Thursday, March 28, 2024

Lagos@50: Zeb Ejiro slams govt, committee members

Popular filmmaker, Zeb Ejiro, has called out Lagos State Government for ignoring him and others who have contributed immensely to its growth.

While celebrating 50 years anniversary of Lagos State, the government decided to give recognition to certain people, including entertainers. Their pictures were used on billboards, buses and at different corners of Lagos.

The likes of Olamide, Banky W, K1, Joke Silva, Olu Jacobs, Desmond Elliot and more were celebrated for their contribution to Lagos. But, Ejiro believes that his name was omitted because he is not a Yoruba man. According to him, it was disrespectful to celebrate people who started yesterday and ignore people who have been there from the beginning.

He said, “They are celebrating 50 years and they are celebrating people who started yesterday. They put their pictures on buses all over Lagos. My picture ought to be there.

With my two soaps, ‘Ripples’ and ‘Mega Fortune,’ all the stars from Liz Benson, Ramsey Nouah, Genevieve, Omotola, RMD and a host of others passed through my hand. I know that if I was named Kunle, I would be recognised.

I would call my friend, Steve Ayorinde, to let him know my mind; this is very unfair. With ‘Domitila,’ and the two soaps, I changed the face of movie making in Lagos. And where is Lagos? Lagos is Nigeria. Once you take over Lagos, you’ve taken over entire country. I only advertised Domitila in Lagos, and it was everywhere I visited. I am angry with Lagos State government.”

Ejiro describes himself as a Lagosian, insisting that he came to Lagos when he was 16, married in Lagos and had all his seven children in Lagos.

He added, “But in Nigeria, the government does not bother how much you’ve contributed to the state, as far as you are not from there. I am a Lagosain, I did part of my elementary school here, got married and contributed to its growth.

“I worked for NTA for a very long time, I was one of the major series writers at NTA. I contributed to the likes of the ‘Village Headmaster,’ ‘Second Chance,’ ‘Tales by Moonlight,’ among others.”

Ejiro is also of the opinion that when it comes to cinema exhibition in Nigeria, after the likes of Pa Ogunde and his generation, he is next.

For the first time in the history of Nigeria, he said his movie, ‘Domitila,’ was shown in 10 different cinema houses simultaneously on the same day. “It happened for three weeks, they practically held Lagos hostage,” he recalled.

On the insinuation that he made lots of money during former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, he disclosed up that he only benefited from a grant and he created jobs with the project he embarked on.

The Delta State indigene said, “There is no one before or after Jonathan that embraced Nollywood. He created funds for us to grow and jobs too. Initially when he came in, I was indifferent but when he started funding Nollywood, I said yes this is my sector. I was part of his secondterm campaign because he made a promise that once he came back, he would take Nollywood to the next level. I can tell you that this industry is the biggest employer of labour in the country today. Maybe if he had come back, he would have contributed more to the industry and there would have been more jobs.”

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