Showing posts with label History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label History. Show all posts

Monday, December 4, 2023

The Cinematographer


In the beginning The Cinematographer came to us in the cloak of black and white and we gazed spellbound in awe of the cinematic universe.





















The Cinematographer 

- by  Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, an NFT art to be up for exhibition and auction on Opensea and Artprice before Christmas.

This is the final part of The Cinematographer in total abstract of the same image.
The Cinematographer is going to attract many bidders when it is up for exhibition and auction. Because, it really an awesome of genius. A unique masterpiece of artwork in celebration of the cinematographer that has never been done before in such magnificence in the history of Fine Arts and NFTs. 
Please, if you have seen a better artwork celebrating the cinematographer before this one, let me know.
To me, it is priceless like my "Signature of God" on. the Algorand blockchain.

This is a special artwork in honour of cinematographers in film and TV productions. 
They are the painters on whose painters on whose palette the art of storytelling in motion picture is made. 

You cannot capture any image in motion picture without a cinematographer. 
Imagine a painting without colours.
Imagine a cart moving without a donkey or horse.
Imagine car without an engine.
Imagine a life without a soul.
Then imagine a film or TV production without the  cinematographer.

There is no creation without the creator. 

The Cinematographer is the painter of the painting on the canvas.

A director without a cinematographer is like driver driving a car without engine.

- By EKENYERENGOZI Michael Chima.
© All rights reserved. No copying, duplication and reproduction of any part of this content in any format of media without the authorization and permission of Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima and International Digital Post Network Limited.

#cinematographer
#cinematography
#cinema
#motionpicture
#director
#filmmaking
#filmmakers
#filmproduction
#tv
#art
#nft
#auction
#exhibition
#celebration
#masterpiece
#artwork
#artform
#finearts
#history
#bidders
#genius
#painting
#canvas
#pallete
#car
#engine
#donkey
#horse
#creation
#imagination
#opensea
#artprice
#algorand


Saturday, November 18, 2023

Nigeria: O Tempora O Mores, Sic Transit Gloria Mundi



Nigeria: O Tempora O Mores, Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

There is an epidemic of intellectual ignorance among the majority of Nigerians in Nigeria, including those who claim to be graduates of tertiary institutions, but are still intellectually challenged in logical and rational analysis of the vicissitudes of life and the essence of human civilization. 

Then there is a facade of conceit and deceit by the elites who are posing and posturing in affluence and opulence of the luxuries of the status symbols of their hypocritical society.
Money can buy lifestyle of luxury.
But money cannot buy class.
You don't need to be rich to have class.
You cannot have class without dignity, integrity and nobility.
You must appreciate the high values of the virtues of life.

A Fraudster can afford to live in a palatial mansion and buy expensive posh cars and SUVs and fly on private jets and dress in Gucci, Dior, Armani.and Versace and drink Champagne. But the Fraudster is still beneath the men and women of dignity, integrity and nobility.
All that glitters is not gold.

You must understand the difference between a life of pretence and a life that is the true essence of human existence.
You must know the difference between fallacy and legacy.

In the next 100 to.1000 years in the world if the Earth is still in existence, students.and scholars will be reading and studying Wole Soyinka and his peers and the intelligentsia of our generation. But all the mobs of the intellectually retarded and multitudes of this generation would be forgotten in the sands of time. 
I know the time frame of everyone and everything in Nigeria and the rest of the world in the history of civilization.

Everyone has a story.
But not everyone will make history.

- Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
Author of "The Prophet Lied", "Diary of the Memory Keeper" and other books distributed by Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other booksellers.
Saturday, November 18, 2023 
Lagos, Nigeria.


Thursday, September 14, 2023

The Beginning of NFT Series on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu

The Beginning of NFT Series on  Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu 

Freshly minted NFT of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on the Algorand blockchain.  https://nftmyimage.com/@nigeriadaily

The first in my series on the highlights of the milestones of the administration from 2019-2027. This is the first ever for a state governor not only in Nigeria, but also in Africa.

The documentary NFTs will last longer than photographs, films and videos for history and for posterity.

The crypto currency prize for this one is 20 ETH .

t is for the exclusive collection of the Governor gratis. NOT FOR SALE.

The other NFTs in the series will be in different formats of media.

#NFTs
#NFT
#governorbabajidesanwoolu
#Governor
#Lagos
#Nigeria
#Africa
#nftdocumentary
#nftseries
#history 
#government 
The live Algorand price today is $0.092747 USD with a 24-hour trading volume of $18,040,716 USD. 




