The political science graduate of the University of Ibadan and investment banker turned theatre producer is confident, articulate, focused and unafraid to take controversial positions. In this interview, the man better known as Duke of Shomolu, talks about his motivations and current engagements, including staging his play, ‘Awo’ in the UK and other issues. Excerpts.
You have had an exciting trajectory from political science to investment banking and theatre productions. You have had some 16 productions in five years of establishing Duke of Shomolu Productions; what is your motivation?
Motivations come at me differently, so what can motivate me today will not inspire me tomorrow. The initial trigger was the feeling that I needed to exhale. I needed to come out of myself and shout, and I needed to use theatre for the shouting, to be heard better. That’s why our first play was called ‘Loud Whispers’, a satire from my column in Thisday.
But along the line, we stumbled upon this trajectory, where we started seeing that the system was hungry to listen to us in using our historical figures to speak to society. That’s why we are doing what we do right now. The motivation was the initial need to exhale and tell these stories to get new leaders to understand where we are coming from as a people. That’s why we’re doing some of these very historically rich productions.
I’m happy you mentioned that because I wondered why several of your productions are about Nigerian historical figures and events. Fuji musicians do a lot of praise singing, and I wanted to know if it’s the same you are doing in a refined manner. Could you be doing image laundering?
No, far from it, because we usually go indepth in telling these stories. We talk about the painful sides of it. If you have seen ‘Awo’, you will see his travails. What he underwent in prison, his weaknesses when he leant so much on his wife for support. These are things you don’t do when you are image laundering. We’ve had a lot of pressure from contemporary politicians to do their stories, but we have turned them away. If we were in that space, we’d be making a lot of money right now. To get money for these shows is strenuous and tiring. I know that if I wanted to do a show about the present-day Nigerian politician, I wouldn’t struggle for money.
You must be very historical to get our attention. The most recent person we have done is Emir Sanusi, and even at that, it was his grandfather. We just ended the story with him. The other person was [Alhaji Lateef] Jakande, ‘Baba Kekere’. Jakande is historical, so we don’t do things just for financial reasons. We do those things because we feel that these stories will go a long way in showing where we are as a people right. If you see the kaleidoscope of people that we have done, you will begin to understand what we’re talking about. We have done [Chief Olusegun] Obasanjo, Zik, Awo and Jakande. Gowon is our next target. Then we are doing ‘Kashimawo’, that’s Abiola this Easter.
I noticed you need help to do this. You get authorities, people like Professor Ahmed Yerima, Professor Rasaki Ojo Bakare and others to do these plays.
I’m not a writer-director. These individuals are serious people, so we must get people with depth, knowledge, experience, and credibility to tell their stories so we don’t have problems. You can’t funnily tell Zik’s story in a light-hearted way. For example, if there’s a backlash, the authority will stand, not Joseph, because I’m the money man.
When we did ‘Fajuyi’, critics who came to see the play were not looking at Joseph Edgar; they were looking at Professor Ojo. When they know who is writing and directing, some families involved have more confidence to work with us. When we wanted to do ‘Aremu’, I took Professor Yerima to Chief Obasanjo, and he knew he worked under him as Artistic Director of the National Troupe of Nigeria; he relaxed and worked with us for five hours on the script. I’m just an arranger; there’s a division of labour. Everybody has expertise, and we complement each other. So now, I have a school of directors, and depending on what I want to do, I approach each based on their expertise. The person who did ‘Zik’ for us is a Zikist at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
You also have a unique, or what some would call an unorthodox, approach to fundraising; why that tack? Does this have to do with your investment banking background?
Yes now. You have to understand how to sell value. I have raised about 40 per cent of the budget from Nigeria for our UK production. Remember that the foreign exchange situation is not helping us. Daily, when you cut a deal, the value of the naira drops. A sponsor must see the value and benefit, so the kind of pitch I give a bank differs from a telco. I customise my pitch so that the person can see the quantitative benefits. I go to a bank and say if you give me X amount, I will provide you with X regarding ticket sales and account openings. So, it’s all about value.
Your plans to show one of your productions, Awo, in the UK and hold a cultural economic summit in May have reached an advanced stage; what do you intend to achieve? Then, why Awo of all your productions?
Awo is very critical. I have done over 18 productions, and Awo appears in over 16. You can’t tell Nigeria’s story without talking about Awo. When you speak about Zik, Emir Sanusi and Sardauna, there’s Awo. If you talk about Ladi Kwali, there’s Awo. That’s why we decided to use ‘Awo’ as our first point of call to come to the United Kingdom. We’ll do it annually; once a year, we’ll bring in a production we had done previously to the UK every May and have the economic summit. The economic summit is a separate event at a different venue, The Pullman Hotel. It’s for us to come and see how we can better position the creative industry as a vital revenue earner for the country, especially with this financial crisis. The industry is worth over two trillion and is growing by the minute, so it’s to bring in experts. There’s no artist in the lineup of speakers; they are bankers. We want to discuss the business of showbiz, not the art of showbiz. I’m using the opportunity of ‘Awo’ to have the summit because I can only come to London once for each event.
Your speakers for the summit are impressive: Emir Sanusi as keynote speaker, Arunma Oteh, Professor Koyin Ajayi, Olusegun Awolowo Jnr and others. How easy was it to get their agreement and commitment?
It was straightforward getting their agreements; scheduling was the challenge. We had a lot of back and forth and finally settled for May.
So, how easy has the setup been logistics-wise, financially, and getting sponsors?
