Chief Eddie Ugbomah will be 76 this year. To celebrate this milestone and his 54 years in the entertainment industry, the veteran filmmaker will, from December 15 to 17, throw a party to remember, as well as launch of his autobiography, foundation and organise a concert with big names in Nigerian entertainment.
In this interview with Assistant Life Editor, TERH AGBEDEH, Ugbomah talks about the party, his life in entertainment and the future of that industry in Nigeria.
Chief, congratulations on your 76th birthday…
Not yet, it is in December.
It must be something special to be over 70 and heading for 100; how do you feel sir?
I am very grateful to God because I have worked all my life. From the age of 10, I became a man, fending for myself, growing up in a competitive society. When you grow up with people like Fela (Anikulapo Kuti), Beko (Ransome Kuti), Wole Soyinka, Akin Davies, all the Akintolas and I am the only son of a poor man among them. We all grew up together. When they left for Europe, I found my way there too. You know what that street means; it is called Military Street in Onikan (Lagos) and anybody from that place came back a dynamic person. Wole Soyinka didn’t grow up there so much because he was always in Abeokuta, his family home, the Kuti family; you know he is a nephew of the Kutis, so they all grew up together and he was our egbon (elder brother). We all grew up at Onikan behind the House of Representatives. The street produced 15 top Nigerians; Wole Soyinka, Olikoye (Ransome Kuti), Beko, Fela, myself, the Mahrinos, the HO Davies, the Awolowos, the Okotie Ebos, Tafawa Balewas who were on the other side. Tafawa Balewa’s children, Okotie Eboh’s children, Njoku’s children – that place they call ECOWAS Office; that was the place those people were killed during the 1966 coup. So, all their children and all of us grew up together.
What is so special about that street?
It was made up of the who-is-who in the country. Eighty per cent of us were thrown away from where we have the Lagos High Court today. That was my family land. Lagos State threw us away and gave us those areas and we never knew it was going to become very big.
You are going to be celebrating big on December 15, 16 and 17; who is going to be involved? Will Delta State, which just gave you an award, going to be involved, Lagos State, the Association of Movie Producers (AMP)?
Well, at the moment, I have not tied down the sponsors. But Heritage (Bank) is interested. Lai is interested.
The Minister of Information and Culture?
Yeah, because I have been with all of them. (Governor Akinwumi) Ambode is interested.
That is Lagos State government.
Yes, so maybe AMP, which I am in its board of trustees, would be tolerated. The same thing with the Directors Guild (of Nigeria); they will be tolerated. Because they have failed woefully in the past seven years in celebrating me since I was 70. There is supposed to be a big party when you are 70, so it is not now that they have failed woefully to celebrate me. But lucky for me, I have association and committee of friends, who are now organising it. But the people I blame actually is this country. Why I say that is that if I wasn’t from Delta, I will be highly celebrated. Look at the musician (Sunny Ade); they (Yoruba) celebrated him for one month. They have a Wole Soyinka week. I am in the same class with Sunny Ade, Ebenezer Obey; I achieved as much as they, if not more. But who is celebrating me? I come from (uncaring) Delta. The worst is that I am from the minority in Delta.
But has Delta not done a thing?
They gave me one broken glass on August 28 as Lifetime Achievement Award after 25 years.
No landed property, cash, nothing?
Nothing; I call them nincompoops because it is so sad. I knew when Pete Edochie had MON (Member of the Order of the Niger), they gave him a car, land and N5 million. The same thing with Brendan Shehu. But (Felix) Ibru, (James) Ibori and (Emmanuel) Uduaghan didn’t give me anything. Now you expect (Ifeanyi) Okowa, who is singing no money, no money (to give me money)? I ask these Niger Delta governors; don’t they still get the 13 per cent derivation? They say they do. Don’t they still get security vote? They say they do. So why are you playing that cracked record? Stop playing the ‘no money’ record; it is an excuse. I should be celebrated. But thank God, I hope it works out. Heritage Bank (officials) said they will chip in, Lai said he will chip in. We are still negotiating with Ambode to chip in. It is a great thing to celebrate 76 with my massive, dynamic, explosive autobiography. I became a man at the age of 10. Then I am going to launch a musical comedy show with MCs coming from major actors, a concert made up of mainly the musicians and (other) artistes I know. We are expecting people like Pete Edochie, Olu Jacobs, Zack Orji on stage. I am expecting people like Omotola (Jalade Ekeinde), Rita Dominic, Alibaba, Bovi, Gordons and I am going to charge at the gate. I am going to use it to start Eddiefosa Foundation. I am going to have a musical art academy.
