Entertainment
Nollywood Veritable Tool For Cultural Diplomacy – IBB
Former military president,
Ibrahim Babangida, last Tuesday said Nollywood was a veritable tool for cultural diplomacy and social re-engineering in Nigeria.
Babangida stated this in his address at the opening of the 2015 Annual Conference of the Society of Nigeria Theatre Artistes (SONTA) in Abuja.
He said that beyond entertainment, Nollywood could adequately inform and educate Nigerians on the enormous benefits of living in peace.
Represented by Alhaji Ismail Ibrahim, former Chairman, Governing Board, National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), he said that Nollywood could be used to address ills in the society.
According to him, Nollywood can be deployed as a potent mechanism to address current security challenges, and used to educate youths on the dangers of breakdown of law and order and effect of criminality and insurgency.
Babangida said that through the medium of film, Nigeria’s rich and diverse cultural heritage and achievements could be projected and promoted.
‘’Nollywood makes a huge contribution to Nigeria’s external relations and even foreign exchange earnings.
“We have to attract tourists and investors with Nollywood just the way foreign films have been effectively used to promote Indian and American national interests,’’ he said.
In his remarks, National President of SONTA, Prof. Sunday Ododo, said film was a very potent medium with very wide reach and with mass mobilisation appeal.
“If this present administration must go far in her change mission and national orientation, the answer is Nollywood.
He said that the gesture of Babangida in gracing the occasion was an endorsement of the ideals NICO stood for as the capacity building arm of the culture industry.
Earlier, Prof. Barclays Ayakoroma, Executive Secretary of NICO, organisers of the conference, said that the agency had been carrying out its mandate of sensitisation through programmes and activities across the nation.
“We are using our programmes to harness culture for national development and this is why we are partnering SONTA in sensitising Nigerians,’’ he said.
R&B star, Temilade Openiyi, popularly known as Tems, has recounted the early-career challenges she faced, revealing that she was once booed out of the stage while performing at a school event.
Speaking in an interview with Newsmen, the Crazy Tings crooner shared that she wasn’t only booed but was also harassed with plastic bottles.
“I remember one time I was going to perform at my school as an up-and-coming singer and I thought I was going to receiving a standing ovation.
“But I got booed. They even threw plastic bottles at me,” she recalled.
Tems explained that despite the embarrassing incident and other such rejections, she remained determined to pursue a career in music.
The Tide Entertainment reports that Tems admitted that some of the initial rejections she faced could be due to her conviction to stick to her originality instead of doing covers or familiar sounds like most of her peers.
The Grammy-winning singer said looking back now, she is glad that she didn’t compromise her style despite the initial pressures.
A close associate of late singer Mohbad, Primeboy, has appealed for the artiste’s burial nearly three years after his death.
According to him, Mohbad’s body remains in the mortuary since September 12, 2023, pending burial arrangements.
The Tide Entertainment reports that in a statement Primeboy urged the family, public, and government to permit the burial, stating, “It’s been almost three years since Mohbad left us. His body is still in the mortuary. I’m begging the family, I’m begging the public, I’m begging the government, please let’s bury our brother. He deserves a befitting burial.”
It would be recalled that Mohbad’s death sparked public outrage, protests, and investigations. Ongoing autopsy examinations, police inquiries, and legal proceedings have delayed burial arrangements amid family disagreements and public scrutiny.
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