Sponsorship has been very difficult, especially with the forex crisis. For example, somebody offered me 1000 pounds in naira. When he transferred it to me, the value had dropped, so I didn’t get 1000 pounds. Someone promised me two thousand pounds last year, and this year, he said two million naira is two thousand pounds, but we have to keep pushing. In terms of logistics, I mentioned the division of labour earlier. There are people, experts in the UK as we speak; there’s a UK producer, Dr Lookman Sanusi. We have yet to be licenced to do business in the UK, so we gave out the franchise to him. He’s doing all the work- casting, auditioning, getting the theatre ready, and somebody is handling the economic summit.
We will get our licence to work in the UK by next year. I don’t believe in working under pressure; I delegate to people. We are doing ‘Kashimawo’ in this period and ‘Awo’ in Ikenne. We are doing three major productions with massive budgets within three months. Awo UK costs us about 80,000 pounds, roughly 120 130 million naira. We are doing another one in Ikenne for about N25 million; we are doing ‘Kashimawo’ for about N52 million. Part of our ethos is to employ and empower people. We have used 5000 actors in the last six to seven years. I intend to hit 10,000 in the next two or three years. ‘Awo’ in Ikenne will have a cast of about twenty-something people. We usually work with a cast of nearly 200, but we are doing 70 or 80 on average on our productions now because of cost. If you add the three productions, we can hit 200. You can extrapolate that to other producers if you put 200 people to work every quarter. Remember that theatre only holds about 20 per cent of the total entertainment market size.
Why are you collaborating with Lookman Sanusi for Awo UK?
He’s very experienced and has worked with Bolanle Austen Peters. He’s based in the UK and understands the country. I don’t like breaking rules, so it’s better to use someone who is an expert in that space. He knows the laws and regulations, and he comes very well recommended. He’s been doing phenomenal work and, very importantly, integrity. He’s solid on integrity and has done well.
Let me find your trouble now. Some critics perceive you as brash, given to undue self-promotion and fulsomely praising those you like, say, declaring an individual the mother of modern Nigerian theatre or refusing to give an inch even in the face of superior arguments and facts. How do you react to this?
There’s no superior argument. Ok, two things. Yes, I’m brash, and I don’t apologise for that. That was how I was trained in the Army. My mother was a soldier, so we didn’t suffer fools. Two, people in your industry like to play in the grey area. I have a quantitative background. I’m an investment banker, and you look at the figures. I don’t make this assertion lightly as a man versed in quantitative analysis. I also do not make this statement lightly as one who looks at the facts, refusing to play in the emotional corridors most stakeholders play in. I used the word ‘modern’, meaning that I can situate my periodicity to the 2000s from my political science background, effectively cutting off the FESATC 77 era back to Hubert Ogunde or any respected precursor. For me, modern times are from the 2000s till date. I also consider the tipple that was the then Nigerian International Bank’s incursion with their Unilag shows and the coming of Umoja, the South African Troupe. If we agree with my periodicity, you will now agree that no male or female has achieved any quantifiable landmarks other than Mrs Austen-Peters.
Bolanle is doing a show in 10 days filled to the brim; she’s creating a secondary market for her tickets. People are buying her tickets and reselling them. So, it’s not about who can sing or dance; there’s no way of measuring that. I do the quantitative analysis. How many shows is she doing in a year, how many tickets is she selling, how many actors is she using? She is the mother of the theatre. I respect her and only her. Every other person is beneath her, including me. My figures have dwarfed her figures now, but I still give her respect.
Last year, she did two productions, and I did six. She did only Lagos and Abuja; I did seven cities. Lagos, Abeokuta, Benin, Warri, Uyo, Abuja and Ekiti. I’m the first person in this country to do a play, ‘Emir Sanusi’, in two cities simultaneously: Abuja and Lagos. I’m going to London now. The Kano State Government has approached me about bringing ‘Emir Sanusi’ to Kano. My figures go far, but she’s still my champion. I repeat Bolanle Austen Peters is the mother of modern-day Nigerian theatre.
How was the experience of staging ‘Emir Sanusi’ simultaneously in two cities?
It was beautiful. The Emir was surprised because he didn’t think it could happen. If you can raise funds, you can do almost anything. We had different cast and crew in two cities. Abuja was a day show; we saw it and flew back to Lagos with Emir Sanusi to watch the Lagos production with about 20 per cent of bank managing directors in attendance. This is why I go mad when people say these things about Ogunde, Ojo Ladipo, and the founding fathers. I give them their respect but find out what influence they have on the markets. What quantitive influence did they have on the market?
Where do you see the Nigerian creative economy in the next few years?
The Nigerian creative economy can grow without the government; it is phenomenally increasing yearly. You saw Funke Akindele’s movie, ‘A Tribe Called Judah, ‘ hitting one billion naira. It will get more because we have a young, thriving youth population, and the entertainment industry is sitting on the retail market. That means with 100 naira data, I can download a movie. A 60 per cent youth population of 200 million people represents a market.
The entertainment industry will keep growing. It’s just for the government to understand how to engage it. It’s for the government to support it in such a way that everybody will be able to maximise their returns. We have power in the creative industry, but it’s how we engage it.
How do you relax when you’re not looking for money for production or causing trouble with your articles?
I hardly relax. Well, I go on WhatsApp, where I have about 10,000 people. I used to watch movies but realised it had been a year since I watched TV. I used to read a lot of newspapers, but it has been about a year since I have done that. What I’ve tried to do in the last four months is not to do anything on Sundays. I lie on my couch because I don’t sleep on a bed and am on my phone. Then, there’s the other one I can’t say in public.