Professor Sunnie Enessi Ododo is the National President, Society of Nigerian Theatre Artists (SONTA). He spoke with EBERE AMEH after the inaugural meeting of the Professors of Theatre and Media Arts in Nigerian Universities held at the University of Abuja recently. Excerpts
Is the meeting of the Professors of Theatre and Media Arts in Nigerian Universities an arm of SONTA? What informed its inauguration?
SONTA is the Society of Nigerian Theatre Artists, a body that brings all performing artists together. Just as the African Union, for example, has organs that help to make the work go smoothly, this meeting of professors of Theatre and Media Arts in Nigerian Universities will serve as the intellectual authority of SONTA on policy matters, strategic advice and so much more.
Given their positions as professors, their experience and exposure, you will agree with me that such a body will give quality guide and counsel to how the society can move forward. And of course in this particular meeting, we are interrogating our curriculum for theatre training – how to reinvent and re-energize it to conform with current reality, so that students will come out and be relevant in the field.
And wherever they find themselves in the world, they will not feel lost, they should be able to fit in and be competitive. We also used the meeting to sensitize the government on the facilities that we need to make the schools conducive environment for training theatre art graduates.
What are the agreements you reached and what plans do you have to implement them?
We are actually trying to set benchmarks that can guide all of us in articulating our curriculum to train our students, such that whatever university they go to, take for granted that this level of training is obtainable in all the universities. Of course every university has the liberty to infuse their own uniqueness, but some things should be basic to all of us.
We made certain observation surrounding our training and practice. For instance, the current theatre arts curricula is not responsive to industry needs. We also observed that film production is different from film studies and there is currently no template for them, and both are integral to performing arts.
We also observed that there is an inadequacy of technical and physical facilities for effective curriculum delivery. There is no coherent policy of Industrial Attachment for Creative Arts students and currently there is also no commensurate template for evaluating practice and scholarship.
We also observed that the current Benchmark for Academic Standards (BMAS) does not reflect current realities and development in the discipline.
The old BMAS is currently under review and our aim is to influence the new one. We have seen the Executive Secretary of NUC after this conference and he also believes that what we are doing is good and timely.
On Students’ Industrial Work Experience, we have started reaching out to the DG of the Industrial Training Fund. Our aim was to invite her to be part of this meeting so that she can speak to us on the issues and we also speak to her on our own constraints.
Unfortunately, we were not able to achieve that but we are going to send a position paper to ITF on our feelings, especially, the need for our students to key into the program so that they can benefit from what the fund have to offer.
Not necessarily because of the money but to leverage on the exposure and get attached to relevant enterprises in the industry so they can also hone their practical abilities and
entrepreneurial skills. Because it is not enough to just read, it is also not enough to have the skill, you have to know how to manage and market that skill.
How far have you gone with the implementation of the agreements reached at the last SONTA National Conference, which had ‘Repositioning Nollywood for the promotion of Nigeria’s cultural diplomacy and national security as its theme?
The communique of that conference is out and what we do in SONTA is that our conferences are weaved around themes.
The theme is what you have just referred to. Scholars come to present papers to advance these themes. But the stage at which we are now is that we are collating and assessing all these presentations.
They are about to be set out to assessors to look at the merit and quality of the presentations. The ones that have issue of correction, we turn back to the author to amend and return. The ones that cannot make it at all will be rejected outrightly.
Once the ones that are found publishable are returned, the general public will become part of that. That is what we will push out as SONTA’s position on the theme and it will serve as a tool for further engagement.
SONTA is not a government agency; it is just a professional body. And the only thing we can do is to put on the table the direction on where to go. We can’t go to the market, for instance, and say we want to fight piracy.
We are quite aware that there is an agency of government that is saddled with that responsibility. To be frank with you, the challenge and problem of piracy is huge. It needs all hands on deck and extra government intervention to overcome it.
How and when can we get Nollywood to be at par with Bollywood or even Hollywood?
