False Alarm of Pirate Attack By Motor Tanker HEROIC IDUN and Her Subsequent Arrest at Equatorial Guinea

 17 August 2022.

FALSE ALARM OF PIRATE ATTACK BY MOTOR TANKER HEROIC IDUN (IMO: 9858058) AND HER SUBSEQUENT ARREST AT EQUATORIAL GUINEA: A SIGN OF RENEWED COOPERATION AND COLLABORATION BETWEEN GULF OF GUINEA NATION

On Sunday 7 August 2022, personnel of the Nigerian Navy on routine patrol had observed and reported the suspicious presence of Motor Tanker (MT) HEROIC IDUN in Akpo Oil Field, Deep Offshore Bonny. The Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) with IMO Number: 9858058 is a 336 metre long tanker with carrying capacity of 299,995 MT. It is reportedly owned by Hunter Tankers AS, domiciled in Scandinavia, Norway, but operated by Trafigura Maritime Logistics situated in the Netherlands. The vessel had arrived the Total Safe Anchorage (SA) operated by Akpo Oil Field for loading operations but was interrogated by the Nigerian Navy and later observed to be without NNPC due clearance for the loading operations. Notwithstanding, MT HEROIC IDUN proceeded for the loading operation at the Akpo Single Buoy Mooring (SBM) on 8 August 2022.

Having not produced her NNPC clearance papers for the loading operation, MT HEROIC IDUN was stopped from proceeding further by Nigerian Navy Ship GONGOLA. The Captain of MT HEROIC IDUN then revealed that he was instructed by his ship’s agent, Messrs Inchape Shipping (owners of IDUN Maritime Limited) not to obey any directive from the Nigerian Navy. The VLCC subsequently resisted arrest when ordered to stop by NNS GONGOLA and the supertanker escaped towards the Nigeria – Sao Tome Joint Development Zone Area. In a bid to be mischievous and justify her escape, MT HEROIC IDUN reported her encounter with NNS GONGOLA as a sea robbery/pirate attack on various international maritime security watch platforms. This false alarm of sea robbery/pirate attack was also revealed and refuted by the Head of the Regional Centre for Maritime Security for West Africa, Abidjan, Rear Admiral Istifanus Albarra who mentioned that, ‘on 9 August 2022, the Regional Centre (CRESMAO) received a report from the Multinational Maritime Coordination Centre (MMCC) Zone E on an attempted boarding of a Tanker between 10 to 15 Nautical Mile (Nm) of Akpo oil field in Nigeria. The Vessel, a Marshall Island registered VLCC HEROIC IDUNIN (IMO 98580581) entered Nigerian waters with the intention to load crude oil from the Akpo offshore oil terminal. Upon the receipt of intelligence that the vessel did not have necessary approval to load crude oil from the terminal, the Nigerian Navy dispatched a vessel to go and investigate. Investigation through radio communication with the vessel, revealed that the Tanker did not have the appropriate documentation for the intended purpose.’

The Head of CRESMAO confirmed that the Captain of the Tanker refused to cooperate and rather altered course towards Sao-Tome and Principe and later deliberately raised false alarm to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) that she was under pirate attack. This information was subsequently broadcasted by IMB to the relevant international authorities and stakeholders. The Admiral noted that, “arising from the foregoing, it is very important that incidences, especially of piracy reported by vessels needs to be crossed checked with the relevant authorities (particularly the Yaounde Architecture) to authenticate the veracity or otherwise before broadcast. This is in order not to raise false alarms especially at this time when the Gulf of Guinea maritime domain has recorded a drastic reduction in maritime incidences as compared to 2 years ago. IMB therefore is entreated to cancel this alert broadcast, coordinate with the appropriate authorities and put out the right information”.

As a demonstration of the renewed cooperation and collaboration among the Gulf of Guinea nations, the Nigerian Navy welcomed with much satisfaction, the news of the arrest of MT HEROIC IDUN by the Equatorial-Guinean Navy (EGN) on 12 

August 2022 barely 4 days after the supertanker assumed she had evaded arrest by the Nigerian Navy and also made false alarm of a sea robbery/pirate attack that never happened. “Equatorial Guinea stopped the MV HEROIC IDUN on the afternoon of 12 August 2022, offshore the Island of Annobon,” according to Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue. The EGN escorted the vessel to Luba, arriving on 13 August 2022.