Saturday, August 19, 2023

Oppenheimer: So, You’ve Watched the Film – Now Find Out How It Was Made


Hoyte van Hoytema ASC NSC FSF on Oppenheimer

WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION


The latest collaboration between Hoyte van Hoytema ASC NSC FSF and Christopher Nolan sees them take on their most groundbreaking creative project yet, bringing the fascinating true story of “father of the atomic bomb”, theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, to the screen
So, you’ve watched the film – now find out how it was made in our latest Long Read, available for 48 hours only!
 
Along with its pink-hued peer Barbie, Oppenheimer has been one of the cinematic stars of the summer. Christopher Nolan’s latest epic, a biopic of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, saw the director team up once again with visionary DP Hoyte van Hoytema ASC NSC FSF on their most groundbreaking creative project yet.
 
Find out more about van Hoytema’s lensing choices, including his “magic mix” of IMAX and more “workhorse” 65mm cameras, the challenges of shooting black-and-white on big format, and developing custom optics with Panavision’s Dan Sasaki.
 
“I love building things,” the DP says of his creative cinematography. “I always get a big kick out of enabling shots or enabling ways of storytelling that you haven’t seen before, and especially in these times where people think they can do whatever they can come up with in CGI…I always like to challenge myself and find the equivalent of a good CGI [shot] in the physical world, because I think the physical world brings a certain level of tangibility that is unobtainable in CGI.”
 
Available to read for free for just one weekend only – don’t miss out!
https://britishcinematographer.co.uk/hoyte-van-hoytema-asc-nsc-fsf-oppenheimer/


Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Warner Bros. 100 Years of Storytelling

 By Mark A. Vieira

Foreword by Ben Mankiewicz

Description

In this official centennial history of the greatest studio in Hollywood, unforgettable stars, untold stories, and rare images from the Warner Bros. vault bring a century of entertainment to vivid life.

The history of Warner Bros.is not just the tale of a legendary film studio and its stars, but of classic Hollywood itself, as well as a portrait of America in the last century. It’s a family story of Polish-Jewish immigrants—the brothers Warner—who took advantage of new opportunities in the burgeoning film industry at a time when four mavericks could invent ways of operating, of warding off government regulation, and of keeping audiences coming back for more during some of the nation's darkest days.

Innovation was key to their early success. Four years after its founding, the studio revolutionized moviemaking by introducing sound in The Jazz Singer (1927). Stars and stories gave Warner Bros. its distinct identity as the studio where tough guys like Humphrey Bogart and strong women like Bette Davis kept people on the edge of their seats. Over the years, these acclaimed actors and countless others made magic on WB’s soundstages and were responsible for such diverse classics as Casablanca, A Streetcar Named Desire, A Star Is Born, Bonnie & Clyde, Malcolm X, Caddyshack, Purple Rain, and hundreds more.

It’s the studio that put noir in film with The Maltese Falcon and other classics of the genre, where the iconic Looney Tunes were unleashed on animation, and the studio that took an unpopular stance at the start of World War II by producing anti-Nazi films. Counter-culture hits like A Clockwork Orange and The Exorcist carried the studio through the 1970s and '80s. Franchise phenomena like Harry Potter, the DC universe, and more continue to shape a cinematic vision and longevity that is unparalleled in the annals of film history. These stories and more are chronicled in this comprehensive and stunning volume. 

Copyright © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.



Friday, April 7, 2023

Ọ̀ràézè Ǹrì, Kingdom of the Rising Sun

Ọ̀ràézè Ǹrì By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima

Ọ̀ràézè Ǹrì
Kingdom of the Rising Sun

How can you traverse the universe,
When you have chosen not to see beyond your nose? 

They called her the ageless woman of the Igbo Ukwu. The Mother of all the Dibias of Afa divination. 

I came to the peak of the hills of Udi where I found her sitting under an Ugiri tree.
She was sitting on green palm fronds encircled by gourds. I came before her naked and bowed.
"Gini bu afa ghi?" 
She asked  in the language of our kingdom meaning, "What is your name!"
"Onyemachi."
I replied. 

She gazed at me. She gazed into my eyes. Her eyeballs were like golden almonds. She gazed at the windows of my soul. Then she nodded her hairless oval head.
"Hmm. Indeed Onyemachi. Of course, who knows God?"
She shook her head.
"Nobody knows God. They call, cry and shout His name every day and night and yet they don't know Him "
"Great Mother, I want to know Him. I have come to know Him," I said.
She gazed at me again.
With the index finger of her thin right hand she scribbled on the ground what I could not read and did not understand.

