Some members of the OnStage editorial team spoke with the Governor of the Ogun State Chapter of the Theater Arts and Motion Pictures Practitioners
Association of Nigeria(TAMPAN), Chief Owolabi Ajasa on a number of issues bothering on the Nigerian movie industry to importance of the window of opportunity offered by the Crescent Film and culture studies programme and more.
ON STAGE: Briefly, how would you describe yourself and your journey into theater up till now?
AJASA:Well,my name is Comrade Awolabi Ajasa Oyepola JP. I was born in May 3rd, 1975. I attended All Saints Anglican Primary School 1, Kemta Community in Abeokuta here and I proceeded to Nurudeen Grammar School, Obantoko, Abeokuta. After that, I worked with Total fueling station in Adatan here in Abeokuta as well and from there, March 1997 precisely, I joined the film industry through my direct boss, Alhaji Lukman Ebun Oloyede also known and addressed as Olaiya Igwe. From there, I started as an apprentice.Gradually, I became a member and I joined the former association which is Association of Nigerian Theater Practitioners (ANTP). I was the Secretary of that Local Government for good eight (8) years under my coordinator, Mokadam Lukman Idowu Adeniji when Theater Arts and Motion Pictures Practitioners Association of Nigeria (TAMPAN) came on board. After a year, I became the Chairman of that Local Government, Odeda Local Government. So,after the tenure, I now proceeded to become the governor of TAMPAN, up to this moment anyway.
After I left the fueling station, I proceeded to the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic where I read Marketing at ND as well as in HND. I think that is my journey so far. I am now the State Governor of TAMPAN in Ogun State.
ON STAGE: what is your feeling, your view on the program, and that of your members, concerning this collaboration between TAMPAN and Crescent University?
AJASA: Well, thank you. Like what I have just said anyway, my parents did not have money, I come from a very poor family. That is why it was very late before I proceeded to the polytechnic. But when I graduated from that school, I had it in mind that when I have the opportunity to lead or head this association, I would take education as my priority within my members, because I know the value of education. What I gained from education assisted me in becoming the State Governor of this association, my opponent had to step down for me.
And when I became the Governor of this association, with my executives, I told them that I want if not all the members of that association in Ogun State, I want a few of them to be more educated and that is what facilitated the collaboration between our association and the Crescent University.
ON STAGE: What can you say is exactly TAMPAN’s plan or vision for the movie industry?
AJASA: (Chuckles) Well, like what I have just said, the vision is that I want nearly all members of this association to be educated,most especially in Ogun State. Can you imagine, our President is also a student here now, that is Otunba Bolaji Amusan.So, the vision, most especially in Ogun State, is that all members should have quality education, because if you don’t have education,in the future you will lag behind. So, that is why I said, the vision is,this particular education, all our members must have it. If you see all of them, most of them they have O’level results.
ON STAGE: Still talking about the vision, what about your position concerning your profession, your practice?
AJASA: Well, let me tell you the truth, I believe, I want to start from the grassroots. That is my plan anyway. That even this our association, I mean TAMPAN, will have our own school. I don’t know, maybe it is going to be affiliated to this institution or not, I don’t know. But we will have our own school that would invite,maybe lecturers from here or other institutions, to teach our members right from the grassroots.
ON STAGE: Okay, sir. We are delighted that we started on your life history which is connected to the value of education and all that, you cannot give what you don’t have. Movie development, movie production, marketing is about education and entertainment. Would you say what filmmakers, your colleagues, are churning out today in the industry is something that is impactful on our society?
AJASA: Definitely. Because we have producers within us, we have directors, we have production managers; we have a pact within ourselves. You know, if we have an opportunity to produce a movie, our plan is to pass a message across to the people to let them know what they should be doing or what they should not do. And, I think that is part of what we have planned or our mission towards the audience, so that they would be able to gain one or two things from our industry.
ON STAGE: Trending in our society now, is the issue of juvenile delinquencies or ritual killings, and mostly the press and the society have alleged the movie industry of creating up to 75% of this exposure to our youths. I think we need to look at that too?