This occurrence reaffirms the renewed regional commitment, collaboration and coordination toward a safe and secured Gulf of Guinea maritime domain that will ensure the development of a sustainable blue economy, as well as the realisation of the goals of the Yaoundé Architecture. It is also a strong warning to criminals, their sponsors and connivers that the Nigerian Navy will leave no stone unturned in ensuring the safety and security of Nigeria’s Maritime Environment (NME) as well as the observance of due process and extant regulations by all maritime stakeholders within the NME.  

You are please requested to disseminate this.

- AO AYO-VAUGHAN
​Commodore
​Director of Information

Nollywood Must Stop Producing Many Crappy Movies

Nollywood Must Stop Producing Many Crappy Movies

The popularity of the phenomenon of Nollywood was based on overproduction of cheap home videos widely distributed and pirated in Nigeria and neighbouring countries in West Africa from VHS tapes to DVDs on the streets before the launching of cable TV channels between 2001 and 2004 and then uploaded by several authorized and unauthtorized people on YouTube from 2005 ; followed by the launching of Ibaka TV and iROKOtv in 2011.

The proliferation of low budget home videos in Nigeria made Nollywood the second largest producer of movies in the world after the Bollywood of India;  making news headlines all over the world and attracting both International vendors and investors. 

The biggest video streaming services in the world led by Netflix and Amazon are now competing for the best of the film and TV productions in Nollywood which compelled the producers to improve the quality of their movies to satisfy the criteria for international acquisition and distribution. But quantity is still the focus of the majority of producers and the production of substandard movies is doing more harm than good to the sustainable development of Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry.

The productions of cheap movies have left the few cable TV channels and streaming services saturated with movies which subsequently reduced the market value of Nigerian movies in comparison to South African, South Korean, Mexican and Indian movies in international acquisition and distribution. 

The frequency of productions in Nigeria is increasing the crappy movies in both Nollywood and Kannywood that I am ashamed to watch many of the movies with even top A-List actors. 
Did the highly esteemed actors read the screenplays before acting their idiotic roles? Or the temptations of being paid hundreds of thousands of naira made them to skip and waive professional standards?

We have submissions of hundreds of Nigerian movies and yet international buyers can only accept less than 20 movies every quarter. 

Many producers are now selling their movies for less than the costs of the productions. 

Is it not embarrassing to spend more than N3 million naira to produce a movie in Lagos, Asaba or Kano and you end up selling it for less than N500, 000 for two years on a local TV channel?
The local TV stations are now rejecting many movies, because they are saturated with dozens of movies and series submitted to them.
The local TV stations don't need to produce original movies and series, because they are cheaper to acquire from hundreds of unsolicited movies and series sent to them. 

It is not good to produce more than 1, 000 movies every year, but we can only count the best on our fingertips.

- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
Publisher/Editor, 

NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series,
Tuesday, July 12, 2022.

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The Untold Truth about Nollywood: Separating the fact from the fiction

Poster of Nollywood Babylon, a 2008 feature documentary film directed by Canadian filmakers Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal.The documentary has been described as an “electric vision of a modern African metropolis and a revealing look at the powerhouse that is Nigerian cinema — Nollywood.”

The Untold Truth about Nollywood: Separating the fact from the fiction

Presently the Nigerian movie industry popularly known as Nollywood is no longer the second largest movie industry in the world as reported by UNESCO in 2009. The UNESCO report was based on statistics of the quantity of home videos produced in Nigeria when Nollywood was at its peak in the late 1990s and early 2000s before rampant piracy and the economic downturn changed the fortunes of Nollywood and left most of the stakeholders in dire straits.

