The Champion Sportsman UK Premiere, an Afterword

By NNOROM AZUONYE

Collins Archie-Pearce & Azubuike Erinugha (Writer/Director, The Champion Sportsman) Photo: African Dazzle.

 

TOUGH WALK TO FIREWORKS

 

I looked forward to May 10, 2013 with measured optimism. The audience engineering campaign for the UK Premiere of The Champion Sportsman gained traction with the meanest reluctance. The long-suffering Nollywood movies audience made us sweat for postponing the premiere from November 2012, and I began to feel a nasty bubble in my stomach when of all the original ticket buyers from 2012 who received full and immediate refunds following the postponement, only one person, the amazing Chioma Yvonne Mbanefo returned to buy a ticket this time, and she did that just to show support even though she was going to be in faraway Belgium at Chika Unigwe’s event during the hours of the premiere.

 

The marketing team did not give up and pressed towards the mark, and in the last few days there was a surge in interest and the tickets uptake rose exponentially.  By the eve of the event, we felt happy that there were over 100 advance ticket holders, a mix of celebrity invitees and lots of John Okafor’s fans. We were all excited because we felt that with the assurance of so many callers who wished to buy tickets on the night, it would be a full house. Unfortunately, on that Friday morning we received the rude shock that John Okafor (Mr Ibu) was definitely not coming to England. He did not get on the flight that morning.

 

Nnorom Azuonye (Nollywood Focus), Collins Archie-Pearce & Azubuike Erinugha. Photo: Yvonne Marx

 

Theodora Ibekwe being interviewed by Noellin Imoh of African Dazzle. Photo: Yvonne Marx

 

THE COST OF IBU

 

The undecided audience was then virtually wiped off because when they called to ensure Mr Ibu would be there live and we could not tell them a lie. We had to tell them that he could not make it. A lot of those we could not reach before the night who showed up at the cinema, we had to tell them prior to the screening that Mr Okafor had not come. It was not pretty. They accused us of false advertising, that we had lured them to the cinema with the promise of Mr Okafor’s presence knowing that he would not come. This was painful, and Mr Azubuike Erinugha, the director and producer of the film had to go to the extent of showing guests who demanded it, evidence of:

 

(a) an attendance fee paid to John Okafor

(b) an airline ticket purchased for John Okafor

(c) evidence of his accommodation in London for 1 week booked from the 9^th of May. 

 

It turned out that Mr Okafor, being fully aware of his commitment to his fans and to the producers of this film, having received a fee to attend the event, having been provided with a flight ticket, chose in his wisdom, during the week of the premiere to send his passport to the US Embassy to obtain a visa to the United States, but unfortunately as at that Friday he was due in London, the US Embassy had still not returned his passport.

 

The words we can use to apologise to our various publics do not yet exist. We sincerely hope that our regular supporters who buy tickets to film premieres we market will not hold this breach of contract by Mr John Okafor against us or against any other promoter of a Nollywood event.

 

Fatima Jabbe

 

FIREWORKS

 

There was no Mr Ibu, but the show did go on. I was outside for more than 40 minutes into the screening of the movie firefighting. The screening started at exactly 11:30pm, 10 minutes before we were scheduled to start. We gained time because the live comedy show by Mr Ibu did not hold. But people continued to turn up for the screening up to 12.30 am and were angry that they had come all the way only to miss the film. When I asked why they were showing up as 12.30am for a film scheduled to start screening at 11.40 on the programme, they said it was because of precedence. Writer Ndu Buisi had earlier warned me that evening to expect people turning up at 1.00am, apparently he had attended a premiere advertised for 8pm which did not start until 12.30am.

 

I am glad that we did start early enough but what made my evening was that when I was satisfied that nobody else would turn up and cause any problems, I went inside to see the rest of the film. I walked in to a carnival of laughter. As I stepped into the theatre, I was greeted by one of the cleanest Nollywood pictures I have ever seen. People were laughing themselves to the point I worried they would wee wee on the Odeon seats. The sound quality was exquisite. The film offered and the reaction of the audience was nothing short of fireworks and I was happy and for a moment I forgot how much of a graft it had been.