Who are the names on your committee of friends list?
There are just three movie producers. They are Franklin Okoroa producer/director, Sam Obikoli a producer/director and Chief Philip Udi who is a land speculator/producer/director. The rest are outsiders. Then we have Kevwe Alexandra, a caterer and event planner.
So, rice and stew will be very plenty?
I have four ladies who are event managers in the committee. They are the ones who are going to be visiting all these banks, telecommunication companies, one of which we have offered the red carpet, hall, or stage.
What do you mean when you say that you became a man at 10?
I was thrown into the streets by my parents for quarrelling. My father left my mother and my mother re-married. The husband rejected me. I was thrown into Lagos streets before I was picked up by my aunt into that Military Street.
How has that impacted on your life?
It has made me very great. It made me so dynamic. I have been able to face the world and I know that anything you want, if you face it and fight for it, you will get it. Sincerely, it has made me so happy, so stubborn that I don’t believe anything is impossible. Look at my late brother, the owner of The Guardian newspapers. If he were alive today and I say this, he would say yes. I met him in the Ministry of Finance trying to get money to bring in equipment to set up The Guardian.
That is Alex Ibru?
Yes. Then director-general of Ministry of Finance, one Ibuzo man, was trying to brag; so he said let’s go and fight this man. So, we started ‘Sapele wayo’; we crashed into the man’s office and he said, “what is happening?” We said we wanted to collect his foreign exchange. The man said “so you people come to fight me?” and we said no we came to collect…and the man happily gave it to us. So, if we had been gentlemen the way Alex was trying to do with his European visitors, they would have said “come tomorrow” because I am sure Alex had been coming there for over two years. But when I met him, I remembered what we say in those days in Sapele and Warri: “If you miss the ball, don’t miss the leg.”
That has been the impact of being a man at the age of 10. I started fighting to survive.
Are these things you are saying in your book?
Yes, that is why I call it an encyclopaedia of life.
How then did you come into film and entertainment?
From the time I was 10, when I was staying with my aunt at Onikan, in 1959, they brought Charlton Heston to premiere the film Ben-Hur at Glover Memorial Hall. So, this American stood up to accuse Nigerians and they clapped. He said that it was so sad that Nigeria, which was about to gain Independence, had no film industry. “Do they know the power of movies?” And they had to bring him all the way from America to premiere his film. So, at the top of the wall where we kids were watching at Glover Memorial Hall, I shouted, “Oyibo, Oyibo, you will never come to Africa again. I am going to be a filmmaker.” And from that day, I decided to go into film.
I went to Europe, finished my O’ and A’ levels, studied English, but film was still calling me and I branched to study cinematography, television, journalism, scriptwriting, acting… the whole works. They punished me when I came back to Nigeria; I couldn’t get a job because they said I was too qualified. That is why I got angry and set up… I went to Enugu at that time and they said we will get in touch with you. They called me ‘mba mmiri’, that I am from Niger Delta. I came back to Bendel and the Benin people said I was onye Igbo (Igbo man) and I should go to Igbo land to get a job. (Samuel) Ogbemudia’s sister, Mrs. Onojide, was then the director-general of NTA Benin. I went to Benin thinking that Bendel being my state, (I would be favoured). I (later) came back to Lagos. You don’t condemn the dead, because two of them are dead now. They ganged up against me in NTA because for 13 weeks they interviewed me. They asked me where I was going with those certificates? By then, I had promoted a lot of world concerts and I was a big name. I brought Mili Small to Nigeria in 1966, Chubby Checker and the Soul Messengers, James Brown, Miss World, name it. I was working in one of the biggest musical televisions in London, but home is still home. But when I came home, this is what I got.
