Perhaps, most people are too busy looking at the glamour and excitement the movie industry brings. No one seems to be worried about a trend brewing daily in the industry that is capable of destroying it.
The division and hatred in the Nigerian movie industry was even glaring at the memorial service and artiste night of Moji Olaiya. While the Yoruba actors were seated in groups or caucuses, I didn’t see a single English speaking actor.
Once you saw a particular actor, you could predict the actor seated next to her or him. Some who didn’t belong to the same camp managed to exchange pleasantries and that was it.
Toyin Abraham’s failed marriage with Adeniyi Johnson is no longer a news. And of course, Toyin kept a long distance from his ex-husband and so was Fathia and Saheed Balogun too.
Journalists, in their normal fashion at the memorial service on Wednesday, were looking out for awkward moments. They were hoping to see Toyin hugging Johnson, or perhaps Fathia embracing Saheed. But none of that happened.
Toyin’s situation was even more glaring, as she left the venue before the event really started. She may, however, have reasons she had to breeze in and breeze out. But she didn’t get close to where Johnson was seated and Johnson didn’t also.
Saheed Balogun came in quite late, but he did all to stay clear of Fathia, the mother of his children.
Though the late Olaiya could be tagged a Yoruba actor, it should be recalled that the movie that shot her to limelight was Super Story, a series that features people from different races. From there, she became a household name.
But despite her interaction with some English speaking actors in the past, it was sad that none of them honoured her memorial service and artiste night. I mean before I took my leave at 9pm. Even though she does not belong to their league, my belief is that being a colleague in the industry was enough.
In true sense of it, such division has been going on in the movie industry for a long time. But most people have not taken it seriously. Unlike in America where we have just Hollywood and Bollywood in India, there is obvious division in Nigeria’s Nollywood. Like we now call them – we have the Yoruba Nollywood and English Nollywood. We also have Kanywood for the Hausa speaking people.
Though nobody is in the position to question the choice of anyone, a situation where you don’t care about a fellow actor simply because she does not belong to your league is worrisome and does not speak well of the industry.
The greatest problem of Nigeria is unity. And Nollywood that ought to be a tool to promote the importance of unity appears to have failed the people woefully. Regardless of the message of unity being passed through their movies, most of them are not different hypocrites. You only preach what you practice.
The likes of Kunle Afolayan, Wale Adenuga, Tunde Kelani and a few producers, through their movies, have tried to bring different people from different tribes on a set. Afolayan did it with ‘Figurine,’ ‘October,’ and many others. As it is now, there is difference between the death of a Yoruba actor and an English actor. If a Yoruba actor dies, an English actor does not care and vice versa. They do not even talk about it or send condolence to the family and loved ones the person left behind. That is funny to me.
