Nigerian Movie Star Profile
Nkem
Owoh
Nkem Owoh (popularly called Osuofia) is one of the gifted
actors in the Nigerian home video sector. He is most popular
for his interpretation of roles; a talent which has endeared
him to the hearts of many people both locally and abroad.
While tracing his career to his primary and secondary
school days as well as the university and youth service
year, he recalled how he eventually got a job at WACO
Engineering Co, where he was sacked and left stranded for
quite sometime. But he soon rose from this depth to become a
force to reckon with in the Nigerian home video sector.
Background
I was born in Udi, Enugu State. I had my primary and
secondary education in Nsukka. For my tertiary education, I
had a stint with the University of Ilorin and later IMT
Enugu, where I graduated as an Electrical Engineer after
which I proceeded on my national youth service in Ogun
State. However, I had a stint with television shortly before
joining IMT. I was at both the NTA and Channel 8 in Enugu.
Acting career
I know I have always had this acting talent in me, but it
was the television that really inspired me. I was so popular
in my primary school days for my performances during what we
call The Anniversary. I am not sure it is still being done
today because some of those things stopped after the civil
war. During the period of the anniversary, I always took
part in almost all the entertaining activities holding
during the festivities.
In fact, in my secondary school days, I was invited to the
University of Nigeria Theatre Group. One of the performances
was Vengeance of Haba by Chiko Ozuo. It was produced in the
early 1970s and since that time, I have never looked back.
Why acting and not engineering
My dad wanted me to study Medicine, because he himself was
into Pharmacy, but I preferred engineering. But somehow,
something kept bothering me and I felt I should give it some
attention. The lure went on and on such that even while
studying Engineering, I was still very active in the acting
circuit, particularly for the television and radio.
I am an engineer by certificate, but an artiste by
practice. I never can tell, events may force me to dust my
certificate one day and soon something big can come up; not
necessarily in form of employment, but may be through
political appointment that requires the candidate to have
knowledge of the issues in that sector. So I cannot rule out
the possibility of my returning to practice Electrical
Engineering in future.
WACO
I worked for WACO Engineering immediately after my youth
service and after working for just about one year during the
era of belt-tightening policy by the Federal Government,
WACO, just like other business outfits in the country then,
needed to lay off some of her work-force and naturally
without any parameter decided to lay off those of us that
were new in the company. After losing my job, I tried to get
a teaching job in an institution of higher learning or even
a secondary school, but this did not work out. Later I
started getting calls from a particular group luring me to
come and be part of a particular television production.
Unfortunately, I stopped fraternising with drama as soon as
I joined WACO.
They sacked me because they were trying to protect
themselves and they were putting me in a fix. But that was
the way God wanted the whole thing to go in order for me to
reach His desired goal for my life. I cannot be grateful to
those that sacked me, afterall the fact that Judas was
instrumental to the death of Jesus Christ doesn’t make him
(Judas) a good man although the Bible had already said that
somebody must betray Christ. I thank God that today I have
so many people under my employ and a legion of trainees
under my tutelage .
From Enugu to Lagos
I was still acting as a stringer on television when NTA
Enugu came up and I was invited to do something for the
station and along the line, The New Masquerade was
relaunched and I joined the crew. At a time, I was the
sole-script writer for the series and once in a while I
created a character for myself within the play, this is the
reason for some of the brief appearances I made in the now
rested TV comedy.
Within that same period,the late Ken Saro-Wiwa came up with
Bassey and Company. He made me the production manager.This
particular offer was very engaging, because I was given an
official car, a house, an office and all other required
conveniences that aided my job. This was in Enugu although
we had our main office in Port Harcourt. At a stage, I was
the script editor of Bassey and Company. People did not take
note of these. It was when I came to limelight that some
went back down the memory lane to discover that I have been
around for sometime.
After leaving the East in 1990 when Bassey and Company was
rested, I moved over to Lagos. In Lagos, I was also very
active in the scripting of Memorial Hospital, I did a lot of
writing and acting but most of the time, I operated behind
the camera. It was this period also that the serene town of
Badagry spurred my creative instinct to write one of my
earliest gifts to the Nigerian home-video industry; Taboo.
Later, I was instrumental to the creation and scripting of
a number of programmes on NTA Lagos, then. Although I am not
a trained writer, but because I had this strong passion for
anything creative, I was able to write well enough to become
one of NTA’s approved script writers.
How I became a comedian
I have always been known for serious roles in most plays
that I take part in and those that know me very well see me
more as a business minded actor and practitioner that may
never have anything to do with comedy .
In 1987, I was given my own programme slot called Star
Comedian Corner by the Anambra State Television (ATV). I
accepted the challenge, and went deeper into my person to
explore the hidden comical aspects of me. So I went on from
one comedy to the other until I was in total control of the
goal or let’s say the challenges I have initially set out
for myself.
Whenever I see some of my early plays where I played
serious roles. I always doubt if anyone can say that I
wasn’t good enough playing those roles as I am known to play
the comic roles today.
Business
Apart from my acting career, I am also very much involved
in the business aspect of showbiz. I have my own production
outfit which I must say has been developing in the last
seven years. My editing studio too was installed three years
ago. I have cameras that I hire out both for high-tech movie
productions and coverage of social functions. I also have a
film school where I train writers, actors and other talents
in the profession. I have a branch office in Enugu where I
sell accessories for film productions.
I am thoroughly a show-businessman because I also anchor
occasions as the MC in addition to organising shows and what
I am trying to do in the long run is to be in tandem with
some of my colleagues that have broken into the
international market.
Ban by the marketers
I think it was a kind of misunderstanding, since people in
the sector usually misunderstand certain positions. I give
the marketers kudos ( marketers ,with reservation).
Marketing is a different ball game from what they are doing.