 

Nnorom Azuonye, Ngozi Thompson (Actress/Model), Azubuike Erinugha. Photo: Yvonne Marx

 

Much gratitude to all the parties involved in marketing The Champion Sportsman UK Premiere, particularly Collins Archie-Pearce, Amanda Okoli of Kirby PR, MikeCaze Global, Pink Enterprises, and Nollywood Movies.

 

All of us at Nollywood Focus wish Azubuike Erinugha the very best success with The Champion Sportsman as he sets his eyes on global distribution of this mirthful project. NF

 

 

The Champion Sportsman – Weekend Ticket Giveaway Sensation!

Azubuike Erinugha, Writer and Director of “The Champion Sportsman” is in a good mood. He has splashed out on 10 Standard Tickets to give away over this weekend.

To get one of these free tickets, all you have to do is purchase a “Two Plus One” Ticket between Friday 19th April and midnight Sunday 21st April 2013.

A “Two Plus One” Ticket is a Couples ticket which would normally admit 2 people,  but this ticket will admit 3 people for a princely price of just £20.00

Get a “Two Plus One” Ticket now. When they are gone, they are gone.

Event Registration Online for THE CHAMPION SPORTSMAN UK PREMIERE powered by Eventbrite

 

Dealing with Chinua Achebe’s Death

NNOROM AZUONYE

 

News of Prof. Chinua Achebe’s death first reached me as a rumour, as most news of death always do. Ever-optimistic, I posted on Facebook and elsewhere that it may not be true. I had really hoped that our literary father had not indeed died.

 

Passing away at age 82 in itself is not a tragedy. In fact a life that long on earth deserves celebration with dances, with food and with wine.  Such celebrations do not minimise the fact that somebody has lost his life, of course, and especially for members of his immediate family, it is still a death. In the case of Achebe who had given so much and after There Was A Country, there was a sense however in asking what more could he give but be an oracle figure and father? Everything he could ever tell us is already in his writings. Therefore Chinua Achebe will live forever.

 

It was not long before his death was confirmed. Tributes rolled out, as is the tradition when a person of Achebe’s stature passes on.  Naturally some were very good, others were very bad, and in between were those perfunctory nonsenses by rabid crocodiles who only weeks ago rained verbal abuses on the great man for recording his recollections of Biafra the way he remembered things. Something he had the right to do.

 

There have also been hundreds of tributary poems or verses written in Achebe’s honour. Some good. Some dreadful. It was probably wrong of me to say people should cut out the awful poetic tributes, but I doubt it was. Perhaps I find many of the tributes purely mathematical and pretentious. There is this feeling that people feel that if they did not say something about Chinua Achebe at this time it might mean they were out of touch or irrelevant and they would miss the boat.  

 

I have not written a tributary Achebe poem or essay. I may never write one. I hope this blog post is not misinterpreted as one. Right now, I am not exactly sure how to react to Achebe’s death, and I don’t know why. Considering that Achebe had so much impact on my life through his work and vision, why did I not become overcome with an overpowering urge to mourn him in words as I did my friends Esiaba Irobi, Eni-Jones Umuko and General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu? Is it perhaps because I think that it is somewhat incongruent, even sacrilegious, to use the words ‘Chinua’, ‘Achebe’ and ‘dead’ in one breath or sentence?

 

Or this numbness may be because my personal contacts with Chinua Achebe were quite limited and not contacts that might have meant anything to him anyway.

 

The first time I met Chinua Achebe was at Government College Umuahia in 1979 during the college’s Golden Jubilee celebrations. I had acted in Ola Rotimi’s The Gods Are Not To Blame, and some members of the cast were presented to key Umuahians, including Achebe, by the late Mr Iheukwumere.  Although I had known about him and his books, and knew he was friends with my brothers Chukwuma and Ikechukwu, the handshake at Umuahia only meant something to me much later in life, in 1986, when he called my brother, Ikechukwu from his hotel in London, and we had driven down to see him and had tea in his suite. I was then nineteen years old, and could not reconcile the quiet, unassuming man that shared very ordinary jokes, with the great Chinua Achebe.

