Author: Damian@8WDee.com

Damian@8WDee.com https://8wdee.wordpress.com I write about anything and everything everywhere - politics, religion, technology, humor, soccer, Africa etc.! Random musings. I teach strategic management, I am an entrepreneur, and a consultant. Lets do this.

NOLLYWOOD; RUBBING MUD ON IGBOS. – Reno Omokiri.

NOLLYWOOD; RUBBING MUD ON IGBOS

Igbos are failing to do with Nollywood, what the Yoruba nation is doing with the press
–Reno Omokiri

This is about the 3rd time, Reno has written on a subject I am planning to talk about… I seem to be agreeing with him more these days.

Three nights ago, I was at the reception of Wishdern Hotel Gboko, Benue state and heard the discussion of some guys in response to a Nollywood movie going on the screen. I was saddened.

First of all, thank you Nollywood for showcasing our creative capacity and ability to create an industry out of nothing…. but enough of your poor presentation and representation of Igbo industry and enterprise.

An average Igbo does not travel to Lagos or Abuja and meet his friend Emeka who introduces him to a secret cult where he makes money….

An average Igbo I know sometimes start a business, sleeps in the shop, eats twice and sometimes once in a day, struggles over the years to raise a capital base for his business.

An average Igbo I know struggles with a little money in his cash flow, travels to Lagos on night buses…. to save money and time in order to buy his goods to sell to his customers…..after so many years of doing this, his consistency will start paying off.

An average Igbo I know graduates even from medical school, do two jobs a day, refused to buy latest cars like his friends because he is saving up money to start a clinic or travel abroad for better opportunities.

Etc etc…

Why is Nollywood stuck in this ritual nonsense that is a false representation of our people?

Why is Nollywood consistent in painting a foolish narrative that is working against the Igbo reputation?

Is Nollywood fully controlled by culture and identity illiterates? What sort of nonsense is this?

Why is Nollywood not making more of Genevieve Nnaji’s kind of LION HEART that showed Igbos in the fullness of their enterprise and business wits, why?

Why is Nollywood reducing our enterprise to an utopian ritual money which does not exist anywhere? Why?

Some years back, I have defended Nnewi people like I am from there, when some Nigerians, including many Anambra people that does not understand the “wealth magic” of Nnewi people, they attributed it to rituals, this is common with Africans, they explain away things they are too lazy to study and understand and attribute it to an unseen force.

What Nnewi people enjoyed from the beginning was a kind of networking via apprenticeship and brotherly wealth redistribution…. It gave them edge in business and they succeeded massively…. It would later spread to the rest of Anambra and gradually the rest of Igbo land.

Note, even most Anambra folks originally talked ignorantly and foolishly against Nnewi people, later other Igbos talked ignorantly about Anambra and then, the rest of Nigerians talked ignorantly about Igbos.

Don’t give negative ignorant explanation to a concept you should be learning.

The guys I saw at Gboko in response to the movie they were watching believed that Igbo people uses charm to make money and succeed in their business, they mentioned few names in Gboko and how their businesses are doing well, they believed it is not ordinary.

I was pained because I have had that argument more that 5 times in Benue alone….the most annoying one is when a fellow PG student of a federal university was peddling that nonsense about using charms to succeed in business.

Before I blame others for their stereotypes, I will heap the blame largely on NOLLYWOOD who are bent on defining our industriousness with a silly, utopian, stupid and abstract stories of making money via rituals. It is nonsense.

…this damage has gone on for years and we need urgent and far reaching education for the script writers, directors, producers and all the stake holders in Nollywood film making.

The culture misrepresentation is so huge that we don’t know what we are doing to the unborn generation, Nollywood is creating narratives that would define a generation that will be too shocked to know why they are being profiled.

Can I tell the Igbos the truth, with NOLLYWOOD, it is actually stupid crying that we don’t control the press, you can’t be controlling an industry that is as ADDITIVE as movie making with higher and sustained international appeal without using it to push your identity rightly.

Nollywood should think beyond making money with their simplistic and monotonous story lines that is hurting us, enough of that nonsense already….because the first movie, LIVING IN BONDAGE had a setting that talked about rituals, for decades, you are stuck there helplessly?

America for decades used movies to sustain their perception as global super powers and good guys…..the bad guys are always Russians and Arabs….this is to show you what nations can achieve even through entertainment.

The “new friends” I met in Gboko, I did my best to explain to them how many Igbos spend 5,10,20 years of hunger and wearing almost few trousers and shirts building businesses only for it to be reduced to ritual money once they say let them relax a little….maybe, buy a small Lexus, build small duplex somewhere and send their children to fairly good school.

Nollywood is lying, greater number of Igbos running and doing businesses across the world have not seen how a native doctor look like neither do they belong to any secret cult where money is being vomited for them…. that nonsense is the figment of NOLLYWOOD’s imagination and need to stop.

NB: I will constantly speak now in correction of ignorant stereotyping of Igbos…..my reason is simple, the generation of our fathers kept quite when everyone started the lies of IGBOS LOVING MONEY….. but a critical look on how Nigeria was plundered and stolen to death will show you that Igbos did not even make 3rd eleven in the national LOOTING league.

