It’s very unlikely that as a lover of Nigerian movies and TV drama series, you haven’t watched ‘Dangerous Twins’, ‘Owo Blow’, ‘Hostages’, ‘Madam Dearest’, ‘Diamond Ring’ among other riveting works of enigmatic script writer, producer and director, Akintade Ogidan, whose showbiz moniker is Tade Ogidan.
His absence seems too long and fans are waiting for movies or ‘soaps’ that will match if not surpass the success of his captivating repertoire. When should this maverick’s teeming fans expect another blockbuster?
“There’s a project that we released but which hasn’t achieved the kind of circulation that we want. A lot of people have actually been waiting for that- it’s called ‘Family on Fire’. We’ve promoted this work in ‘Madam Dearest’, so a lot of people want to see it.
It’s actually out there already and people should look out for it. We’re trying to rejig the publicity for it. This is because a lot of people have asked me, ‘what happened to that movie? Aren’t you going to release it?’ And I would say, ‘but we’ve released it.’
And I would get the riposte: ‘you’re kidding me, when did you release it?’ ‘Family on Fire’ also has a Yoruba title called ‘Wahala Kunle’. At the premiere of the movie, people froze from the beginning to the end. It’s one of those good works that will still get much bigger publicity,” he explains.
Seldom do you get the depth of story and huge budget that went into producing ‘Hostages’, a TV drama series that got the country talking in the ‘90s featuring Tope Idowu, Ofuafo Otemowo, Antar Laniyan, Richard Mofe-Damijo, Lanre Balogun, Taiwo Obileye among a host of other superstars.
Understandably so, movie buffs continue to crave an encore. Ogidan interjects: “I don’t know how easy achieving that kind of project will be now. Some of the privileges of that time aren’t easy to get nowadays.
The landscape of that time was different; when we were producing ‘Hostages’, film-making was quite a bit of novelty and to even get a house for the rich man’s role was quite a problem at a time. It’s unlike now that you get so many of such buildings.
But I’m also preparing something really massive. I want to do something huge for the television that will thrill the audience practically all over the world. You’re just going to have to wait for it. It’s called ‘Streets of Gold’.
It’s something we will film in Nigeria and a few countries in Europe, the U.S., Ghana and South Africa. Kunle Afolayan and I are working on that. It’s something to look forward to.” It may well interest you to know that Ogidan’s Midas touch led to the discovery of some of the finest actors in Nigeria most of whom have traversed the world and know the score.
At the risk of sounding immodest, Ogidan would unapologetically take credit for discovering Richard Mofe-Damijo a.k.a. RMD, Taiwo Hassan otherwise known as ‘Ogogo’ (in Owo Blow), Femi Adebayo, to mention a few.
And when these actors finally give him credit for ‘finding’ them, they do with all sense of pride. But who discovered Ogidan? He chuckles for a moment and recounts: “Who actually discovered me?
I think I’m just somebody who has this passion and since my days in secondary school, I would write scripts and my schoolmates would be waiting desperately for the break so that they would pass this exercise book from one person to the other. After reading, they’d say ‘are you sure you’re the one who writes these things? They’re so mature and out of your league.’
I finished from school, joined the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and started to make waves almost immediately. My works stood out and I was assigned to handle some of the special projects at the time.
Then I started to develop some of those projects that I eventually made into films after I left NTA. Some of the works are ‘Madam Dearest’, ‘Hostages’ and others which I’d written in my days at the NTA.
And then they’d post me to some places and I’d come up with something that would be totally outstanding for it and then, the system would say that: ‘we don’t have this kind of money.’ And for me, it’s not always about money.
They would say: ‘don’t you ever listen to what is called budget?’ For most of my projects in NTA then, I would ‘blow’ my personal money and my parents’ money, but everybody wanted to be involved in the kinds of works that I do because they call attention to themselves.
Those projects are the kinds that continually delight people. That means one has achieved something. A lot of them who have become superstars today, you’d see those potential in them already because I really take my time to audition over and over again.
I said to RMD, you’re going to be awesome. We used to rehearse in my dad’s house in Surulere and the talent I saw in him was awesome. I told him someday this country’s production value would be better and would be bigger; then you would be a star.
And I’m glad it came to pass.” Gifted with a strong presence of mind, Ogidan would seamlessly recall even those golden days of ‘Village Headmaster’. “While we were recording Village Headmaster many years ago, I saw the deep talent in Justus Esiri, and it all thrilled me.
And I prayed that someday would come when we would be able to do movies the way we desire to do them. I told him, ‘you’re deeper than what you’re playing as a headmaster in that series at the time. And I’m glad, he became that. So, when I also saw Femi Adebayo, in grooming him, we would cry together and do most things you guys saw in Owo Blow.