AJASA: Thank you, ma. People do ask this type of question, and my answer towards them as I have just said, we produce our movies for our people to learn. When we produce our films, we want to pass messages across, so that they would be able to have more knowledge on what they are doing. But the fact is this, most of our people, most of our audience, when they start watching our movies from the beginning, they will not watch the movie till the end of the movie. They will jump into conclusion. If we have a story that has to do with ritual killing, does that mean that we want the audience to emulate that ritual killing? Unless, they watch the movie from the beginning till the end, they will not get the necessary lessons from it. This is because you have to watch the movie till the end to know the consequence of that particular negative action so that you can think twice before you do that evil. And, apart from that, I always say this; we have different stories. Why are they emulating ritual killings from our stories? Why can’t you emulate a particular story that tells you to struggle and you work hard before making it in life? I always ask them, why? Why would you always emulate those that will do bad things and not dress properly, after all, we have those that dress properly? Even, the issue of dressing, the fact is according to what we learnt from our Literature lecturer here at Crescent University, on presentation and interpretation, if you want an actor to interpret and act a role properly, let me use a prostitute as an example, to interpret that particular message, definitely, the female actors must put on what the prostitutes wear. And we normally tell them at the location that, if you put on this costume, after your set, make sure you change, you cannot put on this outside. I normally tell them. But you see, if our audience watch the film, they will now start talking about indecent dressing. Why can’t you watch that film and see the end of that person that wore that indecent dress in that movie?
ON STAGE: Okay, thank you so much. Recently, we have seen a lot of changes in the movie industry, so how would you as the Governor of TAMPAN, rate the movie industry now, compared with what it was in the past?
AJASA: Well, I believe there is a difference anyway, and with the support of the Federal government, there is a particular body which is called National Films and Censors Board. But before we take our movie to the board, what video do is this, if you produce your movie, we have a panel, a committee that would check and watch your film thoroughly. If there is anything that is believed our people does not like, that is not acceptable, we will tell you to remove that particular scene before you can even take your movie to the Censors board. So, we have an internal committee that will look into your movie. And I think all these things were not there in the past.
I: What is your view on piracy and how has it affected your work?
A: The issue of piracy, although it is affecting our work continuously because if you have opportunity to produce movie today and the movie is out, if the movie is out early in the morning, in the evening of that same day, you will see pirated copies selling. It is affecting our movies, but it is not an issue that we can battle. It is only the government that can tackle piracy. We have tried our best, we have been to the House of Representatives,even House of Assembly at the state level to complain. But, what they are telling us is that the government is facing problem with Boko Haram, kidnappers, bandits and other issues. We should allow them to face all these issues and after that they would look into our problem. So that is the problem we are having. So, I am using this medium to appeal to our government, from the local, state and national level that they should assist us concerning piracy.
I.2: How would you rate the movie industry overseas and here in Nigeria?
A: There are other online platforms like YouTube through which people in diaspora watch our movies, than watching it on VCD, DVD etc. This online business is improving the movie industry anyway. And, that is only what I can say concerning that because they don’t watch our DVD. So, DVD business is within the Southwest here in Nigeria, but that YouTube is improving little by little and we believe that gradually we will still gain from that YouTube and that is just the difference.
OnStage: In terms of picture quality and sound quality,how would you rate movies that are produced here in Nigeria and produce in Europe or in the UK?
A: I understand you sir. Let me put it this way so that you understand very well. All the camera and all the equipment that we are using, all of them are bought from this country. So, what are we talking about? The weather in our own country here is different from their own weather there. I have traveled to like four or five different countries, so I know the difference between the weather and that weather is part of the quality that our job would depend on. They have all necessary equipment for shooting there to suit their weather. And here, we would need to adjust the equipment before we can use the equipment. But let me be frank with you, we are trying our possible best, so that if you want to compare the two together, you will think twice.
ON STAGE: We have heard cases of your members with welfare issues. Just like every other industry have their own issues too but you are like the TV that the whole world should watch. How are you managing those issues? You are the center of attraction for the viewers.
AJASA: I understand your question. But the fact is this, before I became the Governor of this association or even at the national level, before Mr. Latin became the national President, we have been fixing this issue of begging for money most especially if we have someone in our association that is sick. But, kudos to our oga, Mr President, we have the opportunity to talk to our members to invest in insurance. So we are paying certain amount annually concerning this insurance scheme. So you would see that all these begging issues would reduce. So if we have a WhatsApp platform in Ogun State that has to do with assistance, ‘Who is who’ in Ogun State would be added to the platform for assistance. It is within our platform, not outside. So, presently, one of my chairmen from Ado Odo Ota is very sick and we took money from that purse to start the first stage of treatment and even take him to the hospital. So that is what we are doing when we begin the insurance.
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