The Biggest Lie Nollywood Ever Told – Josh Journal
I was born a few years after the birth of the industry we now know as Nollywood. My formative years happened to be the formative years of the Nigerian movie industry.
The support that my generation gave to Nollywood and its music counterpart ensured it grew to become the behemoth that it is today.
I will one day write an appreciation post about Nollywood, but today isn’t that day.
Don’t misunderstand me. This is also not me critiquing or criticizing Nollywood. Instead, let’s look at this as a conversation.
A child believes everything his or her parents say until it gets wiser. Once the children knows more, it first recognizes one omission, misrepresentation, or outright lie by the parents.
From that moment, the child begins to question everything the parents ever said and will ever say.
For most people, this happens in their teenage years. The more the parents fail to explain the reason for their decision, the more obstinate the child will be.
On most occasions, the child will bottle their questions. Maybe they’ll never ask their parents, maybe they’ll come back to ask when they are full-grown adults. Sometimes, after having their own kids too.
On rare occasions, the child will summon the courage to ask the parents those questions bothering them.
Some parents will gladly answer. Others would never answer. Either they don’t have the answer, or they believe they are beyond questioning.
After all these years, I think it’s time for me to confront Nollywood on the biggest lies it ever told.
Firstly, where are all the rich men that fell in love with beggars and street traders?
The number of Nollywood movies with this plotline is astounding. As a matter of fact, Nollywood movies are still being created with that storyline.
In those movies, it mostly happens in Lagos. I have lived all my life in Lagos. Yet, I have never witnessed one of these.
My second question, how come, everyone that travels to Lagos in the movies ends up richer than the whole of their village?
This one is mind-boggling. It doesn’t matter if your village is in Imo, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, or Oyo. As long as you came to hustle in Lagos, you end up richer than the village.
Have you been to Lagos? Do you know how frustrating Lagos can be? What are your qualification and how many years’ experience are you coming to Lagos with?
They will show someone take a public bus into Lagos, then they will write five years later, and they will show the person riding hummer jeep.
Nollywood is responsible for the overpopulation of Lagos.
Thirdly, in which village does Nollywood see this one person who is always a thorn in the king’s flesh?
Either the village drunkard or bully. Or one money-miss-road from Lagos. And this one person will torment the king.
Where does that happen? Because I know if that happens in my village, the person will end up banished. If not worse first.
Yet in Nollywood movies, someone will shout the king down, shut him up, or even knock or slap him.
My final and most important question. Where are those rich men and women that use to tell their children’s boyfriend or girlfriend, “this is a cheque of ten million Naira, leave my son/daughter alone”?
This was a trope Nollywood really flogged. Yet, no one has ever publicly acknowledged that they experienced this.
Was this a product of wishful thinking or was there a time this actually used to happen? Have you seen anyone who actually experienced this?
Maybe that is why I don’t see it in Nollywood movies anymore.
The fact that a lot of those boyfriends and girlfriends rejected the cheque in those movies will be a discussion for another day.
Wilson Joshua is a Video Editor, Content Creator, and Creative Writer.
You can follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. @IJOSWIL
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