By Chris Ihidero
It’s 6pm on a Friday evening and my meeting is over in Surulere. To attempt driving to my house on the outskirts on Lagos at that time would be truly foolish, especially as I am not exactly the most patient person you will ever meet and the notorious Lagos traffic demands a super-size dose of patience. I head to Victoria Island, the most cosmopolitan area of Lagos, which itself is the most cosmopolitan state in Nigeria, the most populous black nation in the world. I meet up with my friend and her boyfriend at the Silverbird Cinemas but a Nollywood film is being premiered so all the cinema halls had been booked and as much as I appreciate what Nollywood has done by putting my country on the moviemaking map of the world, I am not prepared to spend N5, 000 on a film that I am not sure will return the investment with satisfaction. So there we stood, the three of us, wondering what to do with our lives on a Friday evening in cosmopolitan Lagos!
For all the noise we make about how fun-filled our dear Lagos is, the things to do are quickly exhausted before your run out of the fingers on one hand. What else do you do for fun on any evening in Lagos if you don’t go to see a movie, go to a bar or club, go to a vigil or attend a party? I am not one to make silly comparisons but I do know that on any evening in London, I have at least 111 options to pick from. New Nigerian music is at its commercial best at the moment and, although Nollywood is currently comatose, it continues to be a reference point for the entertainment industry. We seem to take the success of these two parts to sum up the entertainment industry at large as being commercially vibrant. It’s a lie. It is a fallacy we need to quit peddling. Let’s examine a few areas of the entertainment industry and see how industrious we really are:
Let’s start with the theatre. To see a play in Lagos, you will have to wait till Sunday afternoon/evening usually. Terra Kulture has become the go to venue for theatre performances. The National Theatre will occasionally wake from its slumber and produce a play. A few plays get done at tertiary institutions around Lagos, largely for fellow students and the academic community. That’s about it for theatre in a city of at least 15 million people! In the same city where, in 1977, we hosted the largest gathering of black and African artistes ever! We who built the National Theatre to the pride of Africa and the black Diaspora in the 70s have not added a single venue of world class standard in over three decades. The Agip Hall of the Muson centre is today the most prestigious theatre venue in Nigeria. It’s a lousy venue to stage a play! I should know; I have performed on that stage a couple of times. Meanwhile the Main hall of the National Theatre has been under lock and key for decades, rotting away. The whole edifice is a glaring example of how irresponsible a people and a nation we are.
Let’s talk cinemas, shall we? Once you have counted the Silverbird Cinemas (both in V.I and Yaba) and Genesis Cinema at the Palms, Lekki, you are done counting cinemas in Lagos. To see a movie, the average moviegoer has to travel to the cinema. This contrasts sharply with what obtained in this same Lagos when I was growing up in the 80s; the cinema was close to home. Pen Cinema, Danjuma Cinema, God Dey Cinema and many more. The National Theatre screened some of the biggest films in this country, including Hubert Ogunde’s Ayanmo, for which people queued all the way to Costain. The few cinemas around have turned movie viewing into an elitist venture, in a city with a population begging to be entertained.
Can we truly refer to the Shell Hall of the Muson centre and that new hall at the Eko Hotel as concert/performance venues? I don’t think so. But they are the most prestigious venues for musical concerts today. They do not really generate their own content, beyond the Muson Jazz Festival and a few concerts. The National Museum is a shame. A wooden house is all that covers the limousine car a murdered Head-of-State rode in on a day of national importance. And the National Gallery of Arts? Please don’t make me laugh. The great works of the likes of Bruce Onabrakpeya and Abayomi Barber are in private homes and international galleries but the citizens of their country know little or nothing about their incomparable talents.
In 2008/2009, the Royal Shakespeare Company made £10 million. That is N250m from ONE theatre company in the UK. Disney’s The Lion King has been running at the Lyceum Theatre in London since it’s opening in 1999. In 2010 it made £34 million, the highest in West End musical history. In the 12 years since its opening night, it has sold over 9 million tickets in London alone. Multiply that by an average ticket price of £30 and you’ll have something around £270 million; that is N67.5 BILLION from ONE show!
The common opinion is that shows like The Lion King can’t be successful in Nigeria because we do not have a middle-class that can support such an extravagance. I think this is hogwash. The average price of a bottle of beer in clubs/bars on the island is N1000 and we don’t even drink a lot of it in those places. We do Vodka, Rose and Hennessey at an average of about N15, 000. The last time I checked, we were not passing out the money used to buy the drinks from our arses.
Sad as I am about the deplorable state of the arts in Nigeria, it isn’t the thrust of this piece. I am more concerned here about what we refer to as an industry. New Nigerian music is doing well and sometimes Nollywood gets it right. Comedians are also doing a commendable job. Beyond this, there’s a sea of money to be made in the entertainment industry and it seems to me that we are content with sipping from a faucet.
*Ihidero is a Lagos-based Writer and Filmmaker.
5 comments
We do not have the necessary structure for an effective entertainment industry! However we do have an industry that is very entertaining! It is the highest form of entertainment to me that going to the cinema has become such a status symbol for the haves and have-nots, who can be seen in an ostentatious display of their “sunday bests” I have seen girls change outfits 3-4 times cos they going to the galleria…
It is also entertaining that there is a musician on every street in Lagos! and Nollywood………..I cant even comment, can I just beg that some of the so-called actors please embark on 8 straight weeks of intensive acting classes (ok, maybe 4…..No? ok, i’ll take 2wks)
Joke apart though, I wont however negate the hard work of those that “do get it right” and i’ll admit that a few (far and in between) do get it right (musicians and actors alike). But it really would be cool if we can flare our nostrils and become better “copy-cats” cos we do copy a lot in this said industry…..(else why on earth would there be a movie called Pirates of the Niger Delta boys………, why not then copy the dynamics that make the american/british entertainment industry the success it is today…………..#IJS#
Fantastic peice, as a fellow writer i am impressed and would like to do business with you Chris.
Oh chris o. Nice write-up. But there’s entertainment all around you.
Frown at the police and see what happens. We use our cars like bumper cars in traffic. Keke Napep transform from Cars to Motobikes and squeeze through tiny spaces. Hawkers that you bargain from N2000 to N200 make good entertainment. There’s always live entertainment on danfo buses and more. Watching Nigerians walk in slow motion at joints and cinemas like they are in music videos is also good entertainment.
On a more serious note, I feel your pain, but there’s also a time when Nigerians realise that we will eventually dissolve into small sub-cultures. Its no more fashionable to do what everyone else is doing, The bandwagon effect is dying. So while some people barbeque at the beach and enjoy our breeze, others will sit at a local bar and listen to highlife. I’m surprised hunter clubs (bush full everywhere) haven’t taken on the same way Bikers now wear their robocop gear into clubs.
i don talk reach!
Everything bores down too having a good product and good structure.if I see a good nigerian song or movie or play and I need to spend 1k ,I will….it hurts we don’t have band festivals in this country.A lil structure for the arts will do the magic
Nice piece, You have spoken my heart. I currently live in Abuja. It is a lot worse. Outside of clubbing and movies, the paucity of social life and engaging entertainment is a darn shame. Not to be overly critical, I will concede that there are minor improvements here and there. We need more INEXPENSIVE entertainment options cos face facts drinking henessy and clubbing can get dull after a while.