Mr President...This is no laughing matterBy Olayiwola Adeniji
Published: February 12, 2005
Print I had picked this film sometime in October last year but never got round to going beyond the first half hour of what is a two hour movie. I felt it was heavy on propaganda which made the film cheap, unexciting and predictable. I am no great fan of art in the service of the state especially when it is used for unnecessary image laundering. Aare Apasewa (Mr. President) by Latin Films Production in collaboration with Corporate Pictures may not be like some of the things we witnessed during the better forgotten Abacha years but there was just something about it that gave one the feeling that this was some money wasted.
Again, it was wrongly labeled a comedy simply because it features the likes of Mr. Latin, Baba Suwe and Adebayo Salami. The little I watched at the time did not give cause for laughter except we are talking of wry humour.
But, then, events in the last few weeks have actually shown that there may be more to this movie than my initial impression. Thanks to the kind of politics we play in this country where it is not always a case of art imitating life but life imitating art. What has politics become in this country if not a circus show? Now the talk is that of National Dialogue as opposed to a National Conference and even some of those we consider very discerning are falling over themselves to be a part of a charade. Mr. Latin may then be right that our politics is nothing but a comedy. The humour may be of the wry type but, then, as the legendary Fela Anikulapo Kuti would say, once a situation goes beyond the shedding of tears, it is better to laugh it off. It is on this score that I understand and appreciate the subtext of Mr. President.
It is election time and a powerful clique within the ruling party (SSP) led by Chief Matanmi (Jide Kosoko) and Adebayo Salami, is concerned about getting a credible candidate that would not only serve the people well but also do their bidding. No one is asking the question whether the bidding of this powerful group is in tandem with that of the country but the search continues. Eventually they settle for Mr. Enitan Ariwajoye, (Bolaji Amusan) a retired school headmaster and community leader that is well respected by the people for always being at the head of community service. The power brokers are sure that not only will he be a political asset; he is most likely going to do their bidding. After all, they are the ones who are footing the bill.
Because of the forces behind him, he wins the election and is sworn in as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. But in a predictable manner, it does not take long before a major conflict ensues between the President and his godfathers. First, the group would want to choose his cabinet for him. He would have none of that and though he makes some concessions, he ensures that the cabinet to a large extent reflects what he feels is good for the community. The President soon discovers that the clique is ruled by values that are at variance with the growth and development of the country. But they are not the only ones he has to do battle with. There are also members of his cabinet and the legislature who believe that corruption has now become a way of life in the country. The cabinet decide to buy a dozen jeeps at the cost of N10 million each to celebrate the President’s birthday while the National Assembly will not pass the budget unless they are ‘settled’. Then of course, the President’s relations who see this as an opportunity to have their own fair share of the National Cake.
Like the man in Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, he finds himself all alone in the struggle. It is a titanic battle for the soul of the country that the actors call Naija but that the subtitle unmistakably calls Nigeria! They get the Senate President (Razak Oyadiran) who is also a lackey of the group to institute an impeachment process against the President. The stage is set and the President looks doomed. How can he survive the onslaught of the rapacious legislators whom he had earlier denied ‘settlement’? There is a tie in the voting and the last vote will be cast by the Senate President. Will the President survive? In a rather curious twist, the Senate President does the impossible by voting in support of the President.
The President wins but is the battle over? This is the question that the viewer is thinking about when it soon dawns on all that our so-called Mr. President is nothing but a dreamer. President Ariwajoye in real life is nothing but a blacksmith. And all that happened did in his world of fantasy. But then, this provides for him an opportunity to pass a message to those concerned. And that is that though what was played out in the past two hours could have been a dream but they are a reflection of what is happening in real life. The President who may mean well is so driven by a messianic concept that gets him out of tune to reality. If he has not succeeded, it is not because the people are so stiff-necked but that he also has the tragic flaw of a hero who feels that he knows it all and therefore beyond reproach.
The tragedy of Mr. President is not that the people are irredeemable but the fact that they have inflicted on themselves a messiah who is shoulder above all other mortals. Unfortunately, even when he means well, he hardly sounds convincing. Otherwise, how many people has he brought to book? He talks of some of his ministers who have stolen money to build estates in their communities in the midst of poverty yet he does nothing about it. His relations come to feed fat on tax payers’ money but all he does is to kick them out after they have had their fill. He understands that the people are hungry and have the idea that democratic dividend is nothing but an unnecessary sloganeering used to deceive the people.
It is difficult to blame Adebayo (Ebun Oloyede) who sees nothing good about a country with such great potentials while the people wallow in abject poverty. He is a graduate of many years without job and all his father (Kayode Odumosu) keeps telling him is to be patriotic, forgetting that a nation must give her citizens a sense of belonging for them to also think of making sacrifices when necessary. It is easier for a JF Kennedy to admonish Americans to think more of what they can do for America than what America can do for them because he knew the much that the country had done (and is still doing) for her citizens. Definitely the same cannot be said of Naija (Nigeria?) and her citizens. And that is why this country is not a laughing matter no matter how hard the Ali Babas, Baba Suwes and the Basket Mouths try. It’s tough being a Nigerian and that is the impression one gets watching Mr. President. But just as Baba Alagbede wonders, who is going to tell Mr. President? Hmmm the answer is just flowing in the air.
Mr. President in its own way attempts to make some social comments that are however swallowed up by the unpretentious attempt to curry the favour of the powers-that-be. As politicians, Governors Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State and Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Lagos State would not mind the bit about them in the movie but in their most sober moments, they will realize that this is not what they really want as leaders who wish to leave their marks on the sands of time. Sycophants have only helped to destroy leaders who are told just what they want to hear. The only sad part of it all is that they carry the society along in their destruction.
At the level of craft, there is nothing extraordinary about the movie. It is just another one on the shelf that seeks to thrive on the popularity of the artistes. When compared to a movie like Mainframe’s Saworoide or Agogo Eewo that address similar concerns, this lacks any depth both at the level of aesthetics or culture-rootedness. But, then, it is good that our movie makers are showing greater concerns to social and political issues. May be as the people who rule over us indulge themselves in their usual pastimes, they may pick one or two lessons from these efforts. And this includes, Mr. President!!!
Email: laideniji@yahoo.com