by Conan Simmons – November 21, 2020 – 10:05 pm
Crowds gathered in the streets as Tuesday, October 20 wore on. Another day of protests after police shot and killed a man. At 3pm police began showing up and taking down security cameras from the area around the Lekki Toll Gate. When evening came more police arrived to face off against the mass of protesters. 7pm and shots rang out sending everyone into a panic. The gunfire lasted an hour and a half.
At least 10 are killed as dozens more are injured. The massacre sends everything into chaos as looters begin taking the opportunity to vandalize the community. As shops and theaters are destroyed rumor spreads that popular Nollywood actress, Eniola Badmus (who starred in the 2009 film ‘Jenifa’), was shot and killed by police. Hours later Badmus takes to Instagram to announce she is safe and unharmed, having not been at the protests on that particular day.
Nollywood, the world’s second largest film industry, is experiencing a rough patch in 2020 due to a combination of the global coronavirus pandemic and the #EndSARS protests.
The first case of Covid-19 in Nigeria appeared on February 28, by March theaters throughout the country were closed. They remained so for six months and began slowly reopening in September just as the SARS protests were gaining momentum.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic Nigeria has had 66,228 cases of Covid-19 with 1,166 deaths. It pales in comparison with the U.S. which has 12 million cases with over 254,000 deaths. Worldwide the total is 55.6 million with 1.34 million dead.
The SARS protests have been building up for years as the Special Anti-Robbery Squad carried out extortion, kidnappings, rape and executions. SARS is even accused of operating an illegal organ trade.
The Special Anti-Robbery Squad was created in 1992 after three police officers killed Col. Israel Rindam of the Nigerian Army. Initially it was formed to operate undercover, with its members in plain clothes and unmarked cars, in order to protect against police corruption and other criminals. By the 2000’s SARS had become that which it was formed to protect against.
President Muhammadu Buhari, after announcing several times over the last four years he would disband SARS, has finally made good on his word replacing SARS with SWAT, Special Weapons and Tactics. Unfortunately the behavior of SWAT is more of the same, SARS with a different name. Now the protests that began as #EndSARS are changing their name to #EndSWAT.
Muhammadu Buhari first held power from 1984-85 after helping overthrow Nigeria’s first democratically elected government during a coup on December 31, 1983. Buhari passed measures restricting political and press freedoms and oppressed trade unions. In 2015 Buhari ascended again to the presidency this time by democratic means by winning the election for which he represented the newly formed political party, All Progressives Congress. Even though Buhari suffered from an undisclosed illness that resulted in vice president Yemi Osinbajo assuming the role of president for most of 2017 and again in 2018, Buhari won reelection last year.
During Osinbajo’s time as acting president in 2018 he ordered an overhaul of SARS that had no effect on the behavior of the squad. After surviving a helicopter crash near the town of Kabba in early 2019, Osinbajo now chairs a committee on economic sustainability focused on developing measures to counteract the effects of the coronavirus.
As for the Lekki Toll Gate Massacre many in the country are blaming Bolo Tinubu, the former governor of Lagos and member of the All Progressives Congress, for the violence carried out by police. Both Bolo Tinubu and Yemi Osinbajo are expected to vie for the office of president in the upcoming 2023 election.
In a suspicious coincidence on the same day as the Lekki Toll Gate Massacre, the Nigerian Army initiated Operation Crocodile Smile VI, an operation aimed at cybercriminals that allows the Army to track negative comments across all social media. Naturally many feel this is merely a means to target the #EndSARS protesters who organize marches and rallies online.
Having less than 100 cinemas across Nigeria the film industry has taken a hard hit this year. In 2019 Nollywood grossed N6.7 billion ($17.5 million) making up approximately 2% of Nigeria’s GDP. During the six month lockdown Nollywood saw a loss of N8 billion ($21 million). Nigeria’s GDP in 2020, to date, has lost N102 billion ($264 million).
Decades after the first film was shown in Nigeria in 1903 the country slowly began developing its own film industry. Starting in 1926 with the first Nigerian produced feature ‘Palaver’ the industry crept on, producing its first color film ‘Fincho’ in 1957.
After Nigeria gained its independence in 1960 the film industry started rising as the nation gained foreign investment due to an oil boom in the 1970’s. By the 1980’s Nigeria had a law limiting the amount of foreign made content that could be shown on television. This led many filmmakers to focus their talents on producing content for the medium which caused a relative decline in theatrical features.
Interestingly this corresponded with the advent of the home video market.
In 1981 a horror film directed by Jimi Odumosu, ‘Evil Encounter’ debuted on television and within days video recordings of the movie were being sold in markets across the country. It was the beginning of a watershed moment in Nigerian cinema. The years 1984-85 saw the first two Nigerian produced blockbusters, ‘Papa Ajasco’ directed by Wale Adenuga and ‘Mosebolatan’ by director Moses Olaiya. By 1992, with the release of ‘Living in Bondage’ directed by Kenneth Nnebue, the home video market was experiencing a pullback in popularity.
The 2000’s brought about more advancements in video technology making it more accessible to the masses. Filmmakers in Nigeria seized the opportunity and the film industry blossomed into the world’s second largest surpassed only by Bollywood in India.
With the release of ‘Irapada’, directed by Kunle Afolayan, in 2006 the New Nigerian Cinema emerged. The international film community started taking Nigerian cinema seriously with the 2009 film ‘The Figurine’, a supernatural thriller and Afolayan’s follow-up feature. Ultimately New Nigerian Cinema peaked in 2016 with Kemi Adetiba’s top grossing hit ‘The Wedding Party’.
Prior to the shutdowns brought about by the coronavirus Nigeria began attracting attention from Hollywood. Netflix, AMC Networks and Sony Pictures Television are seeking to engage in co-productions with local filmmakers.
Dorothy Ghettuba is the current head of African originals for Netflix. Working out of offices in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Ghettuba is in charge of guiding Netflix acquisitions and co-productions across the African continent. The first Netflix co-production in Africa was ‘Queen Sono’, a South African spy thriller.
Netflix had just begun its first co-production in Nigeria before the coronavirus forced the lockdowns. Working with actor-director Akin Omotoso the plan was to make a sci-fi fantasy series about a goddess reincarnated as a human with superpowers. Omotoso previously directed the 2003 film ‘God is African’ and 2015’s ‘Tell Me Sweet Something’ as an actor he appeared in both Nigerian and Hollywood movies like ‘Lord of War’ in 2005 and ‘Blood Diamond’ in 2006 alongside Leonardo DiCaprio.
As protests continue and the coronavirus rages on, theaters must survive the economic hardships, riots and looting that plague the country. Theaters that were upgrading to IMAX who saw investments reassessed in the wake of the pandemic may have to rely more heavily on the investments coming from Netflix and others to prop up the film industry going forward.