"You want to know Him whom they don't know?"
"Yes, Great Mother."
She brought out the bowl of the shell of a tortoise with a short stick of Ofo wood. Then she brought out the four strings of AFA one by one. 
"Open your right palm," she said.
I opened my right palm.
She held it and gazed at it.  She opened her right palm and gazed at it and gazed at mine again.
"The truth is only for the children of the covenant," she said.
"Not all the children of Yebu are called. Not all the ones who are called are chosen."
She picked up the first string of the AFA with her right hand and cast it on the ground.



Our forefathers and diviners said Yebu came with the Afa when he descended from the midst of the clouds in the sky with flashes of lightning and claps of thunder.
Yebu was one of the Sons of God who came down to the Earth. 

Genesis 6:
"And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, 2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose '"

© Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima. All rights reserved. No copying, duplication, publication and reproduction of the content without the authorization and permission of the author and owner of the copyright.

#God
#Creation
#Genesis
#fathers
#children
#mother
#sons
#daughters
#almond
#tree
#sun
#angels
#thunder
#lightning
#claps
#heaven
#Igbos
#AFA
#Nrikingdon
#IgboUkwu
#Nri
#Ofo
#Yebu

Thursday, April 6, 2023

Population of Igbos and Their Locations in the World

Population of Igbos:

Ṇ́dị́ Ìgbò. 50,366,800 (2021 est.)
Regions with significant populations
Ñigeria 45,880,000.

Igbo Americans, or Americans of Igbo ancestry, (Igbo: Ṇ́dị́ Ígbò Amerika)
Since the turn of the 21st century genealogy tracing by means of DNA testing is in part revealing the Igbo ancestry of African Americans, some notable celebrities including Blair Underwood and Quincy Jones.

1. USA (New York; Houston/Dallas, Texas; California; Maryland; Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois)
2. UK (London, Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham)
3. South Africa
4. Canada
5. Germany
6. Netherlands
7. Malaysia
8. China
9. Thailand
10. Spain
11. Ghana
12. Benin
13. Equatorial Guinea
14. Gabon
15. Haiti
16. Cuba
17. Japan
18. Finland
19. Sweden
20. South Korea

Facts You Don't Know About the True Origins of the Igbos in Nigeria

IGBO AMAKA!
The Igbos of Eastern NIGERIA have the oldest monarchy in Africa dating back to the Bronze Age when the Igbo Ukwu Kingdom flourished and famous for the awesome bronze artworks of classic naturalistic sculptures of the lost wax casting of the same period of time with the Indus Valley Civilization of South Asia.

The progenitor of the Igbos was among the "Sons of God" who fell in love with the fair daughters of men before the days of Noah.

The ancient Nsibidi writings which were discovered in 1904. Historian Robert Farris Thompson erroneously misinterpreted the meaning of Nsibidi as "cruel blood thirsty". But Nsibidi actually means "In the Beginning" or "The Beginning".
Igbos are "UmuChineke" which means Children of God. 
Do you know that the word, CHI which is the Igbo root for the name of Almighty God, Chineke and Destiny is a universal name for destiny as the CHI in Chinese and Japanese which means the Vital Life Force of the universe.

Symbolism Of The CHI

In Plato's Timaeus, it is explained that the two bands that form the soul of the world cross each other like the letter Χ. Plato's analogy, along with several other examples of chi as a symbol occur in Thomas Browne's discourse The Garden of Cyrus (1658).
Chi or X is often used to abbreviate the name Christ, as in the holiday Christmas(Xmas). When fused within a single typespace with the Greek letter Rho, it is called the labarum and used to represent the person of Jesus Christ.

- By EKENYERENGOZI Michael CHIma,
"Orikinla OsinaCHI
Igbo-Centric and Igbo+Centricity
https://www.instagram.com/p/CSHFpGfjKRt/?utm_medium=share_sheet


Saturday, March 18, 2023

The Political Hysteria of the 2023 Elections in Nigeria


The Political Hysteria of the 2023 Elections in Nigeria

The 2023 elections in Nigeria are becoming great stuff for historical epics on the political history of Nigeria; with the  good, the bad and ugly scenarios of human frailties and depravities.

Nigeria is what Nigerian are.

