[b]ICON
My family, my biggest pain
BY BRUCE MALOGO
Sunday, September 04, 2011

Eddie Ugboma
• Photo: The Sun Publishing

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Continued from last week

This week, we are concluding the chat with Chief Eddie Ugboma, a veteran movie producer. Last week, he discussed his early life – how he snatched his life from the treacherous Lagos streets of those days and how he landed in London on his brother’s ticket.

Well, he was forced to pay back the fare through the hard, unexpected way. He also talked about his father and mother and how they separated, his life in London and how he was the first Nigerian to bring world-class musicians to the county.
In this concluding part, he continues the story of his life – his dysfunctional family life, his regrets about the film and movie industry and many other things in-between.
Excerpts:

When you came back from London, you started film productions?
No, I started promoting shows first; I was going and coming back. When I touched this place, I find out that none of their television stations was to my standard, but I just wanted to work, to contribute to the growth of the place.

So, at what point did you now say it was all over with show business, let me face movies?
I was not having satisfaction with show business and I still saw the vacuum in the movie industry. I saw a lot of messages missing, a lot of statements missing; I saw Tarzan calling elephants, lions to beat Africans and I could not talk to my pussycat.

I saw America that lost wars in Vietnam, they always shoot films on how they conquered Vietnam; I saw John Wayne with a six-round gun, he will shoot this gun nonstop and kill all Indians; I saw Clint Eastwood, he could be looking on his left side and shoot and kill 10 people on his right. I saw all this and I said: ‘See, Eddie, go back to this industry and tell your stories and make your statements.’ And that is what I have done; all my films are statement movies.

If you remember in the ‘80s, I shot Oil Doom and everybody shouted, “Ah! why, we are in boom.” Where are we today? It is super doom. I shot Oyenusi, my first movie with the statement that crime does not pay; that if they don’t watch the society, guns would be everywhere. What do we have today? Armed robbers. I shot The Mask when the British people refused to give us our mask back. I said well, since they stole it here, let’s go there and steal it. So when we shot that movie, the British government said, ‘Nigeria, please come and negotiate to take your artifact.’ That is the power of movie.

What of Apalara?
Apalara is a story about a cultist that became a preacher, an alfa. He didn’t like what the cult people were doing, so he decided for God and began preaching. They begged him to stop preaching, but he refused. He was exposing them.

That happened to be your first traditional film?
In a way, Oyenusi said the same thing.

No, what I mean is, Apalara is in Yoruba language.
Of course. I am versatile, I shoot Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa language movies. I believe in Nigeria and it is this new thing trying to destroy itself: there is Nollywood, Yoruwood, Kanowood and all the wood. So, like my last two movies, they are statement films. The Black Gold is an improvement on Oil Doom. The one I just finished late last year is called Desert Warrior. That is a film I read from the book called Bayaida. It is the story of how these Fulani came to Nigeria.

At this level, one would have thought that somebody like Eddie Ugboma would have shot an epic?
Well, my films are epic.
Epic, in the sense that every generation will remember and make reference to it.
Every generation; people are making reference to it.
I am sure that my children would first of all ask me who Eddie Ugboma is and to talk about his movies would be something else…

Yes, but it is the fault of the media. For the records, there is no film that you can make today that people will remember if it is not written down; if they don’t have the archival. Do you know that I have spent also N8 million of my money, setting up a gallery of moviemakers? I have been crying for Lagos State to the federal government to buy it; UNESCO has been hurrying me to buy it.

But when I saw Germans come to Nigeria to do the history of High Life, calling all these old High Life musicians and paying them money to put them in hotel; so maybe next 10 years, our children will go to Germany to learn High Life. So I blame us the adults, especially the media, the educationists, our televisions who don’t write. How many of them have been bold to write about Eddie Ugboma? It is an insult and a disgrace that I have to write my autobiography, Eddie Ugboma by Eddie Ugboma…
We were talking about you. We’ll yet come back to your professional calling.
Yes, sure.

