My Supple Dairies

Tuesday September 8, 2009.

I am alone in the office and trying to post a new topic on Nairaland and listening to the sweet voice of Adaure Achumba as she is presenting the Hot Lens news report on STV, my favourite Nigerian TV station. I am proud of the founder and Chairman of STV, my fellow old boy Ben Bruce, for his laudable achievements in the entertainment industry in Nigeria. He has built a magnificent new office in the federal capital of Abuja and this is largest complex in West Africa. Ben, watch out, because another ex-Gregorian is going to build another magnificent edifice for entertainment in Africa. I prefer to locate it in Lekki, Lagos.

Madu, the CEO of the Lagos International Film Festival came to our office yesterday. He came to see his friend Hope, the Publisher of Supple magazine and spent hours before he left. Hope said Madu mentioned about the rubbish someone wrote about the last edition of his film festival and in fact did not know that I was the one who wrote the topic on Two Thumbs Down for the Lagos International Film Festival and I advised Hope not to discuss our own Eko International Film Festival with him. Later Madu’s fair, pretty and courteous secretary came to join us in the office whilst he and Hope were having drink at the nearby restaurant opposite the Mr. Biggs on Bajulaiye Street. I have always been the perfect gentleman to his secretary and she was relaxed as she sat down watching TV and I was posting my report of the transition of Gani Fawehinmi, the great Nigerian civil rights lawyer and human rights activist for my news blog, Nigerians Report. I glanced at her now and then and wondering if she has not thought of becoming an actress since she has the looks of a beautiful actress and working for a top player in Nollywood. She is even looking sexier than Mercy Johnson and Genevieve Nnaji. I admired her until her boss and Hope returned. Later we discussed Nduka Obaigbena’s chic magazine Arise, the best magazine published by a Nigerian and Hope concurred and said that he could do more if he has the millions of dollars like Nduka. I assured him that his Supple magazine will become the most popular Nigerian magazine within three years and I meant it. Supple is already the most accepted Nigerian magazine on international film festivals within only a year of its publication and was the only news media invited by the French Consulate in Lagos when the honourable noble members of the French senate visited Nigeria last week.

I turned my attention on the letters of proposal on the launch of our Startup Weekend Nigeria and other priorities in the office whilst Hope and Madu were busy meeting with a printer nearby to contract him to print the next edition of Madu’s Movie Africa magazine with the Nollywood star Desmond Elliot on the cover. Madu is one of the big players in Nollywood and I respect him. Whatever I have said about his Lagos International Film Festival is to challenge him to excel and not to fail. We are all stakeholders who are committed to the advancement of the Nigerian film industry. I have criticized every key person in Nollywood, including my fellow producers and actors since I stopped acting in 1996 and chose to focus on productions and publications. Being the founder and Festival Director of the new Eko International Film Festival is a great leap in the right direction for me. Hope has secured the trademark for it and is walking tall as the co-founder and President. We have agreed to make Dejumo Lewis the Secretary-General of Eko International Film Festival and I have also noted the inclusion of Prince Jide Kosoko in the Organizing Committee.

Then later I called Grace Bernard our official photographer and she said she would not be able to come to the office as we expected her, because she was delayed at the place she had gone to. I called my Sweetest, who is upset that we have not seen each other for over a year and I promised to see her before the end of this month. Presently, the publication of three of my books is my top priority and seeing Karen King-Aribisala again after five years did more for my spirit than any other relationship. She is a literary genius who appreciates literature as the big picture of the culture of human nature in our cosmopolitan universe. She said writing is like falling in love. 

OnoEdosio,
Thank you for reading and encouraging me.
I am learning everyday.

There is no pleasure to me without communication: there is not so much as a sprightly thought comes into my mind that it does not grieve me to have produced alone, and that I have no one to tell it to.
~ Montaigne (1533-1592)
 

Love your flow:makes one continue reading.What is QMC?

Wednesday September 30, 2009.

I am in the office with Martins, one of our newly employed advertising executives for Supple magazine. He is relaxing watching the TV while I am online updating My Supple Dairies on Nairaland.

Grace Bernard has gone out with Hope. He is making an ID card for the acclaimed Nigerian novelist Chimamannda Ngozi Adichie who is now a member of the exclusive gym at the Southern Sun Ikoyi Hotel. Chima has been visiting Lagos regularly these days and now has a cozy place in Ikoyi.
 