How old is Hollywood? But I must tell you that it is quite an achievement that we have made in Nollywood. It is very impressive looking at the story of emergence and the level of recognition it has received worldwide.
Our films are competing today in world-class film festivals and are winning awards. They are competing side by side with Hollywood films and winning. To get to that level also depend on you and I.
How many of us spend our money to buy the true copy of a film CD? That is how we can support them. But you prefer the pirated version and the money goes somewhere else; to those who did not invest in it.
Government can also begin to help to create further boom by building cottage cinemas in every nook and cranny of this country so that this films could be exhibited there.
In Abuja for instance, it is only at Silverbird Cinema that films can be seen. What stops us from having more, one in Gwagwalada, one in Karo, one in Nyanya and another in Kuje; so people don’t have to come all the way to the city centre to come and see a movie.
And there are people that are keen to watch but due to logistics. Government can put for film centres in each local government and you see one film being exhibited in about 2000 centres.
That would be huge income and when people know that they can just walk in and watch these films, the market for piracy will turn to nonsense. By the time we have these many centres for exhibition, the cost of exhibition will reduce and at the venue, the original copies would be made available for people to buy.
What is your take on the influx of the market with substandard films from some Nollywood filmmakers?
It is good for the industry. If you don’t make a mistake, you can’t get it right. A child can’t just get up and begin to walk, he need to falter before he gets the stability to begin to walk and run about.
Even the established film makers still have one or two flaws here and there but what is important is to take deliberate steps to improve. The drive shouldn’t just be about money but what message, what quality is the film? When they get it right, people will feel at home paying good money to get it but if it is not good, they can’t put good price on it.
Of course, it is the aspiration of every film maker to do a world-class film but you cannot because of resources that are not available to you sit dormant; you must work. Besides, out of any film that is not too good, you can still see sparkles of potentials and film financiers also look at that before they invest their money.
The non-implementation of the Nigerian Cultural Policy has been described as a big blow to the Arts and Culture sector and an abdication of duty by the government. What is your take on that?
I just wonder, because so many stakeholders meeting has been held on that and at a point a document came up in the similitude of a cultural policy. And the absence of this policy is killing our arts.
It’s killing the industry because one key issue in the cultural policy is the endowment for the arts. Just as we have educational endowment through TET fund, if the policy comes to stay and the endowment for the arts is established, it will be good for artists.
They would be able to draw from it to mould and develop their arts. Not just for film makers and actors, even fine artists, and craftsmen would benefit. And this will help our cultural economy too.
What are your expectations from the Minister of Culture?
We expect them to give a practical expression to the change mantra in all sectors. In doing so I hope and believe they are also able to identify what is already working well and the only thing that will come to them is how to facilitate them to work more, not just to put a sledge hammer and break it down or abandon them.
That is our bane in this country, a new government comes, so everything about the old government should be put aside. Society does not grow that way.
Society grows on sedimentary contribution, so that over time, we grow with what we already know and are familiar with, but only getting to see a different shape and form as we continue to move.
Not that after four years, we go again to a new plan when the plan is already there. It may be there but the way you are trimming it and giving it new shape is wrong. Maybe it’s just withering and you need more water so it flowers very well again, while planting new ones so they could germinate and flourish together.
These ideas have always been on the table, it’s unfortunate that many of our government over the years pay lip service to the cultural sector. What they don’t know is that what pushes the society is the cultural orientation of the people, the culture of the people.
Everybody comes from a cultural background, when you are divorced from that culture, it’s like a sea that finds itself from the sea to the land – you can’t survive. Most of the ethical issues we have today is because of the disconnection of our people from our culture.
Every culture has its good side, why don’t we promote those ones for our national advancement.
Final word
I wish the new government well. And now that we have ministers, we believe that there should be a new attitude to governance. We believe that the citizenry will also see the dance steps that the new government is taking, because that is what we will also respond to. If the steps are still within the rhythm of what we have so eloquently condemned, then we shall ask questions.
Source: New Telegraph