Most of the conversation that evening was between him and my brother, except when he asked me some specific questions about Government College Umuahia of our time. I therefore spent most of the evening watching him and doubting seriously that this was indeed Chinua Achebe. I had expected more colour and more air.  I failed back then to appreciate the power in his simplicity.

 

Much later, while I was studying at University of Nigeria, Achebe came to our department a few times to see the late Ossie Enekwe, and he would just walk quietly past, often in ‘Biafran suits’, acknowledging our greetings but there was never any fuss. I think back now and wonder why we just stood back and nodded in his direction, saying in low voices, ‘That’s Chinua Achebe’.  We never approached him for autographs. We never thought we should stop him and ask him some questions about his books or about some of the more colourful and memorable characters.  I look back now and see those as wasted opportunities. Even if we had engaged him for one minute or two, those snatched conversations might have helped mould us better as artists.

 

After reading There Was A Country in 2012, I considered reviewing the book, but felt it might have been better if I interviewed Chinua Achebe instead. I began compiling questions. I wanted to ask him some questions about religion, about being Igbo, and about Biafra. Although he had said things the way he wanted to, there were gaps, or what appeared to me to be gaps in some of the accounts in the books that I needed to ask him about for my own education - as a man born in Biafra and a man who still bears a physical scar resulting from bombing activities by Nigerian forces.  That interview has now been cancelled, unless I find a way to conduct it still; an imaginary interview which must tease out answers Achebe would have given from the hidden texts in his book.

 

As an Igbo man and as a writer, it will be some time before I fully process the meaning of Chinua Achebe; his life, his work, and his death. NOA

 

 

Spring, still cancelled

Yesterday was simply beautiful. God had changed his mind about the cancellation of Spring this year, I thought.

But this morning Wintry drafts mock the heatless sun and I think I can hear the music of clattering teeth from the streets come on the wings of those drafts.

Where is my peppersoup?

- Nnorom

Valentine’s Day, a short reflection

NNOROM AZUONYE

Valentine's Day was marked yesterday. For some people, it is a waste of time, for others it was just another day for indulgent sex, but for many it was a day that to show and express love for their partners and humanity in general.

Many have questioned this. Why not love all year round? Why have a special day set aside for love?

My brother, Chris Enwerem thought aloud on Facebook yesterday about that, as have others including my other brother Okey Ndibe and my sister Chinyere Isiocha. This was my message posted to Chris' wall on Valentine's Day:

"Chris, nobody needs a special day to remind his wife of his love, just like nobody needs a special day to celebrate the birth of the saviour or indeed the resurrection. However, what a day like this does is make us all stop to take stock so to say. Today, my wife said 'this is our 7th Val together.' I said yes, 7th Val as a married couple, but we had 1 Val before that, so 8 in total. Then it hit me, we've been together for just over 8 years, our love continues to thrive, we have two lovely children and a third one on the way. We have much to thank God for. Make the time, brother, take stock and praise God for all the things He has done in your lives." NOA

How many times have we had people lament, 'I lost this person and never ever told her how much I loved her.'?

You buy things for your child everyday, but do you notice how much a birthday present or a Christmas present means?

On the Children's Day we stop to reflect on the welfare of all children across the world. This should not mean we don't care for children throughout the year.

On Mother's Day we shower love and presents on all mothers. This does not mean we don't love our mothers throughout the year.

On Father's Day we appreciate all fathers. I feel honoured to be given a special appreciation on Father's Day even though my children tell me every single day that I am the best Dad in the world.

We have days set aside for poetry, for AIDS, etc, why can't we have a day set aside for the greatest thing of all? Without love nothing else we celebrate will mean anything at all.