I Am Good, I Know It - Chico Ejiro
By Sylvester Asoya and Bayo Adetu
Published: February 5, 2006
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He is a distinguished alumnus of Ajegunle, the famous Lagos slum that has produced some of the biggest names in Nigerian music and football. He is Chico Ejiro, a top movie director and one of the movers of Nollywood. In this interview with Sylvester Asoya and Bayo Adetu, he talks about his biggest fear and the movie industry.

Q:What is the origin of Mr. Prolific?
A: I did not give myself that name. It was given to me by the Nigerian press because of the quality and quantity of films I produced within a very short time. That was how the name came about. It is not that I just woke up one day and gave it to myself.

Q: How good do you think you are?
A: Well I am good and I know I am good. If you don’t say I am good, I know I am good because I have won awards in New York and Geneva in Switzerland. I have won the Nigerian Director of The Year Award; THEMA and REEL Awards as well as in Durban, South Africa. If I have won six awards in about four different continents and countries, I think I am good.

Q: Are you better than your elder brother, Zeb Ejiro?
A: No. I don’t think we should say one person is better. I learnt from him and he is like a master to me.

Q: What is your biggest challenge in production?
A: The challenges are numerous. Raising funds to make some of these movies is very challenging. Professionalism too. We (producers) don’t have many professionals in the business. We also have challenges in marketing these movies. I will say we have a lot of challenges that we face everyday in our profession.

Q: What is the biggest challenge in Nollywood right now?
A: Marketing and piracy. We don’t have structures to market these movies and there is no structure to curb piracy. So it’s like a jungle. We are in a jungle and when you are in a jungle, the strongest of the animals will survive. But we have different associations and guilds. We are coming together to see what we can do and we thank the Federal Government which has tried to sanitise the industry.

Q: Are there no rules in the industry?
A: Somehow, some of the rules will stand while, others won’t stand.

Q: Has Nollywood come of age?
A: Yes. I will say we have come of age because somebody like me started from NTA and I know what I was paid then. I was paid N100 per episode of Ripples then. But right now, we have actors being paid N1million, N2million, compared to the days of NTA. I will say we have come of age. Gone are the days when people cannot live by acting.

Q: How much is Chico Ejiro worth?
A: Right now, I won’t say this is what Iam worth, but I give thanks to God for being comfortable.

Q: How will you compare the quality of films, when you started, to what we have now?
A: We have improved over the years and you will agree with me that 10 years ago when you watched Nigerian movies, you would say ‘what is this?’ But now it is okay. I do not mean that all the films are okay. Even in the World Cup or in a Brazilian team, all the 11 players are not fantastic. So we still have some producers who are trying and some who are fantastic.

Q: What do you make of actresses compromising themselves to get roles?
A: It’s like that in all professions. I don’t know about the movie industry, but I know that in every aspect of life, even in banking, there are times you have somebody who’s fresh from the NYSC and walks into a bank with a fat account and becomes a manager. Even in the Nigerian Police and politics. And our own industry, which is entertainment-based, is also part of it. So, if an actress believes she has one power she can use to attain a particular height, fine. But I don’t think so because I have a lot of actresses like Genevieve, Liz Benson, Omotola, Rita Dominic and Carol Ekanem. They’re wonderful actresses who did not use such means to get to where they are.

Q: Who among them is your biggest product?
A: I have many. Over the years, I have produced many artistes under my belt. The likes of Rita Dominic, Jim Iyke, Emeka Ike and Segun Arinze have passed through me.

Q: What is the full meaning of Chico?
A: Chico is a Spanish name. I was born in the Equitorial Guinea. It is a Spanish name-Chicowapor in full. It means the boy is nice and cool. That’s Chicowapor in Spanish.

Q: How did you start?
A: I grew up in Ajegunle. When I was in school, I worked with my brother, Zeb Ejiro on Ripples during holidays. From there, I started as a production manager, a coordinator, a camera man to an editor and a director. Over the years, I’ve worked with a lot of people and garnered so much experience. I’ve worked with Fred Amata, Tunji Bamishigbin, Charles Owoyemi, Tade Ogidan, and many others.

Q: What has been your happiest moment on the job?
A: I will say the first time I started directing Ripples. Barbara Soky was on it. Initially, I was scared, but after the show it was great. I worked with her and Alex Usifo.

Q: What’s your greatest fear in life?
A: I have a lot. One is flight. I hate flying so much. Each time I want to fly, I fast for about one week. If I’m travelling to London, Frankfurt, and so on, I will lose 5kg before departure out of fear.
Another one is failure. I don’t want to fail in whatever I do. This motivates me to work more, even when I’m tired.

Q: What do you make of the recently lifted ban on some actors?
A: I don’t think they deserved to be banned. Not all of them; maybe some of them because of their attitude to work. But I don’t think it is right to ban people. But you’ll pay some of them a million and they won’t come to work. When I was talking about the need to sanitise the industry, this is one of the measures marketers and producers want to use to sanitise the business. Once you’re paid for a job, you should come for it and keep to call time. You’ll pay them and they won’t come or they come late and say they’re mega stars. They’ve lifted the ban on some of them and I think they’ve resolved it.

Q: Was there anytime you paid an actor and he refused to come for work?
A: Yes. A lot.

Q: Who was involved?
A: No, I don’t want to mention names. But most of them do it. You will pay them one million and instead of them coming to work by 8a.m. or 9a.m., they will come by 2p.m. and tell you they’re big stars.

Q: Is this profession not filled by unqualified directors and producers?
A: Yes. I agree with you. There is a need for us to review membership in the industry. But the problem in Nigeria is that it’s a jungle. You’ll see one girl selling pepper soup and saying she’s an actress or a spare parts seller claiming to be a director because he has one brother or sister. These are the problems we have in the industry. A lot of people are now losing interest in the job because it’s now discouraging.

Q: Do you agree that the Yoruba movies are better than the Igbo/English flicks where you belong?
A: I won’t agree with that, but what I will say is that the Yoruba people have what they call respect and punctuality. I’ve worked with Saheed Balogun, Bukky Wright and co. If you tell them we are working at 10a.m., you’ll see them at exactly that time. But when you tell the English people you’re working by 10, you will start seeing them by 12 or so.

Q: Which one do you think is better in terms of picture quality and plots?
A: English films are better, of course! Yoruba movies have one pattern. You must be a juju man in a movie, and one Babalawo (native doctor) must be there. You can’t compare us with them. The Yorubas are telling their own story, Osuofia is telling the Igbo story, while Samanja is telling the Hausa story. They are fantastic. When a Yoruba man watches Babasuwe and an Igbo man watches Osuofia, it’s sweet.

Q: What are the features of a good director?
A: I don’t know. All I know is that your work should speak for you. If you have a good work, people will know you are a very good director.

Q: Are you fulfilled?
A: I’m not because where we have Nollywood today is not the dream of most of us. When we started Nollywood 15 or 20 years ago, we thought by now we should have been closer to Hollywood. But we are still far off.
When we made movies like Sakobi, Silent Night and the rest, we thought by now we’ll be there, but we are still far behind.

Q: Is it because most producers don’t take much time to shoot these movies?
A: No, it’s the structure. If you’re a producer, you should produce. If you’re a director you should direct; there should be structures. If you go to the website now just click Paramount Pictures, Titanic and it will give you all the data on Titanic. The money they made, what happened on set and the rest. But if you go into a Nigerian site and click Igodo or Silent Night, there’s no data. If you’re an investor and you want to know about Nigerian movies, there’s nothing to learn from.

Courtesy TheNews

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