Entertainment
Emohua Youth Gyrate At Peace Carnival …As Chief Awuse Cup Winners Celebrate Victory
It was three days of fun-filled celebration extravaganza in Emohua Community in Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State as the youths of the community came out en mass to organise a peace carnival to mark the exit of 2017 and to usher in a more peaceful and prosperous New Year.
The event started on Friday, January 5, with a well attended Christain thanksgiving and rededication of the community to God, presided over by the General Overseer of Sacred Flames Int’l Church, Mgbuoba, Bishop Eddy Ogbonna, Rev (Barr) Dan I. Obinna of the Rivers State Ecumenical Centre, Port Harcourt and other anointed men of God.
This was followed by a symposium and a lecture titled ‘Youth Restiveness and its Effect on Community Development’, delivered by Chief (Dr) Esesi Obilor, as well as cultural display and other side attractions.
On Saturday, January 6th the community was besieged by a mammoth crowd of fun seekers from the eight villages of Emohua community made up of both the old and young as well as the rich and the “down trodden hoi-poloi” who were entertained with good music by notable Dee Jays (DJs) as they danced, wined and dined all night.
In an interview with The Tide Entertainment, the Chief Pioneer of the Youth Carnival, Mr Light Ihiechi Olomi said “the carnival is to show the world that Emohua is a very peaceful community and not bad as portrayed by detractors”. He urged them to come to Emohua to see things for themselves.
Mr Ihiechi Olomi disclosed that the carnival started in the morning hours with street parade in all the eight villages of Emohua Community to prove the peaceful co-existence of the good people of Emohua.
“I am happy that the carnival achieved its aim of uniting the youths as the event was hitch-free and a very huge success”, he said.
He thanked the sponsores of the carnival such as Senator Andrew I. Uchendu, Chief Godpower Adum and the Carnival Planning Committee members for their commitment towards ensuring a successful carnival to usher in the New Year. According to him, 2017 was a very good year in the community but hopefully 2018 will be better and more peaceful.
Sunday, January 7, was the grand finale of the three eventful days in the community which saw the finals of the Chief Sergeant Awuse Soccer Cup Competition where Liverpool FC emerged winners after defeating Paris Saint Germaine (PSG) 2-0 at the over croweded ‘Ahia- Ezi’ Field in Rumuche-Emohua.
High points of the soccer fiesta was the handover of the Chief Sergent Awusa Soccer trophy to the winning term, Liverpool FC, presentation of awards, sourvenirs and cash prizes to the best player of the tournament, Mr Adebayo (Isiodu), Highest goal scorer, Mr Precious Bobby Enyi (Rumuohia) and best goal keeper Ovunda Ogbonna (Rumuche). All the recipients were from the winning Liverpool FC team.
Presenting the awards and prizes, renowned Sports Personality and Dean Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Port Harcourt, Prof Okechukwu Onuchukwu commended the players for their wonderful performance and their spirit of sportsmanship throughout the tournament which he said contributed to the success recorded at the soccer event.
Speaking with The Tide shortly after the soccer competition, the cup donor and sponsor Chief (Hon) Sergent C. Awuse, KSC, disclosed that the aim of the competition was to promote peaceful co-existence among the youths and the community at large which the competition achieved throughout the Yule-tide season and beyond.
The overtly elated soccer promoter said “I am very happy that Liverpool won the competition because I am an ardent Liverpool FC fan”. He congratulated the eight teams that participated in the third edition of the tournament for their peaceful conduct. He urged them to embrace sporting activities as a means of developing their mental and physical abilities and to see sports as an alternative to cultism, kidnapping and other social vices, as he assured them that the next edition of the competition would be bigger and better.
Also speaking, a soccer enthusiast and Nigerian Army Legionnaire, Mr Victor Okechukwu Ogbor noted that the importance of sports in human development could not be over emphasised. He said apart from being a unifying factor among the youths during the yuletide period, the peaceful event had shown the world that Emohua is a peaceful place and boasts of legendary hospitality to strangers as against the negative reports from some sections of the media portraying the community in bad light. He commended Chief Awuse for his encouragement of youths development in the community.
It was gathered that eight teams that participated in the soccer fiesta decided to adopt the names of foreign football clubs in order to avoid inter village quarrel as was experienced in previous competitions where the winning teams bragged about their superiority over the defeated villages which brought problems among the players.
The family of veteran Nollywood actor, Pete Edochie, has dismissed viral rumours circulating on social media claiming that the film icon is dead.
Reacting to the reports in a video shared on his Instagram page on Tuesday, the actor’s eldest son, Leo Edochie, described the claim as false and malicious.
“I’ve been receiving text messages and calls over the nonsense post by some people that our father, Chief Pete Edochie, is dead. It is a lie from the pit of hell,” he said.
Leo added that the actor is alive and in good health, condemning those responsible for spreading the rumour.
“Our father is alive, hale and hearty. And if you wish someone dead, two things usually happen. The person will live very long and you will die before him. Shame to all of you,” he said.
The rumour had sparked concern among fans before the family’s clarification.
Nollywood veteran actress Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde is making her directorial debut with a different and sharper focus. Speaking recently with Newsmen,, the screen icon highlighted a glaring void in the industry’s catalogue, which is the authentic reality of mother-daughter relationships.
“We don’t have too many films that explore or showcase the relationship between mothers and daughters,” Omotola said during the interview, describing the subject as something deeply personal to her.
Speaking honestly about raising her first daughter, she admitted she had only one mode at the time, which was discipline. “I didn’t do a good job,” she said plainly, explaining that she understood motherhood strictly through control, not softness or emotional openness.