Those their Ex general and army fathers, uncles, cousins stole and wasted Nigeria’s future still point at an average Emeka struggling against racism in China while trying to engage in his businesses as the one who loves money. I CAN’T KEEP QUITE. This is a duty for the next generation.

Reno Omokiri.

*George Floyd: The Black Race, and The Greatest self-Haters!!! – By Reno Omokri

God created diversity. It is satan that created racism. How do I know? The first time racism occurred in Scripture (“Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married”-Numbers 12:1), God punished the racists.

Many people have asked why I am yet to comment on the George Floyd case, and the truth is that I am not as concerned about Blue on Black killings as I am about Black on Black killings. For every Black man killed by a White cop, there are over 20 Black people murdered by their fellow Blacks.

The death of George Floyd is a tragedy. Officer Chauvin AND HIS CREW must be charged as a lesson. But the Black race must learn our own lesson. Protests are good. But destroying infrastructure in Black neighborhoods doesn’t help George get justice!

Many Africans who have never travelled out of Africa are sadly unaware of the tragedy of Black disunity. They are shocked when they first get to London or New York and expect the Blacks they meet there to embrace them, only to be scorned!

When I first became a resident in America at age 9, the only people who ever called me ‘African butty scratcher’ or who told me to go back to Africa were my fellow Blacks. I lived in Albany, California, which was very White in the 80s. Not once did I experience that from Whites!

We Black people have to start loving ourselves. Then and only then will we be valued. To a large extent, we don’t love or even like ourselves. If a Black African goes to Europe or America, too often, it is Whites in those countries who are friendlier to him than his or her fellow Blacks.

I remember when I first went to school in England, I was stuck in the underground. Naturally, I was drawn to asking other Blacks like me. Not one of my fellow Blacks even listened to me. The first White man I asked entered the tube with me and took me to my school.

Look at the knife crimes in London. Who is killing who? Look at the murders in Chicago. Who is killing who? Even look at the abortion rate per race. Who is killing their unborn children? These are uncomfortable conversations Blacks should have
Right there in America, many East Coast Blacks don’t like West Coast Blacks. And many Blacks on both American coasts don’t like African Blacks. Caribbean Blacks don’t like African Blacks. How then can we expect others to like us if we don’t like ourselves?
We cannot behave as if #BlackLivesMatter only when a White person does the killing. If Black lives matter, it should matter above board. It should matter when Blacks kill Blacks and when Blacks hate Blacks and when Blacks discriminate against Blacks.

We Blacks are very reactionary to racism, and we should reject it. But do we love ourselves? In South Africa, did we love ourselves? How many Black people died at the hands of fellow Blacks in SA? We must reject racism amongst ourselves first.

In Africa, many of our well-known comedians have made tasteless jokes about dark-skinned Blacks like Lupita Nyongo. In America, Blacks sororities and fraternities reject fellow Blacks if they can’t pass The Brown Paper Bag Test.
Simone Biles became the most decorated American gymnast. While the world was celebrating her, we Blacks were denigrating her (Google it) for refusing to ‘fix’ her hair (chemically straighten it to make it less nappy). We have our issues.

In Nigeria, we have a President who favours his own Fulani tribe above other Nigerians. A man who killed 347 Shiite men, women, children and infants. What the White police did to George Floyd is not up to what General Buhari is doing to Nigerians. If a White President says ‘constituents that gave me 97% cannot be treated same with constituencies that gave me 5%’ and then goes on to exclude Blacks, there would be an uproar. But it is happening in Nigeria. And we accept it!

Recently, some young persons have been killed by the police in Nigeria. Ditto for Kenya and South Africa. Where was this George Floyd level rage? Or is it okay for Black police officers to kill Blacks and not okay for White police? Isn’t that racist?

In Nigeria, a Governor’s son (Nasir El-Rufai), labelled a whole ethnic group and called an Igbo mother a bed jumper that he would pass around to his friends. Tueh went the sound!
Many of those raging over George Floyd defended him.

A significant challenge with the Black Race is that every Black person wants to be Black when a White person kills or is racist to another Black person. But few of us are Black enough to be Black when a Black person kills or is racist/tribalistic to another Black. Right now, there is an episodic massacre ongoing in Southern Kaduna. Black herdsmen are killing Black pastoralists. If I put up the pictures on social media, Twitter and Facebook may ban my account. We should care about George Floyd. We should also care about Southern Kaduna.

In Southern Kaduna, you see the frontlines of Nigeria’s ethnic and religious divide.
A young man, Bello Shagari, put up a tweet saying (inaccurately) that the Southern Kaduna Massacre is a hoax because someone told him. I responded by listing 3 Northern Muslim journalists who confirmed that the massacre is real. It has not escaped my notice that Bello is of the same ethnicity of those suspected of being the perpetrator of the killings.
And we want to settle the George Floyd matter when we have not settled our genocidal hatred of each other.