Majority of them are as dirty as their dirty politics of tribal bigotry, religious buffoonery and Machiavellian demagoguery.  

No Nigerian politician is a saint.

No Nigerian politician is incorruptible.

Everyone of them is either corrupt or a beneficiary of political corruption.

The 2011 elections were the worst in electoral malpractices and violence since 1999 to date.

The 2015 elections were also bad and bloody with "Rivers of Blood" in Rivers State.

I included the live reports sent to me by SMS in my book, "The Victory of Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian Dream: My Eyewitness Account of the 2015 Presidential Election" printed in Raleigh, NC, USA and distributed by Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other booksellers.


- Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima.


#NigeriaDecides2023

#presidentialelection

#gubernatorialelection

#Nigerianelections

#2023elections

#corruption

#politics

#history

#Nigeria

#Nigerians

#book

#Amazon

#Rivers


Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Hilda Adefarasin: Farewell Mother of Nigerian Women

Farewell Mother of Nigerian Women

Mama Hilda Adefarasin will be remembered as one of the greatest women in the history of Nigeria.

She was a household name among all women in the 1980s..

Mama has chosen the International Women's Month for her transition to eternal glory at the grand old age of 98 years.

I wonder if there are still great women like her in Nigeria. 

We should have an annual Hilda Adefarasin Prize for outstanding women in leadership.

Hilda Adefarasin (9 January 1925 – 5 February 2023) was a Nigerian women's rights activist who was the president of the National Council of Women's Societies (NCWS). She left her nursing profession in 1969 to concentrate on professional activities of the NCWS. In 1971, she was the council's treasurer and in 1987, she became the President.

#Women 

#womensmonth

#HildaAdefarasin

#internationalwomensmonth


Tuesday, December 6, 2022

The World is Full of Unreasonable People

 Every conflict in history has been caused by Rebellion against rationality.

Humans have a preference for irrationality.
That's why the world has never known even one year of peace.
There is always a preventable war going on somewhere.

In the absence of noble ethos
The city burns in the violence of chaos.

The on going invasion of Ukraine by Russia is a rebellion against rationality.
The world is full of unreasonable people.

- Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
Author of "The Prophet Lied", "Scarlet Tears of London", "Diary of the Memory Keeper", "Children of Heaven" and other books distributed by Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other booksellers.
#people #london #amazon #books #Ukraine #Russia #war #conflict #rebellion #rationality #noble #ethos #heaven #children #prophet #history #chaos #world
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl1ubbitW4c/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=

Monday, November 28, 2022

ALI'S COMEBACK: THE UNTOLD STORY

 


ALI'S COMEBACK: THE UNTOLD STORY




In 1970, Muhammad Ali has been exiled from boxing for his firm stance against the Vietnam War. stripped of his title, convicted of draft evasion. But in Atlanta that all changed. 
A diverse group of individuals came together to make sure the greatest boxer on Earth received a fair fight. 
An ambitious white attorney turned promoter, Atlanta's first Jewish mayor, and a visionary black Senator joined forces to make the impossible possible. 

"Ali's Comeback: The Untold Story" is the epic tale about the return of the greatest athlete of the 20th Century from the shadows of the boxing ring, and onto the world stage. 

Genre: Documentary 
Original Language:English 
Director: Art Jones 
Producer: Mandy Fason, Yahya McClain, Brittany Wyatt 
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 16, 2020 Limited Release Date (Streaming): Dec 1, 2020 Runtime: 1h 19m 



Do you want to be featured on Nigerians Report Online and New Nigeria on Pinterest with a monthly combined audience of over 430, 000 viewers?

http://www.pinterest.com/nigeriansreport

Contact me.

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Everybody Has a Story

 Everybody has a story.
But not everyone will make history.
I am the chosen historian
Of my generation.
- Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima.
Author of the "Diary of the Memory Keeper", "The Prophet Lied", "Scarlet Tears of London" and other books.
















Saturday, September 24, 2022

1 Million March of Obidients For Presidential Candidate Peter Obi in the Capital City of Abuja

  1. 1 Million March of Obidients For Presidential Candidate Peter Obi in the Capital City of Abuja

Win or lose, Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) for the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria has made political history. 
No presidential candidate has ever awoken Nigerian youths like what we are witnessing before our very eyes
Nobody saw it coming!
It is awesome!

https://www.nairaland.com/7349986/peter-obi-thanks-obidients-abuja

Monday, August 15, 2022

Tinubu is the Most Detribalised Nigerian Presidential Candidate

Photo: Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu with Senator Rochas Okorocha, former Governor of Imo State (29 May 2011 – 29 May 2019).

