About EKENYERENGOZI Michael Chima

 

Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima (also known by the pseudonym Orikinla Osinachi) is a prominent Nigerian writer, publisher, and multimedia producer born on January 30, 1963, in Lagos Island. 

Professional Roles & Media Presence

He is the Founder and CEO of the International Digital Post Network Limited, the first Nigerian company to attract the IMAX Corporation to Nigeria, King of Kings Books International and Screen Outdoor Open Air Cinema (SOOAC). He secured International partnership with the Cinewav of Singapore for the "One Village, One Cinema" initiative and partnership with the 

International Chamber of Media & Entertainment Industry (ICMEI) of India for the Bollywood To Nollywood Filmmaking workshops for international co-productions between India and Nigeria.

Writer & Publisher: 

He is the Publisher/Editor of several online platforms, including Nigerians Report Online, Nigerian Times, and the Founder and Publisher/Editor of the popular NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry.

Consultant: 

He has served as a social media consultant and previously worked as a National Program Consultant for UNICEF Nigeria and independent Production Manager of "Money Wise" business magazine programme on DBN TV.

Advocacy: 

He is recognized for his advocacy for girl-child education supporting the compulsory education of the millions of underprivileged girls out of school in Nigeria.

Art, Literary & Creative Works

Chima is a notable artist with local and International exhibitions of his drawings and paintings. He  was the national curator for the 1993 World AIDS Day "Art Against AIDS" exhibitions at the National Museum and National Theatre in Nigeria.

He is a prolific writer who is the author of numerous books spanning fiction, poetry, and historical commentary: 

Books: 

He published his first book, Children of Heaven, in 1987.

His notable titles include Bye, Bye Mugabe, a collection of short stories; collections of his poems in Children of Heaven, The Prophet Lied and Scarlet Tears of London;  The Victory of Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian Dream on the 2015 presidential election in Nigeria, In the House of Dogs and Diary of the Memory Keeper.

Prizes

Chima won the first prize in the national essay competition on What I Like Best in Nigeria organized by the Pop magazine in 1976.

His poem "Song of Patriotism" won the first prize in a national poetry competition on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) in 1987.

His poem, "Empty Shells in Our Oil  Wells" was one of the finalists for the 2000 Music Society of Nigeria national poetry award.

His short story, "One Day at Obalende Bus Stop" won the third prize in the 2002 Lire en fête short story competition organized by the French Cultural Centre in Nigeria.

Early Success: 

He directed his first play at age 17 and at 18 he became the youngest independent professional scriptwriter for TV in Africa, writing episodes for the puppet drama series of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), the largest TV network on the continent from 1981-84. See 

Nigeria: 'I Started Writing Professionally At 18' - allAfrica.com

https://allafrica.com/stories/201212030437.html

Visual Media: 

In 2016, he produced the photo album LAGOS in MOTION, documenting Africa's largest megacity from the principal photography of his first long documentary film project, "Lagos in Motion: Sights and Sounds of Africa's Largest Megacity".

Education & Affiliations

Education: He attended St. Gregory's College, Lagos, and later had further education from seminars and workshops by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) in 1980, Book Development Council of Nigeria in 1982, Johns Hopkins University's Population Communication Services (JHU/PCS) in 1984 and 1990,  PATH in 1985, UNICEF in Nigeria in 1988, World Health Organization (WHO) in 1993 and other organizations.

Memberships: 

He has been a member of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) since 1987, the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (CLSC), Digital Cinema Society (DCS), International Law Office (ILO) and Online News Association (ONA). He participated in the Digital Media Law Project (DMLP), a major initiative based at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. Originally founded in 2007 as the "Citizen Media Law Project," it provided legal resources and education for independent journalists and online media

Chima’s work often bridges the gap between sociocultural analysis and political documentation.

Focus on Nollywood

As a major stakeholder in the Nigerian film industry, Chima has documented its evolution through the NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series: This is a comprehensive book series—available in print and digital formats—designed to capture the "big picture" of the industry for a global audience.

The First Edition celebrates Nollywood's icons, its emergence as an African phenomenon, and its strategy for breaking into global markets.

The Second Edition highlights "New Nollywood" developments (circa 2014), including the epic Invasion 1897, the evolution of digital filmmaking, and the first Hollywood star from Nigeria, Orlando Martins.

Film Festivals: 

He is the Founder and Festival Director of the annual Eko International Film Festival and Zenith International Film Festival.

Political Commentaries

His political writings focus on pivotal moments in Nigeria's democratic history:

The Victory of Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian Dream: This book serves as a personal testimony and historical chronicle of the 2015 presidential election. It analyzes the principal actors behind the first time an incumbent president was defeated in Nigeria’s history.

Digital & Periodical Analysis: Through his platforms Nigerians Report Online and Nigerian Times, he provides ongoing commentary on Nigerian federalism, social justice, and leadership.