At the centre of Mother’s Love is Adebisi, a sheltered young woman from a wealthy home whose life is shaped by her father’s rigid control. Her first taste of freedom comes through NYSC, where distance from home allows her to begin discovering who she is outside her family’s expectations. She forms a friendship with a young man from a more modest background, and through him, starts to see the world and herself differently.
But the emotional core of the film isn’t Adebisi’s rebellion. It’s her mother. Long after being presented as quiet and compliant, she slowly reveals a resolve when her daughter’s safety and future are threatened. As secrets surface and buried grief comes into view, Mother’s Love becomes less about youthful independence and more about maternal sacrifice, unspoken trauma, and the emotional costs of survival inside a patriarchal home.
The Tide Entertainment reports that the film doesn’t shy away from weighty themes by including PTSD, unresolved grief, and social inequality at the centre of the story. It is far removed from the soft-focus sentimentality that often defines Mother’s Day-style narratives.
It also marks Omotola’s directorial debut, a significant moment considering how long she has shaped Nollywood from the front of the camera. She stars in the film alongside a mix of familiar faces and newer talent, including Ifeanyi Kalu, Olumide Oworu, and Noray Nehita.
Beyond the film itself, Omotola’s interview touched on a tension that has been simmering in Nollywood for a while now: how movies are marketed in the age of TikTok. Addressing the growing expectation for actors and filmmakers to create viral dance content to promote their work, she didn’t mince words. The pressure, she said, is exhausting and unnatural.
For her, the industry wasn’t meant to function this way. Still, she was careful not to judge anyone else’s approach. Everyone invests differently, carries different risks, and should be allowed to promote their films however they see fit.
“Do whatever you can do. It’s exhausting, it’s not natural. For me, the film industry is not supposed to be like that. We are encouraging nonsense if we are doing that. It doesn’t mean that whoever is doing it is wrong.”
Her comments arrive not long after the public back-and-forth between Kunle Afolayan and Funke Akindele over marketing styles, a debate that quickly turned into a proxy war between prestige storytelling and viral strategy. Omotola’s stance sits somewhere calmer. She understands the shift social media has brought, but she’s also clear about her own boundaries.
Omotola’s critique about the lack of mother-daughter stories isn’t unfounded. In Nollywood, mothers often exist as symbols rather than people. They’re either saintly figures who pray endlessly for their children or villains whose cruelty drives the plot forward. What’s missing is intimacy, the negotiations, and the regrets. The love that exists alongside resentment and misunderstanding.
Films rarely sit with the emotional complexity of women raising daughters in systems that also failed them. There’s little room for mothers who made mistakes but are still trying, or daughters who love their mothers while questioning the damage they inherited. Mother’s Love attempts to occupy that space, offering a more grounded portrayal that reflects lived experience rather than archetypes.
That’s where the film’s potential impact lies, in the decision to centre a relationship that Nollywood has largely flattened. If it works, it could open the door for more stories that treat motherhood as a lived, evolving reality rather than a fixed moral position.
Mother’s Love, directed by and starring Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, had its world premiere at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2025. The film is set for a nationwide cinema release in Nigeria on March 6, 2026.
Funke Akindele’s Behind The Scenes becomes Nollywood’s highest-grossing film of 2025, earning ?1.77bn in under four weeks.
Multi-award-winning actress and producer Funke Akindele has done it again, and this time, the numbers speak louder than applause.
Her latest film, Behind The Scenes, has officially emerged as the highest-grossing Nollywood film of 2025, pulling in an astonishing ?1.767 billion in less than four weeks.
The Tide Entertainment reports that Funke Akindele Makes Box Office History as Behind The Scenes Crosses ?1.77bn
Earlier in its release cycle, the film’s distributor, FilmOne Entertainment, revealed that Behind The Scenes smashed five opening-weekend records, including the highest single-day gross ever recorded on Boxing Day, with ?129.5 million in one day. That announcement already hinted that something unusual was unfolding.
Reacting to the milestone, FilmOne described the moment as both surreal and communal, crediting audience loyalty for pushing the film to the top spot once again as the number-one movie of the weekend. And that sentiment feels accurate. This wasn’t just ticket sales; it was momentum.
What makes this achievement even more striking is that Behind The Scenes is Funke Akindele’s third film to cross the ?1 billion mark. Before now, there was A Tribe Called Judah, and then Everybody Loves Jenifa, a film that didn’t just open big, but went on to become the highest-grossing Nollywood film of all time. At this point, it’s no longer a fluke. It’s a pattern.
Part of Behind The Scenes’ success lies in strategy. The film enjoyed advanced screenings on December 10 and 11, quietly building curiosity and conversation before its nationwide release on December 12. By the time it officially hit cinemas, audiences already felt like they needed to see it.
Then there’s the cast. The film brings together a lineup that feels deliberately stacked: Scarlet Gomez, Iyabo Ojo, Destiny Etiko, Tobi Bakre, Uche Montana, and several others. Familiar faces, strong fan bases, and performances that kept word-of-mouth alive long after opening weekend.
Still, beyond timing and casting, there’s something else at work here. Funke Akindele understands Nigerian audiences. Their humour, their pacing, their emotional buttons. She doesn’t guess, she calculates, experiments, listens, and refines. That understanding has slowly turned into box-office dominance.
Behind The Scenes crossing ?1.77 billion isn’t just another headline; it’s confirmation. Funke Akindele has moved from being a successful actress to becoming one of the most reliable commercial forces Nollywood has ever produced. Three-billion-naira films don’t happen by luck. They happen when storytelling, business sense, and audience trust align.
And right now, that alignment seems firmly in her hands.
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