“We Need To Clean Our House”- Omotola Calls For Reform, Trust And Conduct In Nollywood

Nollywood star actress Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde is back in the country with a very bold message for her fellow practitioners in the movie making business: “we need to clean our house!” Omotola made the statement, along with her other points during a discussion with HipTV where she called for reform in the way Nollywood conducts business, calling for more trust worthiness. Here is what Omotola had to say.

Making her points about she wants to see change in the industry, Omotola explained saying:

OMOTOLA JALADE-EKEINDE: It is amazing to see how entertainment wise now we’re, should I say, attracting investors and big corporations are coming in. And it’s going to get even bigger and more companies will want to come in and it still fits back to what I said on the stage some minutes ago in my speech, I said: when they come and encounter us as Nigerians, we ought to remember that trust should be our number one guiding light.

Because when people can trust you, can trust your brand and your dalliances, even if you’re not immediately profitable, they will be comfortable to stick it out. Does that make sense? Because it’s stable, and you’ll see that a lot of companies and conglomerates actually go to countries that are smaller than us, so that tells you that it’s not necessarily just the numbers game.

They are going to the smaller countries that give them peace of mind. Where they find that they can actually work with the people. Where they don’t have to chase around monitoring the people because they’re scared if they’re stealing their money, if they can close their eyes when they sleep and stuff like that.

If we as people, as Nigerians can go back to the drawing board and say look, we want to be trustworthy people, I believe that we will attract companies that are willing to stick with us for the long run. Most conglomerates and businesses in the world do not really seek immediate profit. They understand the long game.

They want to be with you for 30 years. They want to invest and sometimes they have already planned that they might lose for the first 10 years, they’re okay with that. They already know that that’s how conglomerates are built.

We just don’t understand that what they need is a stable environment and stable people, so when we start to attract conglomerates to us, to ourselves like we are, and big businesses, we need to put in place measures and environments that sustain peace, trust, and wellness. And then, they can plan for the long run and companies can stay long enough for people to have jobs and for the economy to grow.

So these are the things that I have learned about the diaspora and working in the diaspora, and that I’m hoping that I can preach here and that we can quickly invite and spread like wildfire.

It is at our door step, but we need to clean our house. We really do need to clean our house.

Source: Jide Okonjo

Email: elora.akpotosevbe@yahoo.com