Satirical Critique: 

Works like Bye, Bye Mugabe use short stories to offer a broader critique of African leadership and political dynamics beyond just Nigeria. 

Contact:

Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,

The Founder/ CEO,

International Digital Post Network Limited,

Screen Outdoor Open Air Cinema (SOOAC)

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

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelchimaeyerengozi

New Nigeria

www.pinterest.com/nigeriansreport

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

Fake Prophet, Madam Boy’s Quarters, Iyobosa and other Nigerians

Fake Prophet, Madam Boy’s Quarters, Iyobosa and other Nigerians

In his gripping play, The Anger of Unfulfillment, Jekwu Ozoemene has captured the heart and soul of the disenchantment and discontentment of majority of Nigerians in his contemporary analysis of the Nigerian crisis.
The title of his captivating book of three plays is deduced from the indignation of the victims of the lingering anomie plaguing Nigeria as desperate times call for desperate measures in the struggle for survival and a sense of belonging. The author gives us a naturalistic montage of glaring realities of the challenges of living and working in Nigeria under a corrupt government of kleptomaniacs.

He takes us into the human trafficking ring of the fake Prophet, a tall bald and bearded middle-aged man with an imposing stature and his bootylicious assistant Madam Boy’s Quarters who must have been a Nigerian prostitute in Italy and their willing clients posing as the congregation of the fake duo posturing as ministers of a Christian fellowship. The well educated non-compromising and hopeful Adesuwa who uses her blog to expose the ills in the Nigerian society and her hopeless squatter Iyobosa, the flirtatious drama queen who has lost faith in the Nigerian Dream and exploits her sexuality to comfort herself show us the contrasts of two young Nigerian women who respond to the Nigerian crisis with positive and negative resolutions. Nari, aka “General Tinker-Tailor” the Niger Delta militant with his comrades Zino and Marshall tell us the raison d'être of their revolutionary mission for resource control for which they were ready to die. The Narrator who is also Greg the repentant 419 fraudster with the hilarious Ben and Orji binging at the local bar give us informed commentary on the social, political and economic malaise in the country.

Through these principal characters Ozoemene has succeeded to use the picture of each one to capture the psyche of the unfortunate victims of the corrupt ruling class.

The other plays address other unavoidable issues such as the fears and ignorance of the scourge of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in “Hell’s Invitation” where I could see another Adesuwa in the intelligent Stella who is the only female among four young men and they are all unemployed graduates from different tribes sharing a room with only one bed and discussing the nightmares haunting their Nigerian Dream. The exciting prospects of a dream job for one of them are soon threatened by the fears of having a compulsory HIV test. In the last play “This Time Tomorrow” Ozoemene takes us into the theatre world and probably reminiscent of his days with Theatre 15 at the University of Lagos where he studied English. The principal characters address the ethics and economics of the Nigerian family, social and political sensibilities of the old and young people in Nigeria.

Ozoemene’s characters are real people one can actually recognize among us in the Nigerian society and most of them like Madam Boys’s Quarters, Nari, Iyobosa, Orji, Bimbo, Aliyu, Papa Ruka, the eccentric Professor and his wife Folake,his brilliant and smart son Jide and daughter Keji with her sexy swagger are going to end up among the most memorable characters in Nigerian drama.

If you really want to know what life is like in Nigeria in the last decade of the 20th century and in the first decade of the 21st century and how her citizens have been reacting to the challenges of surviving and succeeding in spite of the embarrassment and harassment of a corrupt government, then you should read Jekwu Ozoemene’s The Anger of Unfulfillment: Three Plays Out of Nigeria. It is a good recommendation in every collection of must read books.


~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima
Thursday April 7, 2011.

Releases displayed in Africa/Lagos time
7 Apr 2011
21:11	AU Commissioner receives international recognition
20:16	IBM's MRSA Infection-Fighting Nanotechnology Caps Century of Healthcare Innovation
6 Apr 2011
15:00	Se espera que el consumo mundial de cemento alcance cifras récord
14:34	African Union / Press statement of the 270th meeting of the Peace and Security Council
13:12	La GSMA demande au gouvernement nig?rian de lib?rer la croissance ?conomique en soutenant le d?ploiement de l'Internet ? haut d?bit mobile
11:00	IBM Helps Bring Smarter Healthcare to Nigeria's Cross River State
10:53	Est? previsto que el consumo mundial de cemento llegue a nuevas cotas
09:25	DHL Spells Out Renewed Focus on Africa as Trade Grows
09:00	Global Cement Consumption Set to Reach New Highs
08:00	La consommation mondiale de ciment devrait atteindre de nouveaux records
08:00	Globaler Zementverbrauch erreicht neue H?hen
5 Apr 2011
14:00	Buick Baskets for Children in Need Nets 3,000 Pairs of Shoes
10:08	GSMA Calls on Nigerian Government to Unlock Economic Growth by Supporting Mobile Broadband Rollout