Dr. Chidia Maduekwe, is the Managing Director of Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC). He is a chieftain and a founding member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview with BODE OLAGOKE, he speaks on the milstones his leadership has recorded at NFC, why President Muhammadu Buhari will win his re-election bid and why the President has not probe the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on some allegations of corruption.
Two years down now, what will you say you have brought onboard that wasn’t there before your leadership of Nigerian Firm Corporation?
Thank you for having me. To be precise, it is a year and six months. In this space of time, I am happy to state that my experience as the Managing Director of the Nigerian Film Corporation has been rewarding. More so, taking cognisance of the milestones, we have been able to achieve within this period. That is, with regards to NFC’s mandate to regulate, train, and develop the film industry.
Concerning the development mandate, since 1979 when the Act establishing the NFC was enacted, there has been no amendment which would have enabled the NFC to be in sync with the present era. Under my watch in the last 18 months, both Houses of Assembly have successfully passed the Bill which establishes the NFC as a Commission. In the next couple of weeks, the Bill will be transmitted to His Excellency, Mr President for his assent. As a Commission, the NFC will have full regulatory powers which would enable it to effectively fulfil its mandate to regulate, train, and develop the film industry.
Furthermore, in addition to establishing offices in the six geo-political zones, we have been able to secure a zonal office at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja. Before this, the NFC had no office in Abuja, and we were struggling with a debt of over 20 million Naira for the office space rented at the Shippers Plaza. I am grateful to the SGF who saw our plight and graciously allocated to NFC a befitting office at the Federal Secretariat Phase 1. Also, we have renovated the Lagos Zonal office which has the potential of being upgraded to the level of Directorate given that pivot role Lagos plays in the film industry. Part of this renovation includes improving and refurbishing our sound and post-production studios.
As you are aware, the cinema provides an avenue to mitigating the loss filmmakers suffer in Nigeria with regards to piracy. We are a nation that is functioning below our abilities when it comes to cinema. Hence, as part of fulfilling the NFC’s mandate, the NFC currently has a functional viewing centre in Ikoyi known as NFC Da-Cinemas. This cinema is the first of many which with the support, sponsorship, and collaboration of the NFC will be established all over Nigeria.
In addition, within two months as MD NFC, we moved to our permanent site, and we were able to secure sponsorship of a new postgraduate masters degree program in Archival studies from the German government through the goodwill of the German embassy. It might interest you to note that the specification of this postgraduate masters degree programme is the first of its kind in Africa. The German government will sponsor the programme for the first four years, after which we are expected to run on our own steam.
Recently the tenure of the past rector was over, and I am glad to say that we have brought on board – approved by the governing board of the Nigerian Film Corporation – Professor Femi Shaka. Prof Shaka is a former dean in theatre arts and films, a scholar par excellence, and a man who has trained many good names in Nollywood. With a person like this coming all the way from the University of Port Harcourt we are blessed as an Institute. The Port Harcourt film department is well known nationally and globally for the calibre of film industry professionals they have produced. So, we are privileged to have Prof Shaka with us as our new rector. With him on board, the sky is not our limit, we shall certainly going beyond the sky.
Sir, I know you are not there yet, you haven’t achieved all your aims and objectives and all you set out to do in the film industry. What are those challenges that you think are limiting your performance?
The major challenge is funding. Perhaps, the misconception that NFC is focused on dance and drama might have influenced the low budget challenge it is besieged. Contrary to this indicated misconception, the film industry is more than dance and drama; it is the cutting edge of a golden future. More so, an economy- diversification and job-creation tool for the Nigerian youth. I must say that we have a vice president that is forward leaning in his Excellency Professor Yemi Osinbajo who is chairing what today is known as the technology and creative infrastructure advisory Council. I am a member of that council, and HE VP led this team to Silicon Valley and California, where we met all the critical players in the creative economy. In so doing, the VP exposed NFC to greater heights. People are keying into his visionary leadership and realising that is not just about crude oil alone; it is about the creative industry which is the new frontier that the Nigerian youth can access.
So if your agency is well funded, tell us the capacity the agency has to change the economic fortune of Nigeria?
The capacity is so enormous. Firstly, we will start in the area of training because today we are turning over 2000 films a year as Nollywood but again how many get nominated for the Academy Awards? We are churning out a large number of films, and not many of them reach the apex of recognition. So if we improve in training and have lots of our young people benefit from such, it will impact on the kind of quality or the type of film we produce. If we have the equipment that can perform stunts, special effects it will impact in the kind of film we produce. If we have funding to support those that are to go into distribution as I told you about the up and coming NFC Da-cinemas chain all over the country. If we have funding to live our dreams in that area, so you can find out that when someone produces his film he can have a place to have it screened and when it is screened he is likely to make more money than what he is currently happening to him now by losing so much to piracy. You are aware that China broke through the glass ceiling by engaging their people in the area of production in the cinemas and by creating several viewing centres. Today you will find out that China is almost overtaking Hollywood simply because they understood this specialised area of distribution needed to be addressed and that is what they have done and that is what I intend to do under my watch.