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 presidential election is the most detribalised Nigerian political leader who as the Governor of Lagos State  appointed an Igbo Christian Pastor Ben Akabueze as two terms Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget with the Lagos State Government. 

No Igbo state governor has ever appointed any non-Igbo in such executive positions in the political history of Nigeria. Another Igbo technocrat, Engr. Joe Igbokwe, was the first person to be as appointed as the General Manager of Lagos State Infrastructure Maintenance & Regulatory Agency by the Tinubu led administion . He was later appointed as the pioneer Chairman of Wharf Landing Fees Collecting Authority, WLFCA in Apapa.

#Tinubu

#Lagos

#Commissioner

#Igbos

#Yorubas

#NIgeria

Find out how much Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu did for the political success of President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR in the "The Victory of Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian Dream: My Eyewitness Account of the 2015 Presidential Election" distributed by Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other booksellers worldwide.

https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima.



Wednesday, June 22, 2022

The Unusual Story of Nollywood

CLICK HERE TO BUY THE UNUSUAL STORY OF NOLLYWOOD

The Unusual Story of Nollywood by Dr. Chika Christian Onu

Description

Through the mouths of credibility, the author exhumes the buried artifacts of the long-earthed stories of Nollywood. Together the mouths weave a shocking tale of film expectation through the ages of unimaginable discoveries in the North, East, and West of the country Nigeria. The Unusual Story of Nollywood is a didactic document that x-rays the seminal movie Living in Bondage and exposes the cluster of information that may not have been intentionally hidden from the public. The book is an array of simple and complex paragraphs, systematically organized groups of small and large sentences, phrases, and quotes. The book is simply expressionistic as it goes straight to appreciate both positive and negative precedence that precipitated the birth of Nollywood in Nigeria.



Saturday, April 23, 2022

We Made History for Nollywood

We Made History for Nollywood 

Unknown to majority of people, we made history by breaking new grounds for #Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry in the first quarter of 2022 through Vision Films Inc of California (the home state of #Hollywood). Two filmmakers from the same Benue State in the Middle Belt of Nigeria have made history with their in-depth analytical films of different genres, "The American King" by Dr. Adah Obekpa is the first Hollywood and Nollywood comedy to have theatrical release in movie theaters in the United States of America (USA) with thanks to Vision Films Inc and "Eagle Wings" by Paul Apel Papel is the first Nigerian film to have the biggest global film distribution in the history of the Nigerian film industry since the making of "Palaver", the first feature film shot in NIgeria by the Academy Award winning English filmmaker, Geoffrey Barkas in 1926.

- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima
 Publisher/Editor, 
NOLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series 

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Poor Reading Culture in NIgeria is Showing in the Poor Screenwriting in Nollywood

Poor Reading Culture in NIgeria is Showing in the Poor Screenwriting in Nollywood

You have to be a good reader before you can be a good writer and you have to be a good writer before you can be a good screenwriter.

You cannot be good in storytelling if you are not good in reading and writing.

I have written about the literature of motion picture.before, but I can bet  that majority of the people in Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry ignored it, because of their intellectual ignorance of the importance.

Majority of the screenplays of NIgerian movies are intellectually deficient in message development and dialogue. 

How can someone who doesn't read novels, plays, poems and essays be a good screenwriter?

You can see the evidence of poor intelligence in sentence structure of the dialogue. 

You can see the lack of intellectual comprehension in the poor characterization.

In most cases, what we have seen is garbage in and garbage out (GIGO)

You cannot give what you don't have.

Many of the screenwriters in Nollywood are lazy to do research on the historical personalities in the film adaptations of historical biographies such as on Queen Amina of Zaria, Mary Slessor and Madam Tinubu. They end up with poorly researched screenplays for the film and TV productions. But the filmmakers often use good casting, directing and cinematography to cover up the intellectual deficiencies of the screenplays.

Reading is essential for screenwriting in storytelling. 

I was the youngest professional scriptwriter in Africa when I started writing for the puppet drama series of the NIgerian Television Authority (NTA) when I was 18 years old and I wrote for four years. Before then, I was already a notable young writer interviewed by the Times International newsmagazine for my play, "The Prodigal".

Reading improved my intellectual comprehension and literary abilities in creative writing and scriptwriting.

- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima



Thursday, October 28, 2021

Igbos Are Not Ready To Become A Sovereign Nation

Igbos Are Not Ready To Become A Sovereign Nation

The leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo does not even know the true origins of the Igbos. And the most intellectually ignorant are the leaders of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) who claimed that the Igbos are also Jews, the descendants of Abraham, when the archeological proof of Igbo Ukwu shows that Igbos have the oldest monarchy in Africa of the same period of the Indus Valley civilization before the birth of Abraham. If you don't know your history, then you cannot build the foundation for a nation. 

I have already addressed the origins of the Igbos in several writings, including the following:
The Binary Systems of AFA, IFA and EPHA Divinations and Computer Science
https://nigeriansreportng.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-binary-systems-of-afa-ifa-and-epha.html

Nigerians Report Online: Facts You Don't Know About the True Origins of the Igbos in Nigeria
https://nigeriansreportng.blogspot.com/2021/08/facts-you-dont-know-about-true-origins.html

Nigerians Report Online: Exposing the Historical Lies of Biafra on Abraham, Israel and the Igbos
https://nigeriansreportng.blogspot.com/2021/08/exposing-historical-lies-of-biafra-on.html


The leaders of IPOB are political opportunists who are terrorising fellow Igbos to sit at home and not to vote in the elections they have registered for. 
You are attacking the fundamental human rights of the people and using dictatorship and terrorism to force them to reject democracy in the federation they have chosen to be part of as bona fide citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, but you have collected millions of naira, the official currency issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
It is Political Idiocy and Political Hypocrisy to claim you are Biafran and you support IPOB, but you are still desperately applying for or having the Nigerian passport and NIN to apply for government jobs, loans, projects and sponsorships. 
The ignorance of political education and history has made many of the Igbos to believe the shallow political propaganda of the IPOB.

Any action to force people to accept a political cause is TERRORISM.
You cannot build a nation by terrorising Igbos to join IPOB.
You cannot build a nation without love, peace and unity.

- By EKENYERENGOZI Michael Chima 
Publisher/Editor, 
NOLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series 
247 Nigeria (@247nigeria) / Twitter
https://mobile.twitter.com/247nigeria
https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima




Saturday, August 28, 2021

Realistically Profiling President Muhammadu Buhari on National Security With Facts

Realistically Profiling President Muhammadu Buhari on National Security With Facts

Part 1


Political leaders all over the world prefer euphemisms to harsh  criticisms and don't often like political incorrectness in public. But flattery is the worst form of praise.
Saying the truth, whether bitter or sweet is the best in overcoming the challenges of the existential realities of life in the world.

Freedom of speech is fundamental to the establishment of true democracy and good governance in the political administraton of every federal government. But freedom of speech can be abused and misused. Freedom of speech must be based on facts and not falsehood. 

I have read some news reports on those who have been arrested and even convicted for the defamation of the personality of President Muhammadu Buhari. They insulted him and so they were arrested and jailed after being judged guilty.  But I have seen that those who have been prosecuted and convicted for the defamation of the personality of President Buhari were powerless poor people who could not afford the services of good human rights lawyers. Whereas, I have seen celebrated political activists and state governors of the opposition party lambasting the President with fury and vitriol in public and the law enforcement agents did not query or arrest them. Why?
The state governors have immunity? What of the political activists who insulted him and are still walking about freely from Lagos to Abuja.
Many have called him a criminal and a terrorist and other derogatory names on Nairaland and escaped prosecution and indictment.

The horrifying incidents of kidnappings and killings in different states have provoked the worst criticisms of President Buhari and blamed for the failures of the state governors in internal security.  And majority of the citizens have also blamed him in ignorance of the separation of powers of the government administraton of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. 

Majority of Nigerians are the underprivileged masses of poorly educated low income workers who are ruled by gullibility and the herd mentality of their religious beliefs of Christianity and Islam. And majority of them are also suffering from political amnesia, because they quickly forget the political history of Nigeria and the different political administrations and because they don't read, they often rely on hearsays, gossip and rumours for their assumptions and then jumping into ambiguous and erroneous conclusions on both the past and present current affairs in the country since the Independence of Nigeria on October 1, 1960 to date.

Whatever remarkable progress reports on the achievements and milestones in the administraton of President Buhari have been overlooked in the raging storms of insecurity ravaging the country. But the amnesia and ignorance of the majority of Nigerians would have been addressed by the Ministry of Information and Culture and not abandoned for Mr. Femi Adesina, the Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity and his colleague, Mallam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant Adviser on Media and Publicity of President Buhari. 

