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People Mistake Fame For Wealth – Okey Bakassi

Okey-BakassiOkey “Bakassi” Onyegbule hit the limelight by making people laugh. So fans were unhappy when he left comedy for a political appointment a few years ago and relieved when he announced his return to his primary constituency. The comedian spoke with ORUKPE NELSON about that transition.

How has life been outside government?

Life outside the government house has been good. Entertainment has always been my first love, so, coming back to entertainment business actively has been fun and rewarding. It has also given me an opportunity to reflect, compare and contrast and be appreciative of the knowledge acquired and appreciate the benefit of absence from the industry. It has been an interesting transition altogether.

And how has been your re-integration into entertainment industry?

Talking about the industry holistically, for the three years that I was away, the thing that changed is that some of my colleagues that I left to go and do politics had improved, which is expected. Nobody stays static. You’re not in any business so that you can remain in one place. I’m very happy to know they had improved. And I had also improved while I was away but in a different direction. The music industry has fared well, stand-up comedy business has had more entrants. In terms of the top tier practitioners of comedy, not much has changed, the same old people are still leading. And about re-integrating, I’m happy to God that I came back into the industry like I never left. So, it’s interesting because the position I was before I left didn’t really change. If I have nothing to offer, that would have transited me into hurried retirement. There are few people in stand-up comedy business who will take the risk I took to go to serve with the government and return to the industry and be relevant.

Break from the Nollywood?

My infrequent appearance in movies is a conscious decision. In the last one month, I’ve rejected three movie roles. Stand-up comedy is more rewarding but I still enjoy making movies. I have told myself that I just don’t want to make movies for the fun of it. I ran into some of my fans who said, “Oh, we miss you o. You’ve not been doing movies lately.” The thing is that I don’t just want to make movies so that there will be something out there for somebody to watch. Producers have got to change and so are directors too. This is 2014 and we cannot be making movies like we’re still in 1998. Nollywood is more than 20 years old now and it should reflect in the movies that are out there. So, if a producer who is not willing to change approaches me to be part of his movie, once I don’t have the guarantee that I’m doing anything that will elevate my career, I shouldn’t oblige such person. What is the pay you’re bringing if it won’t impact on my life the way I think it should in 2014? There are few producers doing quality movies and none of them will contact Okey Bakassi today and I will turn down because they have shown that they are change-elements.

For example, Obi Ominonyen, I did a production with him early last year and it got me a nomination for the best actor in an Igbo movie. That is the kind of job I want to do. I just shot another movie earlier this year. The producer shuttles between Germany and here. He brought in some people from Germany to come and work on the project. I want projects that will take the career beyond where it is, the kind of project that will show that Nollywood is departing from the past and embracing the future in movie making.

What is your assessment of the Actors’ Guild of Nigeria?

My assessment of the president of the guild, Ibinabo Fiberisima, so far has been good. She has done a wonderful job. She is a president who emerged in a time of crisis. She’s a woman but that’s not to take away the abilities of women to lead, but she came at a time nobody even gave her a chance to succeed. Now, just run a check from the time she became the president till now, the landmark achievements she has made. AGN can now say that we own a place – in a couple of months God-willing, a befitting national secretariat – in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

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She’s been able to do that. We have the Certificate of Occupancy of the land we were given in Abuja to build the screen actors’ secretariat. This is the first guild to do this in the country and she’s the first AGN president to make that a reality. You cannot belittle that because it’s landmark. Suddenly, we’re beginning to take health insurance seriously, people are becoming more aware that there are opportunities available to them to be more conscious of their health as entertainers. She came at a time when some thought that the guild will die. It has not died and there are people who had run away but are now aspiring to become the president of the same guild. If there was nothing to brag about the guild they wouldn’t identify with it. These are people who have sat to watch the guild go down but it has soared instead.

How about the crisis at AGN State chapters?

Do we have any state that is not in one crisis or the other in Nigeria? There are confusions in the North, there are some states in the South and there are several cases in the court where people are trying to impeach their governors. I’m sure some Southwest states people are still contesting election results, does that mean that President Goodluck Jonathan have completely failed? Does that mean that the entity called Nigeria have collapsed?

Leadership and governance are a work in progress. Tell me one person that you can bring to rule AGN today and the guild will be crisis free. Tell me one professional body in Nigeria today that is crisis-free. Is the Nigerian Labour Congress united? The answer is no. The Nigerian Bar Association has members who are not happy with how it’s being run and it’s the same thing with the Nigerian Medical Association.

There’s no professional body in Nigeria without internal crisis. We’re managing ours. What we should be looking at is the ratio of progress made on the crisis on ground, is it tilting towards progress? If the answer is yes, then we should be happy. I think the right direction to go is for people to come on board with invaluable contributions.

Do we have crises in some state chapters like Mr.Ibu said? Of course, we do. There have always been those crises. There was a time everywhere was in crisis? But the number of states where we have crises is shrinking which means that there’s progress. Are there elements dissatisfied with the progress made? Yes. Are they going to fight back? Yes. Are there people who thrive when there are crises? Yes.

How do you intend to help the Guild to grow?

The point is that we all cannot be the guild’s president. I’m a member of the board of directors of the guild. And by that singular position, I don’t know if the constitution would even allow me to aspire to that position. But already, as a member of the board of trustees, I’m already in a position to help the guild grow. I should explore all avenues to assist my guild. All other members should also take advantage of the opportunities that they have presently to make the guild work. It’s only when we have done that well that we can seek to add more responsibilities to that. If you’re not a good follower, why suddenly do you want to lead? I think leadership should start from followers.