Tell me, how’s your family life?
I got married very young when I was lonely in Britain. People used to think that my wife was my sister or I was her brother because we didn’t wear our wedding ring in the school; we had it on our neck chains. My first child is 44 now and I am 70. The last one is 12. So I got married young because, with British and American loneliness, you can’t live alone, you need someone to talk to.

In our time, it was a crime to be Black and live in Britain; people don’t know that. Like this riot, I was laughing – that riot was long overdue. In our time, it was a crime to be Black. If you go to hire a house, a room or flat – which I suffered a lot – you will see room to let but when you go there, they’ll shout, monkey! and slam the door on your face. It went as far as that. They will write on the wall of their hostels Room to let, Whites only. So I have experienced life a lot and I am not regretting it. All I am just regretting is being a Nigerian.

Why?
My wife is a biochemist; she is one of those who started this NAFDAC of today. She was at Yaba, Food and Drug; she is half American half Jamaican but now a nationalised British. She came home with me, she was working in what they call NAFDAC today –it used to be Food and Drug at Yaba and I was shooting my movies.

Where is she now?
She is in Britain.

She went back?
Yes, she went back.

You told me earlier that you have 13 children?
Yeah sure; she had five for me and then she left and I married again.

Why did she leave?
She left because of greed; it is unfortunate to say that word. My family was a nuisance to her; my mother and brothers were harassing her. They said she doesn’t know how to cook, doesn’t know how to put pepper in food. I said no, my wife didn’t come to serve you people. They will come to the house, they just go straight to the fridge to take beer but when she says, ‘Please, uncle, sit down let me serve you,’ they’ll say ‘no, this is my house;’ you know the stupidity of our people, this is our house, you cannot tell us.

So she was not a happy lady here. But the worst thing that she did to me, for which I am begging Nigerians never to marry foreigners, is, , whatever the situation, don’t marry a foreigner. My wife was working and collecting dollars and I didn’t know. She was working as expatriate, collecting good money. So every December when she buys ticket for me and the children for us to go to London, New York and back, I was saying that I was enjoying but when (Gen. Tunde) Idiagbon took over, that was what actually broke my home.

How?
When Idiagbon took over, my mother-in-law died; so when we went for her burial in Britain, and then while we were there, Idiagbon made a law that every foreign woman married to a Nigerian, should collect her money in naira or forget it. So when she heard the news, she didn’t want to come back again because that was what she was enjoying in Nigeria. So, she said she wanted to do a postgraduate acupuncture; because she read medicine here at LUTH, she read biochemistry in London University.

When you came back here with her?
Yes, she read medicine here at LUTH, so she said she wanted to go and do acupuncture. So I came trying to get permission but they said no, she is an expatriate, she doesn’t need permission, she can go, whenever she comes, the job is still there, she can take over. I was shocked to my marrow; I couldn’t believe it. This was not one week but years; about seven years. I bought her cars, chauffer-driven. I was sad.

This industry actually messed me up; family wise, I lost a lot because I thought that money was everything as long as I continued doing my job. When you cry, I just give you money; that is how I lost all my children. My wife didn’t take them home. When my two daughters finished their WAEC, JAMB said they didn’t get enough cut-off to do medicine and law, I told them, ‘Go and do A Level in London, when you finish, do direct entry.’

My first boy wanted to go to elementary school, (Governor Lateef) Jakande went to court and banned every private school and said everybody should go to the same school. So I didn’t wait for the case to finish, I sent my boy there. So that is how I sent all my children back to Europe again. My wife was so happy. So when we went for the burial, she stopped coming. We never divorced, we never quarreled.

Even till now?
Yeah, that is how she vanished. I went there more than 20 times pleading to her to come, that everything would be all right. She said, ‘No, I am not going back to your country.’ Part of her excuse was my mother and brothers, who were a nuisance to her life, too. I tried every time to keep everyone together.