For my audience to weep, I’d have cried several times when I’m working on those films; by the time you’re filming it, you already know the emotions you’re going to get. So, I’m glad a whole lot of them are doing well. From Streets of Gold, we’re going to create another line up of stars, mark my words.
We’re still in pre-production stages now.” Away from the demands made on him by the art, what manner of man is Ogidan back home? Is he one of those who take time to do any chores at all? What kind of ‘honey’ and ‘daddy’ is he? “I’m a very homely person who doesn’t go out much.
I believe that our works stay out in the public domain and everybody has a good time experiencing them. I enjoy the little time I have for myself and I would like to play with the family, cook sometimes when I feel like cooking too.
I cook very well and anybody who knows me well enough will tell you that,” he explains. Every good cook had his or her bad day in the kitchen at some point, what has been Ogidan’s most horrible cooking blunder? “I was seven years old and I cooked a stew waiting for my mother to return.
Normally, my parents have this arrangement for supply of the foodstuffs they would need. So, when I am returning from school they’d just give them to me. I just wanted to impress her. So, I cooked. When she came back, I was very excited and I was telling her that I’d done the cooking.
I’m sure she wasn’t hearing me well because that certainly wouldn’t make any sense. She just got back from work and was very tired obviously. So, I repeated myself like three times. Then she snapped back. ‘You cooked what?’ I answered in Yoruba, ‘mo ti se obe yin’ literally meaning ‘I’ve made your stew.’
She rushed to the kitchen, tasted the stew and asked, ‘who did this?’ I said ‘it’s me’. She said ‘haaa, iwo lo se ni tooto’, ‘yes, you were indeed the one who cooked this.’ She responded that way because obviously there was too much salt in the stew.
I actually cooked it with firewood. Although I had a retinue of cooks, stewards and other staff but we all just enjoyed ourselves.” The availability of that size of stewards at his beck and call as a lad suggests he was born into wealth.
Are your parents rich? But he riposted: “Come on, do your parents have to be rich to afford some domestic staff? I think Nigeria was far more fun than now and we grew up in a lot of comfort and everybody was content with what they had. My parents were civil servants and we were happy.
But now, there’s so much chasing after senseless wealth. They steal the money they cannot even spend. Some of these guys who steal from the government don’t even know what they have. It’s a form of sickness. What do you want to buy? You’re not going to sleep on two beds at the same time.
What are you doing with 20 to 40 houses you’ve bought? You must be stupid. That’s not even investment anymore. If you want to leave all that for your children, you’re going to destroy them.
What are they going to ever work for in life? You’ve sent them to the best schools and you now start telling them your money is in billions of dollars, you get cancer along the line and die. Those kids cannot fit properly into life because their parents are foolish.
You’re not helping your children by leaving too much for them. Yes, it’s okay to set them up in such a way that they’re able to continue to grow their own legacy. Kids of people who have this kind of senseless money are always messed up because what truly is the child aspiring to?
At 16 he’s driving a Range Rover Sports, by the time he’s 20 and everybody is looking at their paths in life, there’s nowhere he’s going to be looking to. Life for them is all about having fun.” He would later open up on information he’d never shared with the press, as against what obtains among Yoruba parents who strongly believe the maxim ‘a kii ka omo f’olomo’ (you don’t ask an adult to number his children), he reveals his family size: “I have five kids, two boys and three girls.
Normally this is not a piece of information I put out for the public but it’s alright, I’m proud of my kids,” he says with contentment. Is any of his kids taking after him in his area of passion? “My first daughter, Korede, does projects with MNet but I want her to go back to school.
She loves to write, she wants to act and she has produced her first short feature. We give her some encouragement but I want her to get more education. She’s through with her NYSC.” And after all the work, how does he relax? No, not spirit, cognac or some brandy to relax with, he’s got another idea of recreation.
“I just listen to music across the world loud in my head with my very special headphones because I get my inspiration from some of those things. I love the beach for a family picnic, for friends or alone. One may need some time to think about what to do next.
And some of the times, I just jump into any country alone to think about how to make progress with my plans,” he says. Ogidan’s legacy appears to be as modest as his lifestyle. “I don’t mind what anybody remembers me for.
I just want to make my impact and if I was a very rich person, I’d like to touch the lives of people around me. I do that even as things are. I just want the society to be a better place,” he says with some feeling.
What exactly was Ogidan’s delinquent streak in his formative years? “I was a very quiet kid, my mother especially didn’t like the fact that I could write scripts all night but couldn’t study overnight.
She’d scream, ‘if you can put this amount of energy into writing nonsense, why can’t you give the same to reading your books? But life is interesting, the rest is history today. Sometimes if I want to taunt my mother, I still bring the issue up. She’s happy today that I made something out of it at last,” he recalls.