I have read a lot about the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) that recommended community policing to assist in complementing the efforts of the federal government in combating home grown terrorism which actually is the best recommendation, because community policing will be more effective in the identification of the causes of the grievances for communal clashes between herders and farmers, inter-tribal conflicts and banditry.
Community policing will end communal clashes, kidnappings and killings in different states. And the state governors should be responsible for that and not always crying wolf and calling for the head of President Buhari for their failures to secure lives and properties in the various communities in their states.

Cases studies in the peaceful community relations and conflict resolutions among herders and farmers in other countries in Africa will help to end the recurrent horrifying incidents of communal clashes, kidnappings and killings in Nigeria. 


- By Ekeyerengozi Michael China,
Publisher/Editor,


Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Nollywood and the Image of Nigeria in the Global Village

Nollywood and the Image of Nigeria in the Global Village

(Written in 2006 for an African American magazine)


We all know that action speaks louder than word and seeing is believing.  And nobody can deny this fact of life.


The history of the film industry in Nigeria did not start with the emergence of Nollywood as the Nigerian movies have been dubbed by the rest of the world and now celebrated as the third largest film industry in the world after American Hollywood and Indian Bollywood. 


The world has continued to marvel at how Nigerians "manufacture" and "fabricate" scores of movies in a week.  It is reported that but for India, Nigeria produces more movies in quantitative terms than any other country in the world.”

~~ Tayo Aderinokun, Managing Director, Guaranty Trust Bank


Glover Memorial Hall was the venue of the first film to be shown in Nigeria in August, 1903 and this was done by the ruling colonial office of the British Empire that went on to show primarily educational clips, features and documentary reports of the royal trips to Nigeria and other colonies, English football matches, Westminster Parliamentary debates and other films of little or no value to the culture of Nigeria. And the cinema houses that soon showed up all over the popular cities in Nigeria from Lagos to Ibadan to Kano also showed Western films and later Indian films. But it is important to note that "Sanders of the River" by Edgar Rice Buroughs made in 1935 had some unique parts shot in Nigeria. The film featured the first world class Nigerian actor Orlando Martins (1899 – 1985) and was the first film to put the motion picture image of Nigeria on the map of the world.


Then Nigerian filmmakers such as Adamu Halilu, Mallam Brendan Shehu, Dr. Ola Balogun, Chief Eddie Ugbomah, the late Chief Hubert Ogunde and Francis Oladele produced classic films on celluloid since 1968 and Nigerian films were also competing among the foreign ones in the cinemas until the Indigenization Decree of 1972 transferred the ownership of over 300 cinema houses in the country from their foreign proprietors to Nigerians who did not have the expertise and capital to run them successfully and the economic depression of the late 1980s and the mass importation of Video Cassette Players worsened the situation as cinema houses lost the patronage of cinema goers who now preferred to buy the cheaper pirated films in video cassettes and watch them in the safer and more comfortable privacy of their homes. The popularity of home videos also affected the stage performances of plays by Nigerian playwrights as the numbers of people going to the theatres and town halls to watch live plays began to reduce. As the saying goes that necessity is the mother of invention, the challenges of survival for Nigerian theatre arts practitioners prompted them to dare the production of their plays in home videos. The Yorubas who were always the pioneers of the popular street theatre were also the pioneers of the home movies industry with “Aje Ni Iya Mi” by the late Isola Ogunsola who employed an Ibo man Nnebue of Nek Video Links to produce the video.  And Nnebue seeing the great opportunity went on to produce the best selling “Living in Bondage 1 and 2” in 1992 before others joined the bandwagon.  And now Nigerian movies have taken over TV screens all over Africa from Anglophone countries to the Francophone countries and over 20 million people watch Nigerian movies of which over 15 million are within Nigeria and the rest among the over 7 million Nigerians living in different parts of the world and most of them are in America, Western Europe, Asia and Australia. We are now living witnesses of the emergence of the phenomenon called Nollywood.