Myself and my brother are the only children that my mother had. Even though I had a house for her and furnished it, she would still come to my house and cause her aggravation. And when she was getting too much on my nerves, I asked her, ‘Did you ever pay my school fees? Did you train me?’ Because I am one of the unfortunate people that never had mother or father’s love in their life. That is why I spoilt my children; I can’t remember ever having my mother embracing or carrying me, maybe as a baby, yes, but from the time I was walking, I never had mother’s love or father’s love in my life and that is why I am so soft with women and children. So I got another Nigerian woman, she too had four children and my biggest downfall was I kept having girls. If not, I wanted to have only two children.

You call that downfall?
Yes. What are women? Nothing. The worst thing, my daughter just got married; one year, I have not seen her. Since she got married…

That is a strong statement.
Yes, that is a strong statement and I mean every word of it. My daughter is there at Oke-Ira; she only says hello, daddy, how are you? And I spent a fortune on her marriage. Then to worsen it, the three girls abroad, I don’t know whom they are married to. I saw the other day on Internet, Chukwuemeka Golden, Deborah Something, Sophia Something and they are all my kids. Then I saw their two brothers’ names, Afamefuna Ugboma, Chukwudi Ugboma. So I know that, that is the family of Ugboma. So, I am not lucky with them and I pity myself that…

Even the boys?
Yes.

They are all lost to you?
Sure. The boys are there with them. So right here, the only one boy I have here, I hope that he will finish university and take over, because all my children hate this industry; they all hate it.

Let’s talk about your children; you said most of them are lost to you?
Yeah.

Why is that?
Their mother confused them. Those I trained in Lagos, about five of them; they find this place that I brought them up as bush now. Whereas, it is this bush that they went to elementary school, secondary and university and then as soon as they got a job, they say daddy that place is so far, I will see you next week. I laugh at them; it is their mother’s bad influence.

My weakness is women, they are very nasty to me because I so much pamper them; I spoil them; so they take liberty. My third wife, the mother of these children, was the only unfortunate one, she died suddenly 10 years ago and I vowed, no more women. I have nine daughters and four boys – 13, a football team and two reserves. I have just had enough at 70. What am I going to do with woman? To get killed?

Those children in London, don’t they ask after you?
No. They came four times to take me back and I said, ‘I am not a parcel, why will you take me back?’ What I have achieved here in Nigeria, I will never have achieved it in Europe and America. I was just one Black man there. I wasn’t even allowed to use my full name in the programme that I was directing on television there.

They will not allow me to use Eddie Ugboma. I had to use Spike Eddie, and they were paying me extra money for not using Ugboma. But look at me here in Nigeria, a big moviemaker, a national awardee, an adviser to the government on film and television. I am the chairman of the Board of Trustee of Actors Guild, Producers’ Guild, Directors’ Guild; I am the president of Moviemakers Hall of Fame; too much.

Now, what is your circumstance?
How?

In substance; are you in good standing, materially?
As far as I am concerned, I think I am one of the richest men in this country; I have children, I have good health, I can feed myself, I have cars, I have houses, what else do I want? Blood? The Almighty God has been too good to me; He has compensated me for my commitment but the country has failed me woefully.

Let’s talk about the film industry; you say that we don’t have film industry? What is the problem?
Well, the thing is in a total coma; it needs a big surgeon and why the surgeon cannot work is that there is no theatre to work because it has been so split in pieces that it is tribalised that you don’t know that such a big industry can go to the gutter like Nigerian politics. What is the sense? An Indian gave us name, Nollywood; Nolly in the dictionary means nothing, so they are nothing-wood.

The Yoruba people said, ‘Ah! We won’t accept it; what about us?’ And so they have Yoruwood. The Hausa people have came out with Kanowood. That’s it. What are they Wooding about? Can they compare with Bollywood and Hollywood? That is what it is. Now they go to shoot a film – Emeka Ike kisses Genevive and Genevive kisses and cut! Those wet stories they carry on and the monotony of the same faces for the past 15 years; it is only five artistes, how about those thousands coming out from the universities? I have been in many meetings where they stood up to say: ‘The Eddie Ugbomas, their days are gone, they should be dead; these are our days.’ Once, someone asked: ‘If Eddie Ugboma didn’t open the road for you, would you have passed?’