I introduced international concerts in this country in 1966. I brought Mili Small when she was the biggest name in the world, (and other) big stars because I was working with stars in London. I was promoting shows at nightclubs and it was my nightclub that every Nigerian band played when they were in London. Fatai Rolling Dollar, Fela, Orlando Owoh, name them. When they came to London, they didn’t let them last in town halls; they would play for two hours and they would throw them out. But they played all night in my club.
What was the club called?
Four Aces. I won it in a gamble with a card of four aces. So the club was called Four Aces in north London. Back then, I had a first and only all black drama group with people like Taiwo Ajai-Lycett, the late Bukky Ajayi and Garus Garus (Joe Layode). All used to come and watch my productions.
Does Four Aces still stand?
No, they have turned the whole place into a very beautiful shopping centre. It was very central and the local government needed it in Hackney.
They must have paid you very good money for it.
No; unfortunately, I sold it cheap back to the owner when I was coming back to Nigeria because I won it in a card game.
Woody Allen made another film, Irrational Man, last year. He should be older than you.
Yes, he is. He is a very good friend of mine.
He is still writing and directing his own films but you have not made a film in recent time. What happened?
Blame it on the Igbo, blame the Yoruba. I am one of the biggest filmmakers in this country. But the Igbo swore an oath not to give me money, out of jealousy. They said they would use naira to write me off; instead I am collecting awards. Shame on them. Then the Yoruba said Eddie left us to join the Igbo, (we won’t work with him anymore). So that is my suffering. But I have appeared in four big movies in the last two years.
Your own films?
I am coming. They have not been released. I have been behind most of the productions as either adviser, scriptwriter or playing the lead role or technical adviser. A lot of them. And don’t forget, I shot a film about how the Fulani entered Nigeria and it has not been released. It is called Bayagida, but my title is Desert Warrior.
I knew (Muhammadu) Buhari would become President one day and this is how his great-great grandfathers entered Daura. They crashed into Nigeria, took over the whole place. By that time, we used to have only Hausa, now you have Hausa/Fulani.
You have always been close with people who rule this country, but it would seem that you are not friends with President Buhari in the same way that you are with Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida and…
You would be shocked that we are so close. If you see Buhari, you see Domkat Bali, you see the small one among us in those days, Tony Anania. Then Obasanjo, Sanda Jalo, Haruna Katsina. I was the only ‘bloody civilian’ who is their friend. When they were in London, they visited me. I also visit them here in Nigeria. I am so close to them but one thing I am very proud of is that I never asked any of them for contract. If I had wanted, (Yakubu) Gowon could have given it to me because I used to know him when he was Captain Jack. I met them through Ibrahim Bako.
But you don’t seem to be moving in Buhari’s circles right now?
No, I don’t believe in anything military. Whether you like it or not, Buhari is a dictator till tomorrow. He can’t help it; that is him. It’s his life.
Why did you start the hall of fame?
I made a hall of fame to know the history of the industry because my hall of fame is only for filmmakers and musicians. You don’t tell me a man who took a gun and got government should be put in history. They should be taken to the International Court of Justice (ICC) by now. If Nigeria wanted to be nasty, people like Gowon should be at the ICC because, remember, many people were killed. They should be tried for massacre.
Almost all the heads of states were…
Of course, they should be locked away. But, thank God, we are a very tolerant country.
Is that why you limited your hall of fame to moviemakers?
It is not my job to do the hall of fame. It is the federal government, the Ministry of Culture, Information. What actually put me into the hall of fame was, I was invited to Auckland to see the black filmmakers’ hall of fame. Then I was invited to see the Library of Congress where the history of everything American is kept. Then the Kennedy Centre, where there is hall of fame for any kind of event; boxers, swimmers, lawn tennis players, moviemakers, actors, writers, cameramen. Which do we have in Nigeria? Nothing. That is why in the year 2000, I decided to found the Moviemakers’ Hall of Fame. People like (Raymond) Dokpesi, the late Jimmy Ateh, Jimi Odumosun, Brendan Shehu, Baba Gana were the Board of Trustees (BoT) members and it was registered at the CAC (Corporate Affairs Commission). Unfortunately, when you look at the kids of today, who say they are the young Nollywood, they forget where they are coming from. They say we are youths of tomorrow, without plans for that tomorrow.
