

Surely there must be other ways to get the public attention. We are an African nation please: discretion and moderation being some of our core values. Let us not lose everything that we are for a few wads of naira.

Most families watch Africa Magic in the evenings with their children, never mind that it is 9pm and the movies are rated 18. Makes you remember Frank Oliseh: 'It's 9pm, do you know where your children are'.

Should these movies make it to cable, will our children be watching these soft porn movies? The movies are obviously not censored. There's no way they would get past censors baord with such graphic details.

Below are some of the trailers. As one of my favourite TV characters,John Cage would say, I am troubled.

Great Movie Trailers.

Holding Hope leads the bunch with this amazing trailer.



Inale follows. I think the cinematograpghy is just awesome.




Then there's Bursting Out.



It just keeps getting better.

Holding Hope and Bursting Out will premiere this sunday, 8th August,2010. We will keep you posted on the release date of Inale.

Kajola

People say that Nollywood is dying but optimists like us insist the industry is being rebirthed. Kajola is a futuristic drama/action movie directed by Niyi Akinmolayan.

Kajola is the Yoruba word for commonwealth. In the year 2059, Nigeria becomes a totalitarian state. After a second civil war, the rich relocate to the Island areas of Lagos state and turn it into an ultra modern city. The war torn mainland of lagos state is disconnected and abandoned.



A rebel leader, Allen learns of a plot code named kajola to build cities on the mainland and eliminate the remaining survivors. He leads a rebellion against the government and must be stopped by Yetunde, the police chief. Though mortal enemies, both discover that everything they thought they knew was nothing but lies. It’s a story of love and lust and it heightens the fact that if we don’t deal with the segregation and negligence issues facing the country today, then our future is quite predictable because TOMORROW IS TODAY.

The movie shows at Silverbird cinemas, V.I from the 30th of July. Make it a date. I would usually not be interested in sci- fi but coming from one of our own, I'll be sure to see it.

Congratulations Niyi!