SEX SCANDAL AND THE MOVIE INDUSTRY; THE NIGERIAN STORY.

For what it is worth, sex scandals are synonymous with the entertainment business. Big Brother, USA, laid the template for us and we followed suit. Given the fact that we mimicked him while naming our movie industry Nollywood, we mimicked him in all things.

You need proof? Have you heard about Harvey Weinstein? The New York Times and the New Yorker first published investigative pieces that accused disgruntled movie producer Harvey Weinstein of decades of sexual assault and harassment in 2017. Soon after, Weinstein stood trial and was convicted of felony sex crime and rape. This was a white adult male.

After accusations of drugging and sexually assaulting women, Bill Cosby faced trial in 2017 and was subsequently convicted by the jury and sentenced to three to 10 years in prison. In addition to his sentence, the judge deemed the former actor a “sexually violent predator,” which meant he needed to undergo lifetime counseling and appear on a sex offender registry. This was an adult black male.

And the list continues. The same pattern, across races.

What these two have in common was the power at their disposal as top movie magnates. And like magnets, young ambitious ladies… desperate ladies most time who innocently want to break even in the movie industry get attracted to them like magnet to iron. And instead of sharpen these ladies and make them better irons. They traumatize them.

Imagine a 15 year old girl who is so awed by the talent money and power at the disposal of one man and come close to such man who should be in his 40s or 50s or even 30s. And the man starts getting erections and following the dictates of their dicks at all expense.

We copied this too. I remember when I was actively involved in Actor’s Guild of Nigeria. We were gipsies of sort. We used to travel from location to location and assume character at a moment’s notice. We used to imbibe a lot too. In all. And I remember they had a maxim, “ima isi” used to refer to the copulations that used to occur. I know I had my fair share. But from my girlfriend only. But the story then, and I believe it might not be so anymore, is that Directors, Producers make sexual intercourse with wannabes a prerequisite for a chance in their movies. And so, boys are sodomised and girls are molested just to make them stars.

Now, it still remains rumour and dirty speculation from a dirty mind until those who have been victims of such acts in Nigeria start speaking up just as those in the Western world do.

Nigeria, being a very religious country, hypocritical though, would want to cover such sins. Does it not happen in other countries? Why make it an issue of conversation?

But it is these men and women, victims of sexual violence who join together as husbands and wives and constitute nuisance, abusive and creating a chain reaction of abuse.

This is the story of sexual sins in the Nollywood industry. Even if we do not want to talk about it, we still need to talk about it and help rehabilitate these ones. Just as there is now an Ntasi Centre in Anambra State for victims of sexual violence, there needs to be a support group for victims of sexual violence in the Nollywood. I trust we would make a lot of progress in saving the black society of tomorrow. An Igbo adage has it that anaghi adi abuo ayi ala; meaning if one person is missing the mark, the other should not. They also say that Onye tala amu ebune ji ibi ugwo. This means that every misdeed receives repercussions. Beware and make a change today, Ndi Nollywood.

By O’Star Eze