Genevieve Nnaji is the most popular Nollywood star


In fact, we can now count the movies produced in 2010 on our fingertips, because things have fallen apart and people are no longer at ease in Nollywood.
The worst hit have been the English speaking practitioners dominated by Igbos, but the more down-to-earth and better organized Yoruba practitioners have managed to weather the storm, while the other producers of videos in Edo, Hausa, Efik and Ibibio have been doing their best in spite of their own professional inadequacies.
There are those who are the Real McCoy of the Nigerian film industry like the foremost Nigerian filmmaker Dr. Ola Balogun, Tunde Kelani, Femi Lasode, the Adesanya brothers, Mahmood Ali-Balogun, Mildred Owoh,Tade Ogidan, Francis Onwuchie, The Amatas. Femi Odugbemi, Kunle Afolayan who is bearing the mantle of the legacy of his father Adeyemi Afolayan, aka “Ade Love”, Joe Brown, Didi Chika, Joe Brown, Lucky Onyekachi Ejim, Gugu Michaels, Faruk Lasaki, Chike Ibekwe, Mark Kusare, Kenneth Gyang and the new kids on the block Niyi Akinmolayan and Chineze Anyaene whose first features Kajola and Ijé The Journey who are outstanding indicators of the future of the Nigerian film industry. They often prefer to disassociate themselves from the popular videographers of Nollywood. The other Real McCoy can be found in the heart and soul of Nollywood, such as the accomplished Lancelot Imasuen, Teco Benson, the ambitious team of Emem Isong and Desmond Elliot and those in the same league with them who have been producing good movies in videos.


The troubles in Nollywood

“Nollywood habours lots of greedy producers.”
~ Kate Henshaw-Nuttal, Sunday Punch, August 1, 2010.


Notable pioneers of Nollywood such as Ejike Asiegbu, Madu Chikwendu, Paul, Justus Esiri, Olu Jacobs, Prince Jide Kosoko, Pete Edochie, Glory Young, Ngozi Ezeonu, Joke Silva-Jacobs, Rachel Oniga, Kate Henshaw-Nuttal, Zeb Ejiro, Chico Ejiro, Kingsley Ogoro, Lancelot Imasuen, Teco Benson, Emem Isong, Shan George, Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Jim Iyke, Ramsey Noah, Riita Dominic and other members in the same League have been busy trying their best to rejuvenate the ingenuity of the heyday of Nollywood. But there are those who have resorted to dirty partisan politics contrary to professional ethics.


Home videos of Nollywood movies are sold on the street and often pirated

Yes, desperate times call for desperate measures, but going bonkers will only worsen the situation. Frustration often pushes people to acts of desperation in the struggle for survival or trying to catch up with the Joneses. The critical state of Nollywood is also bringing out the best and the worst characters of the principal practitioners and other stakeholders as shown by the petty squabbles in the guilds. The squabbles of the opposing camps and factions of those at loggerheads have left the troubled guilds in disarray and opportunists are fishing in the troubled waters.
One of them is fond of contesting for the bragging rights over celluloid filmmakers in Nigeria. He boasts that he has shot 18 celluloid films. But not a single one has ever qualified for screening at the Cannes Film Festival where other African filmmakers have proved their mettle competing and winning highly coveted laurels among the best in the world. Making dozens of substandard movies that are the best examples in mediocrity is nothing to brag about and talking bollocks from Lagos to Abuja. How many of the films have made the list of the best films by Africans? How many of them have won awards at major film festivals in the world? And now he is the chairman of an international film festival? I wonder why Nigerians like celebrating mediocrity. What a comedy of errors.

Many of them were taking sides in partisan politics as they supported the gubernatorial quest of Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, the former governor of the apex bank and were disgraced when he lost. And now they have rushed to endorse President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to contest in the presidential election in 2011. Then he has promised to give $200 million to the entertainment industry after listening to the pleas of Mr. Ben Murray-Bruce at the 30th Anniversary of Silverbird Group on November 6, 2010. But a promise remains a promise until fulfilled.

What matters most is providing a proper infrastructure for the film industry, because presently there is none. We don’t even know if the practitioners pay taxes.

Azuh Amatus of the Daily Sun said there is no longer sanity in Nollywood, because all that has been bastardized.

Amatus is right, because the various guilds have no administrative polices comparable to best practices in more organized film industries like in South Africa and Egypt. The Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) simply collects a membership fee from anyone who claims to be an actor even if the person has never acted in any movie. Presently, the AGN is in disarray as two actors are fighting over the titular leadership of the guild. One of them who has a degree in engineering said he is more qualified than the rival who has only a diploma in theatre arts. The AGN is dominated and manipulated by the English speaking actors who are mostly from the Igbo tribe while the non-English speaking actors belong to another professional body. Membership of the professional body of the Yoruba actors is by apprenticeship. An apprentice pays more than N2, 000 (two thousand naira) for registration, but in most cases, the apprentices don’t get paid until after three years. There is no insurance or any gratuity. And they do not pay taxes on their various artistes fees from acting in the numerous movies churned out regularly.