What problem do they have with you?
Who?
Those in Nollywood, in the home-video industry, that is.
The simple thing is my correction. They don’t like my corrections.

What are your corrections?
That we should grow up. You can’t be shooting 500,000 junk every year and say that you are the biggest film industry. No. Bring about six of you together, get good equipment, bring good people, buy good stories, commission stories, not just you see Bruce’s story and then you improve on it and shoot your own. No. That is my fight and that is what they don’t like. Since 2008, I banned myself from going to any more festival. I have been to festivals for so many years and I cry when I am coming home. Before I know it, all these little, little countries have their day and we have nothing. And you see about 70 Nigerians going up and down instead of ,

But these films sell out in other countries, especially the eastern part of Africa?
Yes, because they don’t have alternatives; they run their television stations with Nigerian films of any standard. Like Nigerian television stations, do you call them television stations? They don’t have content because they don’t commission films, projects, documentary; so they pick any rubbish, put it on. That is why a television station runs musicals every afternoon for four hours, because they don’t have any content; because they are not ready to run a station.

So what they could have done is say, ‘All right, 7am – 12 midnight, close transmission. But no, all of them want to say 24/7. It is a pity. You see, these are things I say…because of my world experience and they say he talks too much. I feel pained, and this is my country. Like they say, I have nowhere to go. So if I don’t repair here, where will I repair? The white man’s country?
Now, can you quote me, please? Don’t miss this line: my father was a policeman and today, people in Nigeria hate the police and it hurts me. So, I wrote a series and went to Abuja five times to get permission from the IG to use my money to shoot a television series to show that these policemen are the type of policemen you asked for and most of them are good; it is just one out of a million that is bad and you rub everybody. Do you know that the IG, Ringim, didn’t acknowledge the letter?

I registered it to him and copied the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State. Now, do you expect people like that who are ignored to shoot a good film? Emmanuel Ojukwu, the former PPRO, once said that when a Nigerian man shoots a bad film about the police, he would be dealt with. I told him to keep shut; ‘have your boys stopped collecting N20 on the street?’ If the police want a good image, it is the moviemakers; show them that if the public is not a thief, we won’t be stealing. Show them where police receive bribe and they are locked up.

We can image the police, we can image everybody. But you don’t ignore it because we are a country of shock absorbers; we are a country of don’t worry, let’s move on. If this were another place in the world and Boko Haram comes to your house and blows it up, as IG, you resign. But here, the man is still sitting tight. Now, people don’t sleep anymore in Lagos because there is 25-hour armed robbery and the Commissioner of Lagos State will go to the television to say crime has come down; we are bunch of hypocrites.

From all I can see, from your family to your professional life, you are not only an angry man, but you must also be a very sad man?
No.

Sure?
Well, I feel pained. And I feel pained that I am so exposed and people don’t want to listen. I am like an encyclopedia, I am a gift.

What is your income stream now?
Zero, I can’t quantify it. It is so hard to quantify it when you have no place you are having steady money coming. I get money from consultancies or when I sell my old films. Now, the ready money that I used to get before 12 years ago was from my property but now, I don’t have any more income; occasionally, I browbeat my children, they donate N10,000 each to the old man and I am very happy. Like the book I wrote, the real people whom I expected didn’t come but those who came, people like Rashidi Gbadamosi, they were giving six-figure donations; Tony Momoh, even the Minister of Culture.

This man, Dokpesi, two weeks before the show, gave me N1.5 million which I used in finishing the book and organising the show and he carried the advert free-of-charge for two weeks on AIT. I was in The Sun, National Mirror, name it. All the media were behind me. So those little ones, when they come, I will eat and smile. My brother, I am a very rich, happy man.

If you were given the option of how to die, how would you want to die?
Simple, sleep, man; sleep and die in my sleep and they bury me immediately. I don’t believe in wake-keep and all those stupid things they do.

And your tombstone, how would you want it to be written?
Here lies Eddie Ugboma.

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