In your remaining years in that agency what are you certain you will be able to achieve?
I am creating the structural framework on which my current vision can ride on whether I am there or not tomorrow. Once there is an excellent structural framework that is firmly established any new person can build upon it and he can run with it. That is why I am delighted that both Houses have passed the Bill that will make us a film commission and I expect that Mr President will assent to it at the earliest possible time. Once that is done, most of the nebulous confusion that is in the industry will be taken away because if you have proper regulation of the industry, most of our deficiencies will be a thing of the past.
You are one of the known Igbo man that campaigned for the election of President Buhari in 2014/2015. Would you say the president deserves a second term and what will you be telling Nigerians?
We are lucky to have President Muhammadu Buhari at the helm of affairs today. His presence is divine, and I am going to back this statement up. Without President Muhammadu Buhari being at the helm of affairs today this country would slide down into the abyss of self-destruction to the extent that Venezuela would have been a child’s cry. We have a man who believes in his work, who is committed to what he has set his mind to do. Soon after he came into office, we saw the mess the country was placed in by the past administration. Moreover, without looking back, I want Nigerians to know that he has remained focused on one concept, one policy which can appropriately be described as doing so much more with so little. If we can understand this catchphrase that President Buhari in the last three years in office has done far so much more than any administration with so little then we can begin to understand his mindset, we can begin to understand where he is going and where he is coming from. We can begin to understand how blessed we are as a country to have President Muhammadu Buhari.
As an Igbo man, I am pleased and very proud that I worked with President Muhammadu Buhari and I am still working with him to ensure that our people this time around will not find themselves in a situation where they would be considered as being the five percenters regarding people giving votes. This is because he has done so much for the South East where I come from in terms of huge infrastructural development within two budget circles. We must be realistic because he has been in office for about three years but he has only operated two budgets cycles of his own; the one of 2016 and the one of 2017. During which time he approved a total over 2.7 trillion NAIRA into capital projects and most of these projects were factored in the South East. Actually we can’t discuss governance without development, and if Buhari under his watch has brought so much infrastructural development to the South East then it is a thing of joy, it is something to clap hands for, it is a great thing to see a man with so little done so much more. We have no option or choice but to continuously vote him and make sure that he comes into power for the second tenure. So that is how I want us to situate it.
Regarding the economy, we can also say yes he has battled it drastically, and he is winning. He has raised the economy from further downward decline. He has been able to stabilize the naira in such a way that an Igbo trader can forecast and say ‘I can import this, I can manufacture this’ because importation is not what is considered fashionable these days, what is considered fashionable is the ability of an Igbo man in Aba to engage in local production for himself . This government has increased their production capacity many times over. You can’t produce without energy. You are aware as we speak that there are dedicated 24/7 power plants in a place like Ariaria in Aba so that the show makers will continue to produce their shoes for local and global utilisation. Those sewing dresses and doing what they know how to sew are doing it very well and exporting it. You are wearing what they call Senator, and I am also wearing one. If you can check what the Vice President wears all the time, you will observe the local content status of his outfit. You may ask where are all these dresses coming from? They are coming from the South East. You will find out that the army also is getting shoes coming from Aba. So you will find out that Buhari hasn’t only helped us with infrastructures, he has linked the Igbo man into the grand plan of a mega military industrial complex because when we are part of the system that provides certain things that the military uses in their operation then we are part of the military complex that is coming up. Buhari has done so well, and he can do more.
With all these things that you have listed, the coming up of Atiku Abubakar as the Presidential candidate of the PDP and with the kind of support he is getting of recent are you not worried as a supporter and campaigner of Buhari?
If I tell you that I am worried, then I won’t be honest with myself. The truth is that I am not concerned because I understand Atiku, I know Atiku. Atiku candidacy is dead on arrival. Atiku made a press release couple of days ago and what did Atiku say? He said he was coming to fight corruption. He said he is coming to create jobs. He said he is coming to arrest the downward decline of the economy. Exactly what Buhari said he was coming to do, exactly what Buhari has been doing all these years. So you will find out that Atiku has no agenda except to come and copy what Buhari has been doing. So you will find out that Atiku lacks the intellectual endowment to deliver. He is thinking that Nigeria is now farmland of Banana republic where you can come and start making promises because you want to take advantage of the emotions of the people because you want to take advantage of the so-called hardship that the people are currently faced with. Yes, we are faced with the hardship because of the looting tendency of the past administration. We don’t want to look backwards but we can’t discuss the future without looking back because in simple economy it is stated and it is known that once you have a boom period, you are bound to save and if you couldn’t save during the boom period how can you have what to manage during scarcity? Buhari came under scarcity when the boom period was already over, and Buhari made sure that with the little he has so much more was achieved. As we speak, Atiku doesn’t have the road to his village. He was there for eight years as Vice President he couldn’t even construct the road leading to Jada. It is still Buhari that is building the road as we speak with little or no much that is available. Thus, if a man who couldn’t use his office to construct infrastructural development in Adamawa for eight years how would you trust him to say he is coming to create infrastructural benefit for Nigerians and the economy? If a man in office has to act in a manner that the United States government had to use him as a case study of how Africans are laundering money overseas in corrupt manners, how can he now be the head of a government that is fighting corruption because all around him currently stinks with corruption?