There is nothing like an insurance policy in Nollywood. The practitioners and production companies are not insured. No insurance in case a studio is razed or an actor has an accident.

The Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) and the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) are functioning, but is it not troubling that a billion naira industry has no insurance and does not pay tax?

~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
Tuesday, August 10, 2010.

Our Music Is Dying Slowly, And Still Smiling 2

P Square, very popular Nigerian Hip-hop Singers who are twin brothers.

LIFE-LINES

~ By Femi Akintunde-Johnson

Our Music Is Dying Slowly, And Still Smiling 2

My final line last week: “The Nigerian music industry is dying; and frankly, it will, or probably have to die patapata, before it can truly rise, and take its due position, in the light of things. Incidentally, the best hands to give it life, are the same starving it of the elixir for irreversible success – the young Nigerian artistes. How?”

Yes, piracy is bad for any intellectual work, especially if the product is mostly driven by profit (as it is with Nigerian popular music). All over the world, the fight against piracy is fought at frenetic pace, because the killer-disease is spreading faster than earlier thought. Nowadays, in the US, the sale of recorded CD’s is panting far behind the sales of blank CD’s. You can guess where CDs are going. Music executives are storming the courts to put legitimate e-music dispensers out of business so as to prolong near-certain extinction of the more than 150-year old American music industry. And that is America where piracy has gone absolutely and bizarrely digital, and which has a clear cut infrastructure. However, in Nigeria, the first big case involving a major pirate (an Alaba marketer) came up at the Federal High Court on the first day of this month! We routinely sweep hideouts of small-time Chinese and Hong-Kong CD multipliers masquerading as music and movie pirates. We treat copyright infringement and rights collection with childish naiveté in this climate. In such situation, only death will “do them part”.

Pirated CDs are sold on the street. Photo Credit: Medindia

But of even deadlier dimension is the mentality of young Nigerian artistes: his understanding of his role, and the appreciation of his artistic contribution to social realities. Many years ago, I wrote a series of articles that won the first entertainment reporting award at the Nigerian Media Merit Awards. It was entitled “Creative Rogues”. In the articles, I tried to juxtapose the musical arrangements of the leading lights of the 80’s and 90’s in Nigeria, alongside their foreign counterparts from whose works they literally lifted several lines and riffs without any attribution whatsoever. We basically called them what they were: creative ‘pirates’ of others’ creative nous. That was more than 15 years ago.

Today, the artistes are more brazen; more impatient and couldn’t care if an entire chorus line was lifted verbatim from “reigning” songs of their local or foreign counterparts. They just don’t care. And the fans, as it is now clear, appear not to be bothered. But therein lays the trap. You don’t need a seer to tell you that barefaced robbery, as it being churned out by starry-eyed characters that populate our studios and airwaves, will sooner or later collapse the music business into an economical cul-de-sac.

Apart from music beats sounding alike, and with fast disappearing wholesomeness in syncopation and timbre, the lyrical depth is thinning out rapidly. Now, we seem like a nation of unthinking jingoists and flippant abusers of our traditional mores on the flimsy excuse that our socio-economic realities have condemned us to this state. We fool ourselves that we reflect what is happening on the streets. We have become repeaters, and not creators. We sing complete nonsense, gibberish, and lazy repetitions that leave neutrals wondering how we got to this place.

It is such complete absence of care or self-restraint that gives light to a St. Janet. Why are we scandalized at her cheap, lust-filled “business model”, when we amusingly condoned and back-patted her forerunner, Abbas Akande Obesere (Omo Rapala) who strutted drunkenly and, I can assure you, profitably across the nation casting spells on devotees of his brand of minstrelsy? So, who can wager that St. Jezebel does not have a coterie of lewd-lappers savouring every rotten limerick trolling from her plucky bosom?

Yet, more dangerous is the professional attitude and work ethics of our latter day music magicians. More on that next week.

fajswhatnots@yahoo.com or faj-alive.blogspot.com

(First published in Guardian on Sunday, February 14, 2010)