Nollywood actor Deyemi Okanlawon has opened up on the struggles faced by Alex Ekubo before his demise. He recently had his say while speaking on the CreativiTea Podcast, and fans have been reacting.
Describing Ekubo as a very good guy with a good spirit, Deyemi lamented how Nigerians constantly tore him apart despite his kind heart.
The moviestar added that it is a shame to see how Nigerians prefer to celebrate mediocrity and bring down excellence.
His words, “I watched people tear this guy down… and I’m looking at our people, and I’m like, how? That’s the environment that we’re trying to build in — a place where good is not appreciated.
Can we just be kind to one another? People are going through stuff. People have made mistakes, whatever the case may be. The kindest thing that you can do is to not engage.
If we’re celebrating corruption and mediocrity on the one hand, and we’re tearing down good and excellent on the other hand, we’re reducing the number of good and the number of excellence… It’s very worrisome.”
WOW.
Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in The New York Times. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there is no clear or agreed-upon definition for the term, which has made it a subject to several controversies.
The origin of the term “Nollywood” remains unclear; Jonathan Haynes traced the earliest usage of the word to a 2002 article by Matt Steinglass in the New York Times, where it was used to describe Nigerian cinema.
Charles Igwe noted that Norimitsu Onishi also used the name in a September 2002 article he wrote for the New York Times. The term continues to be used in the media to refer to the Nigerian film industry, with its definition later assumed to be a portmanteau of the words “Nigeria” and “Hollywood”, the American major film hub.
Film-making in Nigeria is divided largely along regional, and marginally ethnic and religious lines. Thus, there are distinct film industries – each seeking to portray the concern of the particular section and ethnicity it represents. However, there is the English-language film industry which is a melting pot for filmmaking and filmmakers from most of the regional industries.