Peace, the PA of Madu, the CEO of Lagos International Film Festival came to the office and said she was on her way to see the printers of the latest edition of Madu’s Movie Africa magazine with the handsome Nollywood hunk Desmond Elliot on the cover. Peace was looking really pretty and sexy today. She teased that I should escort her home and I told her that it would be better when I would be able to rent a car to take us there.
“That would be when? I am coming back on Friday to collect the printed and bound copies of our magazine, “ she said.
“Friday is okay,” I said.

We have secured a major Italian partner and a major patron in Germany for Eko International Film Festival. We already have the cooperation and support of our French partners. We are going to make a formal presentation to the reigning monarch of Lagos in October and members of the Organizing Committee are being short listed. I have drafted the Constitution. The rules and regulation for the submission and accreditation will follow soon. The Art Director of Supple magazine has designed the logo. I appointed the Publisher of Supple magazine as the President of Eko International Film Festival and his Supple Communications will manage Ekofest for the next four years. I also made him the Managing Director of Startup Weekend Nigeria, but if he does not perform well, I will appoint a new MD.

We look forward to making the official public announcement on Eko International Film Festival in October and the international publicity will commence without delay.
 
I have postponed the first ever Startup Weekend in Nigeria and informed my American partners who agreed with me. What the postponement did was to expose the opportunists who only came to join Startup Weekend Nigeria for their get-rich-quick schemes and they thought my American partners would have sent me thousands of dollars. I do not need these desperate Nigerians on my board.


I have three books awaiting publication and I intend to concentrate on them. Yesterday, I met my long time buddy Dabyna Abraham, the leading local rock guitarist and performer at the Falomo Shopping Complex after I collected nine copies of my book Bye Bye Mugabe from Glendora Bookshop. I gave Dabyna a complimentary copy, but he insisted on paying for it and asked me to autograph it for him. I have always loved the humility and integrity of Dabyna who studied engineering and once came on stage to assist me fix the sound system at the world premiere of my Sleepless Night at Maison de France, the French Cultural Centre in Ikoyi, Lagos. And later at the same Maison de France, his rock band played for my performance of Darego, the rock song I composed in honour of Darego Agbani of Nigeria for winning the Miss World Beauty Pageant.

I have not seen my Sweetest since August 2008 and I am missing her in a way that words alone cannot describe. I call her often and send her chocolates and other things whenever I have the money. Hope warned me that I must remain faithful her even while I am in America on book tours. I have given 70% of the royalty from my Scarlet Tears of London to her. She deserves it. I love my Queen and I am very proud of her.

Sunday October 25, 2009.

Linda Ikeji's fifth Style Night was colourful and wonderful with a bevy of pretty babes and hunks at the posh Jade Palace on Adeola Odeku Street on Victoria Island in Lagos. I came to the red carpet event with Hope and Tony, one of the new hunks among Nigerian male models. I was simply dressed in a brown kaftan and faded blue jeans with my leather boots. I sat beside Peks, the only brother of the hostess whilst her father my namesake sat nearby. Only Edna, one of her younger sisters came to the show and she was looking beautiful that Hope was attracted to her. Her elder sister could not come, because she was far away in Texas where she lives with her American husband.

Modela was the best fashion designer at the event and Diamonds thrilled us with two songs from their yet to be released CD of Hip-hop singles.

I was impressed and I thanked God for Linda Ikeji.
I congratulated her.
"I am proud of you," I said in a text message I sent to her before I went to bed last night. We spoke in the morning and discussed the event. She said she is considering doing a trade show in December and I told her to go ahead.

Saturday November 7,2009.

I went to the National Theatre in Iganmu on Saturday November 7, 2009, to see The Fabulous Adventures of the Sugarcane Man, Prof. Femi Osofisan's English adaptation of Daniel O. Fagunwa's Yrouba classic Ireke Onibudo. The performance was great in music, choreography and dialogue. The narrators were impressive. The play was sponsored by the management of Chams Plc in their Chams Theatre Series started to revive the appreciation of the perfromance of Nigerian plays.

Mr. Demola Aladekomo, the MD of Chams is a noble man. He said the Chams Theatre Series "is also a means of promoting our culture and re-orienting Nigerians to the values that we hold dear”.

The hall was full and the audience really appreciated the performance.

@ Orikinla,
I'm still hoping I could be a contributing writer to Supple magazine. I'll be in not for the money.I just want this 2 get off my block.