CELEBRATING MEDIOCRITY IN NOLLYWOOD

I must admit that I'm yet to recover from the #MyOgaAtTheTop saga despite the misfortune that followed. #MyOgaAtTheTop has developed into a sort of movement with branded T-Shirts to commemorate one of the worst instances of mediocrity in recent times. I must say I sympathize with Mr. Shem and his family for the infamy that his performance on Channels TV got him last week and the subsequent disciplinary action that followed.

However, my sympathy does not go beyond that. Nigeria is where she is today because mediocrity reigns supreme. For too long have we pampered mediocrity - a slow but powerful virus that has gradually turned Nigeria into an empty shell; mediocrity has fed on the hospitality of its hosts and has bred corruption which is determined to finish the job.

Unfortunately, mediocrity has replicated itself in every possible human endeavor in Nigeria. This has never been truer with Nollywood in focus. I used to be a fan of the Nigerian movie industry; a big fan. In the days of the Village Headmaster, Cock Crow At Dawn, Things Fall Apart - eons ago when the people in charge were interested in the content of a production.

Then there came Checkmate, Fuji House of Commotion and the likes - brilliant series that I never missed. Then we ventured into movies or "home videos". I watched Living In Bondage, Oracle, Violated amongst others and somewhere along the line, I grew up but the movies didn't grow so I abandoned them the way a child abandons childish habits.

The truth is Nollywood as a whole has refused to grow. Yes, there has been real decent efforts in recent times by some actors/actresses who rose out of the rot to give Nollywood a new face but alas, the mediocrity that had quietly infected the nascent industry had spread like a malignant virus and had eaten so deep that we started seeing remakes of America movies like Two Can Play That Game to the outrightly ridiculous movie titles of Beyonce Vs. Rihanna, Blackberry Babes and the likes.

While movies initially were strictly for entertainment, they have graduated world over as modes for education, information and positive re-orientation. In Nigeria, the most suitable description for Nollywood movies are societal mirrors. The mediocrity displayed from the plot, dialogue and direction of the movie is the reality on ground in Nigeria. A look at the way government is run is a testimonial to this fact.

I have been wrongly accused as unpatriotic by many because of my view on most Nollywood movies; that they engender mediocrity. In my travels across different states in Nigeria, I have come to find that majority of the people I have interacted with who live and breathe Nollywood have a serious gap in the way they reason, the way they react and the way they speak. This is simply because Nollywood doesn't teach you anything novel. Its always about the same babalawo, the same prostitutes, the same blackberry girls, the same criminals, the same yahoo boys, the same ritualists - nothing new to challenge your mind to think differently. How someone can sit through a one hour, thirty minutes movie that has Parts One to Five - stories that shouldn't have gone beyond Part One is beyond me. From terrible scripts with terrible dialogues, it feels like a conspiracy to propagate and perpetually subjugate the Nigerian masses in mediocrity.

What prompted this muse is the trailer for two new Nollywood movies I happened upon; Room 027 and Bold 5 Babes. The two movies show a paradigm shift and it appears the Ogas at the top have devised a new strategy to sell CDs by the inclusion of highly-charged, sex scenes. This would appear to be a quick-fix or short-cut approach if the plot and dialogue has not improved in any way. The surprising aspect of all this is that even if there is no improvement, it will be a big hit because in today's world, sex sells.

It raised questions in my head because recently, some Nigerian musicians had their musical videos banned by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) because the girls that appeared in them showed too much skin. If the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) okayed these movies, wouldn't it amount to double standard in the face of NBC's ban?

This is what you get when mediocrity is the elephant in the room; when it is ubiquitous; when mediocrity is the OGA AT THE TOP!

NB: For those interested in seeing the clips, visit http://industreetmusic.com/home/?p=1369 for downloads.
Warning: PG13!

Malcolm O. Ifi.is on twitter @saymalcolm