I have lost track of how many times Nigerians and Kenyans, or Ghanaians and Ivorians or Northern Cameroonians and Southern Cameroonian have trended on social media because of their international beefs.
We do not like ourselves, and we expect others to like us, and when they don’t, we shout racism. Have we forgotten Whitney Houston’s song, The Greatest Love of All (originally by George Benson)?
Because the greatest
Love of all is happening to me
I found the greatest
Love of all inside of me
The greatest love of all
Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
It is the greatest love of all.

Let us be truthful to ourselves. The Black Race has not yet found this Greatest Love of All. The Jews have found it. The Arabs exude it. Caucasians have it. The Asiatic races have it. Latin America has it to an extent. However, we, the Black people, do not yet have this love.
And until we do, we will never truly fulfil our potential. We will keep on investing in arms to kill ourselves when we should be developing farms to feed ourselves. The worst is that we do not even take responsibility. It is the White man’s fault. It is the Arab. It is our climate. It is… No. It is our fault. And it is our duty to find a solution! And until we find a solution, there will be many more George Floyds in America and many more Southern Kaduna Massacres.
If it were not so sad, I would have found it amusing that those Nigerians who are rightly calling for the trial of the cop responsible for killing George Floyd are not angry that Buratai, who masterminded the killings of 347 Shiite men, women, children and infants, was not punished for his crimes. Rather, he was promoted by General Buhari to Lieutenant General.

I urge Nigerians and other Africans to do locally what they expect others to do globally. Only then will we have the moral authority to condemn incidences like George Floyd’s killing.

*Reno’s Nugget*

What about you???

What about you…..

1. I’m Slowly Learning That I Don’t Have To React To Everything That Bothers Me

2. I’m slowly learning that I don’t have to hurt those who hurt me.

3. I’m slowly learning that maybe the ultimate sign of maturity is walking away instead of getting even

4. I’m slowly learning that the energy it takes to react to every bad thing that happens to you drains you and stops you from seeing the other good things in life.

5. I’m slowly learning that I’m not going to be everyone’s cup of tea and I won’t be able to get everyone to treat me the way I want to be treated and that’s okay.

6. I’m slowly learning that trying so hard to ‘win’ anyone is just a waste of time and energy and it fills you with nothing but emptiness.

7. I’m slowly learning that not reacting doesn’t mean I’m okay with things, it just means I’m choosing to rise above it. I’m choosing to take the lesson it has served and learn from it

8. I’m choosing to be the bigger person. I’m choosing my peace of mind because that’s what I truly need. I don’t need more drama. I don’t need people making me feel like I’m not good enough. I don’t need fights and arguments and fake connections.

9. I’m slowly learning that sometimes not saying anything at all says everything.

10. I’m slowly learning that reacting to things that upset you gives someone else power over your emotions
You can’t control what others do but you can control how you respond, how you handle it, how you perceive it and how much of it you want to take personally.

11. I’m slowly learning that most of the time, these situations say nothing about you and a lot about the other person.

12. I’m slowly learning that maybe all these disappointments are just there to teach us how to love ourselves because that will be the armor and the shield we need against the people who try to bring us down. They will save us when people try to shake our confidence or when they try to make us feel like we’re worthless.

13. I’m slowly learning that even if I react, it won’t change anything, it won’t make people suddenly love and respect me, it won’t magically change their minds

14. I’m slowly learning that Sometimes it’s better to just let things be, let people go, don’t fight for closure, don’t ask for explanations, don’t chase answers and don’t expect people to understand where you’re coming from.

15. I’m slowly learning that life is better lived when you don’t centre it on what’s happening around you and centre it on what’s happening inside you instead.

16. I’m slowly learning that if you channel your energy, time and resources on God it will do you good

17. I’m learning fast that if God does not help you, nobody on earth will help you and that in all, He’d still be God regardless of your predicament.

18. I’ve finally discovered that thanksgiving, praises and gratitude to God is key if you must succeed in life

_Work on yourself and your inner peace and you’ll come to realise that not reacting to every little thing that bothers you is the first ingredient to living a happy and healthy life._
Culled from: Ogey Clay Ekpong

Ask! The Bridge From Your Dreams To Your Destiny!!!

A tombstone at Westminster Abby has the following written by an Anglican Priest from the 1500s.

It says;

” When I was young and free and my Imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world.

As I grew older and wiser, I discovered the world will not change…so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country, but it too seemed immovable.

As I grow into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have none of it.

And now I realize as I lie on my deathbed, if I had only change myself first, then by example I might have changed my family. From their inspiration and encouragement, I would have been able to better my country.
And who knows, I might have even changed the world”

If you want to change the world, you start by changing yourself.

You change yourself by asking.

If you don’t like something, ask.(ask, seek and knock) how to change it.

Ask God, ask others, ask yourself.

With each question you will receive an illumination, an idea or the help, assistance that allows you to change in small ways.

“Every positive movement, every breakthrough, every extraordinary idea, every fortune made, always begins with Asking.”..

Mark Victor Hansen (in his new book, Ask!). It is only by learning How to Ask and What to Ask that you can create your most extraordinary life, manifest your greatest blessings, and cross the bridge from your dreams to your ultimate destiny.

Make that change!

Micah Ndackson, Lifesuccess Coach