On this point the same Atiku Abubakar has challenged the President Buhari-led administration and all Nigerians that whoever has corruption evidence against him should come out. How come your government has not filed a suit against him?
Must we file suit to show a corrupt example? I will give you one example that was just recently solved. Atiku has a clear interest in Intel and Intel has been shortchanging the national treasury over the years like many other agencies linked to Atiku until the young MD of the Nigerian Port Authority stood tall and said no it can’t continue any more. She demanded that all monies generated by Intel should first be passed through the TSA. What happened? After the battle of compliance the Italian partners came and said ‘sorry, they now agreed to do the right thing’. Do you know how many trillions of naira over the years that would have been taken away by Atiku’s intel company under the same nebulous situation? We don’t have to go to court to prove this since it is very evident. BUHARI can’t take everyone to court, but Buhari wants to block all the leakages and wastages. From the firm action HAJIA Hadiza took at NPA she has blocked huge leakages that were continuously bleeding this country through Atiku’s Intel, and there are many more like that. That is evidence of corruption.
Some people will say that is selective fight if APC government can’t probe Atiku?
No! He doesn’t have to be that way because you must choose your fight. Since this government came into office, have they probed NNPC? Have they probed Aviation ministry? Have they probed the ecological fund? They are still buckled down with defence ministry and NSA matter. If the government gets bogged down by all these leakages how would the same government be putting up new roads, putting up the free meal a day in schools? This government must deliver while they are still doing the needful to our citizenry.
But he has challenged the APC government to bring out evidence if there are corruption charges against him?
What are you talking about corruption charges and evidence? Didn’t you read my watch by Obasanjo? Which other evidence do you need more than that? His boss admitting many times publicly in writing and video clips how Atiku is linked with several corruption issues; how the United States wrote Nigeria, EFCC, to investigate certain people and Atiku was one of them. So what other evidence are we looking for? Atiku is generally perceived over time to be a corrupt looter, a global wheeler-dealer that everyone knows about. The records are there, and I am telling you that they are not hiding it. His business partner, Mr Jefferson is cooling off in prison in the United States, the man he was linked to in that deal. Are you still talking about evidence? You are aware when Atiku used his influence in the PTDF funds? So you can’t be asking of evidence.
The emergence of Peter Obi from the South-east were you come from as the running-mate of Atiku, don’t you think will deprive APC from getting the desired votes in the South East in 2019?
The emergence of Peter Obi is a very wrong strategy for PDP. If I were advising PDP, I would have told them not to go with Peter Obi because if there is any place that the PDP can say they have a certain number of voters that they can be sure of is in the South East. So going to pick Peter Obi is a no-brainer because Peter Obi isn’t going to add any vote for them because whether they choose Peter Obi or not they are bound to pick some few votes. However, the good news for APC of picking Peter Obi is that it showcases the mindset of the two; Atiku and Peter Obi assuming they were ever going to be close to the gates of Aso Rock. For example a man like Peter Obi who is not a nationalist, who doesn’t believe in one Nigeria, who is an extremist. What value can he bring to governance? A man who in this country, had Hausas in his state forced to wear tags like goats as a means of identification. He demolished seven Mosques; not only the Mosque belonging to the Hausas but also the ones belong to the Yorubas, the Mosque belonging to people from other regions he demolished them and he said that every Hausa man in Onitsha must put on his identity tags. Where is such thing condoned? That shows that Peter Obi lacks the capacity of uniting this country. Supposing the Kano governor did the same thing to Igbos in Kano what kind of country are we going to have? If the Kano governor decides to demolish the Igbo church like how Peter Obi destroyed this Mosque in Onitsha and gave it to MASSOB people which means that this is the mindset of the man that wants to rule Nigeria. He is using and is feeding into the negativism of the country to ride up to power. Remember that the tiger will eventually consume those who ride on the back of the tiger and while they are happy that they brought Peter Obi that means they have lost this election clearly. It is an arrangement that is dead on arrival.
In the next few days what will be the selling point of your campaign team to Nigerian?
The selling point for PMB campaign team is that the President has done so much more with so little, and we will continue to state it as we list the long list of completed projects all over the six geopolitical zones of the country.