Tell more about your Canada Comedy Show

If you’re doing a Canada show and you’re making the buzz in Nigeria, is it for Nigerians to come to Canada and attend the show? The buzz will be in Canada. Understandably, because it is show business, everyone likes to use the social media in a way that you’re seen to be doing so much. It’s a tactic that works for some people and I won’t knock it, and it works generally if your ambition is to hype. A lot of people don’t know that I run a laundry business in Ajao Estate, Lagos. But my attitude is that let me win my immediate environment first, if I can have as many clients as I desire here, when I begin to spread outlets to other areas, I’d take the buzz to them. If I’m operating at Ajao Estate and hyping in Lekki and they can’t find my presence in Lekki, am I expecting them to come all the way from there to come and wash clothes when they have several facilities like this close to them?

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I need to take the business to them and tell them where I am around them. If I want to make so much noise, I can be in all the media shouting because that is what people understand in show business – showmanship.

My attitude to this is quite different. We did the show in Canada and we did all the hype we could do in Canada for those who were in the country to attend the show. They came out for show and we had a swell time. We had done two events after the debut in Canada.

Why don’t you have your shows on CDs?

There are reasons I won’t put my works on the CDs. It’s the same reason for what some of my colleagues are doing now that some of them are stealing other people’s materials. In our business, when you put your materials on CDs out there, they become obsolete and you cannot use them anymore. When the music becomes popular for a musician, it’s good news but in my enterprise when your jokes become popular, that means you’re retiring soon.

Some of the guys who have their works on the CDs, when they’re performing at any show, as soon as they start one joke, people in the audience will complete it for them. And it’s not good business. So now, because they cannot sustain that business, they are stealing from other people. When they go for other people’s shows, they’d be busy recording their materials. You don’t know the number of guys who quarrel back stage because when they get there, immediately they do one joke, somebody somewhere is prepared to steal it. It doesn’t have to be that way. Somehow because of the quest to hype and make money, people are taking this decision without thinking it through. Yes, it makes you some money in the short run, in the long run it puts you out of business quickly. If you ask me to do a post mortem of the stand-up comedy business, I would tell you that a lot of people are struggling to get contents.

Tell me how many people are doing well with their CDs out there. The few ones that are doing well are dishing out skits, but they are saving their materials for their shows.

What will you say you missed in your formative years of acting

What I really missed is the brotherhood that used to exist in Nollywood. Going on set was like an extension of a family life for most of the weeks we had to spend together. Being on set was so much fun, but I found out that it’s not like that anymore. These days you go on set and you’re in a hurry to go back. These days you’d be on set seeing things that would provoke your sensibility. The way some of the productions are being run these days leaves little to be desired. I found out that sometimes, they are taking advantage of people and I don’t like that.

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It’s because people are vulnerable and so interested in celebrities overnight. It’s no longer about the passion for the art. Some people are beginning to mistake fame for wealth. They think when you give them a shot at being popular they’d be rich. Check the people who belong to our era, there’s some level of professionalism that we bring into it that’s beyond naira and kobo.

How do you handle female admirers as an actor, comedian or politician?

That doesn’t change as long as you are in the eyes of the public. It’s a fan-based business. Your success depends on the number of fans you can sustain. What changes is that, as a bachelor, you’re more spontaneous in your decision making process. When I was a bachelor, if you said to me that there would be a tour of Europe from city to city, I wouldn’t have to think about it, I would pack my bag and follow you. But now, as a family man, I have to cool down and assess: how long is this tour? At the end this tour, how would it have been rewarding enough for me and my family?

Back to your question, handling of women is not all that showbiz is about. Female and male fans are not so different in the eyes of somebody who wants to focus on his career.

Anytime you go for movie productions or comedy shows, there are two genders that are cheering, the male and the female.

A woman who admires you as a single artist once she sees that you’re married, she curtails how much affection she shows towards you because she doesn’t want to send the wrong signals. For instance, if D’Banj decides to marry today, his fans won’t disappear, but the way they want to haul themselves at him would be different. They would remember that this celebrity is now somebody’s husband and the same affects women in our industry.

Have you even had a crush on your female colleagues?

Maybe because celebrities meet every time, we are one another’s friend one way or the other, the crush is never there. In Nollywood for instance, there are actresses whose deliveries are impressive. You look forward to working with them because they’d bring out the best in you and it’s not beyond that. If you ask for my female preference, I actually admire people who are not in my line of business. You can find that strange, but the truth is that they appeal more to me. I feel that we in showbiz are sometimes over-hyped. In terms of good looks you’d find several more attractive women who are non-entertainers.

What will you do differently if given a second chance?

If I say I wouldn’t have done anything differently, it means I’ve not grown in the business that I do. What growth does is that it helps you uncover the errors you made in the past. During our era, there were no people we were modelling our career after. We were just trying to build an industry that didn’t exist.

Now, the younger ones are lucky because they’ve got people to learn from. They have our mistakes to correct. So, if I have a second chance, because precedents have been set, a lot would be easier to accomplish. We were not drawing contracts, there were no skills in the act of negotiation and there were no endorsement deals the way we have it now. There was no social media or GSM, so people who wanted you couldn’t reach you. No social media to ‘google’ and find you.

You can now imagine how much progress I would have made if all these were in place to cushion the challenges of that era.