But if they choose to be called by that name it is fine by
me, but mere distributorship cannot encompass the true
meaning of marketing. In fact, the issue of distributors
sitting down in the market and waiting for the buyer to come
and pick up the movies they require is not a good way of
distribution. Despite all this short comings, I still give
them kudos because they were the first to take the risk of
plunging their funds into the movie video sector even when
uncertainty was prevalent.
But I can say that this unnecessary show of power has not
helped anybody at the end of the day. Let us check how much
sales they have made since the ban ,no doubt their action
has affected the industry quite negatively ,they are losing
and the affected too artistes are losing. But I can assure
you that for some of us in this business, it is going to end
on a very positive note in terms of us breaking into the
international arena as world class artistes that we really
are. So at the end of the day, if I now decide to charge my
clients only in dollars based on the reality of the time, it
is then that the marketers would realize that the Nigeria
artiste is still very poorly paid.
Why I was banned
As much as I hate to use the word banned, it becomes quite
imperative to state that the arrogance that I was accused of
is based on my insistence that no matter the circumstances,
I will not shoot on any set that will not shoot for at least
two weeks with eight working hours expended each day. I
insist that there must be a mini discussion of a production
before we embark on any shooting and some producers and
directors see the above as arrogance.
We must learn to follow universal standards if the
international market is ever to take us seriously. I am not
the type of artist that will be running from one location to
the other and so I demanded for some level of sanity because
I was coming from the old NTA style where things were
planned and artistes were camped for a while before
recording commenced . I know one or two producers in the
past who allowed some suggestions from the artistes and at
the end of the day, they were the better for it.
The way some of the producers see the actor is very
strange. For most of them, we are making our money, but of
what use is money if after you have made the money you
suddenly drop dead or fall so ill that most of what you have
is plunged back into medical bills? Those people at the
International Labour Organization (ILO) who insisted that a
working person should put in a total of eight hours a day
must have a tangible reason for doing so. Personally, my
physician has warned me to take things easy and it is
important I obey such medical advice.
New challenges
We are no longer crazy about the local market because we
have seen the potentials of the international market and
what it holds for us is unbelievable. It is the world that
christened us Nollywood and now that the world beckons, we
cannot afford to play the sleeping giant any longer.
Nollywood
Right now in this sector, we don’t have a policy, neither
do we have the necessary structures to protect what we
produce. For me, these are more important issues than the
unnecessary bickering here and there. If the Federal
Government is sincere, it should quicken the process of
putting into legislation some kind of policy to guide and
protect the profession.
If we have the right policy, we may not need to be fighting
over the little things that we as an industry make for now
because by then, the true potentials of the industry will
emerge. It would also checkmate some greedy artistes and
directors that are so brazenly absurd; many of who actually
collect three scripts at the same time and thereby create
problems for the producers.
Osuofia in London
Being part of the production was very fulfilling for me. It
was an interesting experience because it was a
cross-cultural production in which we explored the culture
of the white man to see where we have agreements and where
we disagree. It was such a production that is far from
demeaning to the African sensibility; those who say they
have become so European in their own ways that it becomes
extremely difficult for them to even appreciate the fact
that in Osuofia’s home land, to capture a pigeon and prepare
it in a pot of soup is the rule and so, if he finds himself
in a land where such a rule becomes an exception, he
deserves our sympathy and not condemnation. So despite all
his clowning, Osuofia in the midst of murky dangerous waters
ferried back his late brother’s money into Nigeria. The
movie showed once again, like in Wole Soyinka’s Lion and the
Jewel, that most often, native intelligence has a way of
surpassing book-knowledge. With this in mind, I want to
advise people to see the movie again and they will be very
proud that Osuofia went to London.
Reaction of Europeans
When I was playing with them, I was Like a god in their
midst. People rushed to get me seat wherever I went. Even
the European artistes on set exclaimed aloud that ‘Oh! my
God, this is a very big actor from Africa, when am I going
to be like him?’ The people on the streets too were so
thrilled to see us and all that has shown that it is only
when you go outside Nigeria that you get to know the kind of
mileage Nollywood has brought in for this country.
Political functions
Because of the level of insincerity on the part of
government officials to themselves and the very terrible way
they choose to deal with the Nigerian people, I have had to
turn down many invitations to come and entertain during
government functions right from the Presidency to the local
government. I have refused to do anything for them. I am a
personal friend to some people in government but I won’t
entertain them. It is a way of showing my displeasure to
those in power that I am not impressed by the high level of
misrule in the land. The government is not doing what they
should be doing for Nollywood. Look,we are not begging them
for money, all we want are relevant policies to help protect
our profession and investments. We have a government, yet
people come here and steal our sweats by way of copyright
infringements. Until such a time when I am sure that our
government can safe guard this industry, I won’t be happy
with them and until such a time when they become socially
responsible and responsive, I will not touch their contract
and this is my own social responsibility and contract with
the Nigeria people.
Impact today and the future
I see myself as an instrument of progress, because if I
simply align myself to the side of the government or even my
co-travelers in this industry, there will be absolute peace
and movie producers would taunt me as the best available,
but because I have my eyes not only on the gains of the
moment, that is why I am totally dedicated to the
development of this industry. If God wills it that I am
going to succeed in making a positive impact, especially on
the next generation of movie practitioners, then no man can
take that away.
Most embarrassing moments
Where do I start from? Because it has not been once or
twice but many times over. A lot of embarrassing things
happen in this industry, it happens during production, when
I to get my money or during post productions. Embarrassment
crop up at any of these stages probably because I lack some
knowledge or some other person lacks some knowledge. It is
even embarrassing for someone to come and tell me that
Osuofia in London demeans Africa but I take it with
maturity, because that is where their own level of
interpretation ends.
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