One could say the same about those of you who came before. You have done 54 years in the industry and when you look back, there doesn’t seem to be any system in place? See the National Theatre, for instance.
But whose fault? The National Theatre was built there, but people forget one thing. I want you to do a thorough research. If not that these Kano boys started shooting home videos, the Northerners don’t have any room for creativity or culture. When they wanted to build a film village in Kano, what did Buhari say? Don’t build it, don’t put my name. Now in Kano and Kaduna, people try to do home video under duress. They are not interested in creativity. If you are in a country without your cultural awareness, then you are not existing. If the powers-that-be want to put shovel under that National Theatre and take it to Abuja, they will say “yauwa”. But they couldn’t.
What would you say that the film industry has done for Nigeria?
The movie industry, right from my time, has made some much name that Zik (Nnamdi Azikiwe), (Obafemi) Awolowo couldn’t. I remember one day I was on a plane going to a festival in Kenya, the air hostess recognised me and ran to the pilot. They announced my name that I was on the plane. By that time, the film, War Front, was in the market. At the airport, all the pressmen were waiting; they had already told them that General Castro was coming. There was (also) a big programme in the same Kenya. All the African heads of state were in the stadium. Then we arrived there in a coaster (bus) and the crowd left all the presidents to follow us. They nearly killed ‘Aki’ (Chinedu Ikedieze) and ‘Pawpaw’ (Osita Iheme). They were falling down and we were picking them up to throw into the bus. Genevieve (Nnaji), Richard Mofe-Damijo, all these stars. That is what entertainment has been (doing) for this country.
And then, I, the king of them all, made the British government to be afraid and return our artefacts, though not all, when I did the film, The Mask, where a black James Bond blew up the British Museum to bring back the mask since they said they won’t give us for FESTAC (second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture). I did the movie called Oil Doom in 1978. Where are we today? I did a film called The Boy is Good about 419 and Yahoo Yahoo. Where are we today?
Where do you see the industry in future?
The industry has got a big future, if you put sane people in it. But right now, all you have is buying and selling merchants. It is a very powerful thing. Why is America ruling the world today? It is entertainment. Everybody wants to be like Americans, everybody wants to speak American. They have brainwashed the world. Which is what DStv has done. They’ve brainwashed Nigeria that they are the only people who can entertain them. It is a very powerful thing and the sooner we call these people’s attention, and the sooner we cut down our pallet for something foreign. There is a big future because whatever happens, even the recession, when you finish working, you want to be entertained either with music, movies, or you go mental (mad). So, I am asking people to tell government, let us do propaganda film for this country. We need it. Hitler, Eisenhower, Churchill, Ojukwu, they all used movies to talk to their people. Let everybody be invited, let everybody belong.
But at the same time, I am going to celebrate me at 76 with the launch of my autobiography and my valedictory concert because I am just going to end up in arts foundation. But one big thing I am fighting for, which I have got going on now, is a film village. I want to offer a film village to Lagos because Delta is pussy-footing and I don’t have time to wait for ex-(President Goodluck) Jonathan’s advisers.
Have you got the land to do that?
No, they are to give me the land. I am bringing the money from America. So, any state that gives us the land (gets it). We are trying Lagos at Epe; we are negotiating with them. Or trying the federal government at Kwale.
Is this different from your film academy?
The academy has nothing to do with it. It is a film village.
You want to give this to the country?
No, I want them to give me land, so that I can bring investors to build there. They have been here for 10 weeks.
What would you say is your highest point after 54 years in the entertainment industry?
All of them.
Any regrets?
None, because I achieved everything I wanted. I am sad. I am sorry for the kids today and they don’t want to follow the right footsteps. I am not regretting anything. I am supposed to be drunk every day with happiness. They have wrong identity because if you hear gunshots, that is American film. I wanted and I am still hoping that there is going to be African-identified movies that if you shut a door, they will say that is an African movie. The world is waiting for African cinema, but I don’t know what we are doing.