Over 50 movie titles are released weekly in Nollywood and attracting the attention of the rest of the world and Nollywood has become the picture of the Nigerian culture in the eyes of the world. Therefore, we must address the importance, relevance and significance of Nollywood as the image of Nigeria. As Dr. Odia Ofeimum stated in “In Defence of the Films We Have Made” in his keynote address at the second National Film Festival, 27 November 2003 and I quote:  


“Powered by its home-grown sense which has been the source of its viability, it was primed to travel and to breach porous borders. Nigerians travel a lot and their video films have been traveling with them. Due to the surprise of self-recognition in our stories or the manner in which Nigerians tell them, other people have connected with the video films. So it was not enough to overcome the Nigerian market place. Through saturation marketing, Nigerian home-video mania crossed the borders even beyond the necessities of trade. Once the barn-storm-rating of the video camera overtook the cinema house, and by-passed its camp-following of foreign dominated distribution networks, it began to turn into a super-asset in a makeshift revolution that only those who are thoroughly impervious to social promptings have been able to ignore. The rest of the world may not have wanted to pay attention.”

(http://www.westafricareview.com/issue5/ofeimun.htm).


Therefore, I believe the next stage of the sustainable development of the Nigerian film industry is the management of the aesthetics and ethics of the Art and Craft to portray a positive image of Nigeria to the rest of the world.


The desperation for quick profits and short-cuts to fame has made both the majority of Nigerian filmmakers and their domineering marketers to disregard the international standards of filmmaking as they rush to make over 50 movies weekly and careless about the content and context of the script and the craft. Thus making Nigerian movies to be known more for the quantity than the quality and millions of viewers have complained about the horrors of juju, lawlessness and bribery and corruption of the Nigerian public officials and others shown in most of the movies. Millions of foreigners have been shown the images of gawky Nigerian police officers collecting bribes at police check-points and engaged in other sharp practices and these negative images have only worsened the bad image of the Nigerian Police and of Nigeria as one of the most corrupt countries in the wrong. And this is the irony of the popularity of Nollywood. Because, as at present Nollywood is like a trailer overloaded with goods on the express way being driven by a desperate man without a driver's license and the others on the vehicle are struggling to correct the driver or even take over the steering from him. So, people are gasping and moping in awe and fear at the daredevil stunts of the vehicle and praying it does not crash. But is this the true picture of Nigeria?

No! 


We must tell the true stories of Nigeria to the rest of the world.

The stories of our great heroes and heroines or “sheros” like Queen Amina, Emotan, Moremi, Madam Tinubu and the contemporary role models such as Dr. Dora Akunyili, Hajia Sambo and others.   


Nollywood has become synonymous with the ingenuity of the smart Nigerian as Nigerians never give up in their pursuit of their goals to catch up with the leaders in whatever field of human enterprise they are interested in all over the world.  But Nollywood should not ape Hollywood or Bollywood.  Nollywood should be the mirror of Nigeria from the past to the present and the future.  Therefore, Nollywood actors and actresses should not be competing to master who can fake the American Yankee accent or Cockney accent and should not be apes of Hollywood or Bollywood stars.

Nollywood should be proudly Nigerian, heart and soul.  


Nigerian filmmakers should work in cooperation and support and pool their resources together to make Nigerian films that should be as good as any of the best films in the world. We should no longer be ridiculed for the common B-rated movies flooding the home videos rental shops and corners of the streets.  We have had enough of the same rehashed stories with the same plots and badly produced too.  We have had enough quantity without quality. Because, we must do our homework before we can produce excellent films that we can show at the Cannes and qualify to be nominated for the Oscars and not turned down again for poor standards.


We have a vehicle for the global village and we have already succeeded in impressing the rest of the world.  So, we can now decide what our vehicle should convey and show to the whole world.


The world should see the hardworking Nigerian widow, who is the mother of six children as she wakes up at 4 am in Lagos and leaves for the far away Mile 12 market to trade and earn the means of livelihood.

Why?

She is doing it for the upbringing of her fatherless children she must send to school and pay their school fees, buy school uniform and textbooks and feed and clothe them and pay their medical bills whenever they fall ill.

The world should see the honest to God Nigerian police officers as they work day and night and they shun all temptations of bribes.

The world should see the hard working Nigerian labourers toiling daily to make ends meet.

The world should see the diligent Nigerian pupils walking miles to go to school and later to the farms, streams, and back to their.homes to do the chores.

The world should see the work-in-progress of proud Nigerians at work and at home doing their best in cooperation and support for the government in the nation building of a new Nigeria in the leadership of Africa in the comity of nations in the new millennium.

 

These are the true illustrations that our movies should portray and show to the rest of the world and let us be proud of Nigeria. 


- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,

Novemeber 5, 2006.