The wait has ended. So have the guesses. This year, the Best
of Nollywood Awards holds December 12th in Akure, Ondo State. The governor, Dr
Olusegun Mimiko, made this announcement Thursday morning at a meeting with the
organisers of BON and select Nollywood stars inside his stately country home in
Ondo town, Ondo State. “On behalf of the good people of Ondo State and me, we
are set to host the Best of Nollywood Awards this year. We will give spirit and
soul to the awards ceremony because it would be held in the best and only
international events centre in Nigeria. Our new Dome would make the Expo Centre
in Lagos look like a village kitchen,” he said.
Mimiko said, “My first reaction when the executive producer mentioned hosting
BON Awards to me was that these are not the best of times for any state
financially but he assured me that it would not cost the state so much. And I
agreed essentially because growing up, we were all victims of cultural
imperialism by the West. Of course, at that time, we still had contending views
of the East because of the deep rooted culture in their (Indian and Chinese)
films.” As time went by however, he said the Nigerian film began to show great
promises.
took over, Dr Mimiko’s robust knowledge of the global film industry was not in
doubt; which was why he said if there is one area Nigeria has shown the world
that she is capable of excelling especially in the last two decades, it is in
the creative industry especially the film industry. “So, for me, the
celebration of Nollywood is within the context of the cultural, if you like,
imperialistic possibilities of Nigeria and why not? So long we talk about our
potentials; we could also make Nigerian films a global commodity. If we want to
be a dominant country in Africa and a global player, we need to deliberately
create our Nollywood narrative by creating a theme around which other
sub-themes would be created to sell our country,” he posited.
a constant narrative, whether subtle or otherwise, in all their cinematic
outputs. We have to discover our own narrative. It is amazing the possibilities
therein. There is no home in Africa where Nollywood is not celebrated and I
think this creates finite possibilities for us to recreate and identify
ourselves before the world. For us, celebrating Nollywood stars is part of our
patriotic drive to ensure that this industry actually helps to actualize the Nigerian
dream. I don’t think there is any nation that has a product and does not
package how to sell it.”
for his understanding, love and support for the entertainment industry, and
importantly, for agreeing to host the event. Oloketuyi further expressed his
appreciation to Governor Mimiko. While urging other governors to take a cue
from Governor Mimiko and help the industry grow, Oloketuyi presented him a
certificate to symbolize the hosting right. Present at the event were Nollywood
stars like Segun Arinze, Yomi Fash Lanso, Fathia Balogun, Ngozi Nwosu, Alex
Ekubo, Ebube Nwagbo, Toyosi Adesanya and Amanda Ebeye among others.
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