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Gideon Okeke stands to be challenged, not corrected. He is the only child of a Fela-loving father who grew up to become the conscience of an industry. After sweeping the Best Actor category at the 17th BON Awards, the man who dared to challenge Multichoice and call out “pig behavior” talks to TOMI FALADE on Nollywood On Radio about the “perpetuity clauses” killing the craft, his divorce, and how his undeniable talent makes even his biggest critics offer him coffee once the director yells “Action!”
Alotofpeopleseeyouasaverybrilliantactor, but also a controversial one who speaks his mind even at the detriment of him making money. Where did you get that from?
The man who raised me, the late, great Mr. Nelson Okeke always told me to stop listening to that Fela Anikulapo Kuti. He would say put it off, put that Fela thing off. But growing up, I just loved Fela. Anyone who ever knew Fela would say he had the same kind of principle of forthrightness, of no oppression, don’t oppress the other person, of equity, of truth of fairness… all that stuff. That’s what I saw growing up from my dad, so naturally I picked it. And there was nobody else in the house, I was an only child, so I was watching him.
Alargermajorityofpeoplearealwaysscared to speak their mind, particularly because it would affect their career. You went against the almighty Multichoice years back, at a time everyone was trying to get in bed with them. I’ve also seen you speak your mind against your fellow actor – Jim Iyke… is it all a script?
I don’t want to give the Jim Iyke issue more power. I won’t give it more power than it already took from both of us, so I will let it go. But what hurt me about him was something like what happened between Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu and Gen. Yakubu Gowon. Gowon said to the guy, “no victor, no vanquished” Even at war, there’s respect for the other. You can be my enemy but there’s respect, that’s me. You don’t need to like me, I don’t need to like you but stand on what’s true whether we are friends or not. There’s respect, there’s a code of conduct, but he didn’t have that. I thought that was ‘pig behaviour’.
At some point a lot of actors wanted to work on ‘Tinsel’ on Mnet. You had the opportunity, yet you did a video explaining the holes in the contracts they were using to acquire content. Were you not scared that the way Nollywood is structured, people sometimes don’t want to work with some people because they say that person is troublesome?
By saying some things, I may have also used my mouth to take food off my plate; I understand that, but it is what it is. It is the cross I bear sometimes. We have to be honest, you have to say what’s true. But I also learned to watch people from where they are coming from, gauge them from their level of understanding. But does that mean that I will let things happen how it shouldn’t go?
For example, one of the things in the contract was that if a new media was to come tomorrow, you are signing off your right and all that stuff. The material that you have created can be extended to long from and sold in different forms, a perpetuity clause. We must keep evolving every day. The law that binds the business of Nollywood is flawed; there are many holes in it. I stand to be challenged, not corrected.
Why, for example, have you not joined AGN andtriedtobethepresident, orjoinAMPthen beatthefrontandmaketheseissuesknown?
I might also look like a whiner from the back, but what is intended is to make it better for everyone, not necessarily better for me because my standards might not be the standard someone else subscribes to. But my standards are the aspirations of a global practices level. So, whether you understand me or not, I want it for myself, which means the oil must rub everybody. There is no Micheal Jordan without Chicago Bulls, there is no Cody Brown without L.A Lakers… you can’t play all the hoops by yourself, you need people to play with you. You know that you are the best actor, but that means there’s another guy on the other side of the corner who is just as good. Don’t call me the best actor if nobody is competing, we all have to be hot for you to say I’m good or I’m the best.
If I say my standards are to eat chicken, the guy who comes from Mushin might not understand that his actual standard is also a full chicken. But because of me, he gets the full chicken. And I will not eat full chicken all by myself, no, we all have to eat full chicken. We cannot keep playing small at this Nollywood thing, there’s a global best practices for everyone. Whenever you give me a contract, except you meet me on a personal level and say ‘I need you three days, but this is how much I have, I will put you in this place, this is this and that, abeg help me run am.’ I can look you in the eyeball and say cool, let’s go. Anything that happens, I can’t be telling you because there’s no paper working between us. But as soon as you pull up a contract, I know you know what you want from me
Let’s come back to Nollywood, despite your controversial stance on issues, you still star in a lot of movies. What do you think works for you? A lot of people don’t cause trouble, yet they do not star in half the productions that you do?
I will say the grace of God and the undeniable truth that people actually know what they want. I started noticing that people wait for me to complain. But on the other side, I’ve also had people who call me and say ‘hey bro what are your terms, what really is this masquerade about so we know how to fan it’. There is another guy who says ‘hey, you, everybody says you are crazy, but everybody says you are the only person who can do this job, so I’m going to put my money on the table and do it with you regardless of anything they say. In the end, we made a disciple of this person.
The moment they say action, whenever they start seeing me, they change. When work starts, when you say action, the guy who didn’t greet me in the morning now wants to offer me coffee, because you are seeing the wonder of God. It is not what I carry, I carry what God gave me.
Are you married?
I’m divorced. I’ve got three kids.
Any of them looking to act?
I wish they would.
How come you are not a lawyer?
I would have been, I would have been a police detective, or a boxer.
Howwereyouabletokeepyourmarriageand divorce secret?
Because it hurts me so much, I wanted to win. I got into this business early at 22, you know I had time to have done all that going round the block and when I was ready to get married and life happened, it’s just didn’t play out well. I was like holding water in your hand. I was holding it so tight. But I take responsibility that it went bad on my watch. I was too embarrassed.
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