I used my NYSC savings to start Ikebe Super

Posted by admin Headlines Saturday, January 29th, 2011

Wale Adenuga is a household name in Nigeria. Ask any television viewer from the age of seven and above, they will tell you he is the creator of Papa Ajasco, the popular comedy TV show featured by television stations in the country and produced by Wale Adenuga Productions (WAP), among other equally interesting comedies. In this interview with Samuel Olatunji, he tells the story of his life like you never heard it before. Excerpts:

Why did it take you so long to produce another feature film?

Actually, when I wanted to produce Perfect Church I was not really prepared for it because it came like a divine message. The lady walked into my office and said God told her to bring her book to Wale Adenuga for film production and I had my doubts in the beginning, but she said I should go through it first.

So, I decided to read it and after two weeks I was touched, and I identified with the message in it and also decided that every human being must see and learn from it. That was why I decided to reproduce the book in the form of a film. Like I told the Press earlier, it was not for the money, but generally to win souls for Christ.

A lot of people are getting this idea of church thing wrongly because some people don’t know the difference between ‘Churchism’ and the idea of going to church and imbibing Christianity as a way of life. The film is basically telling people that there is always grace to repent at anytime, that the grace of God abounds at all times. If you look at the film, Perfect Church, you will see the name of the church is the place for perfect people, if you look around you today, people that go to church now always want to portray this holier-than-thou attitude, everybody leaves their real self at home and come to church to give another impression that shows they are better than Christ himself, but that is wrong. Let’s reveal our nakedness to God, let Him know we are sinners and He is there to transform us.

You are not known as a church person, are you?
Yes, I’m not, but what I’m saying is that ‘Churchism’ is different from Christianity. Christianity is a way of life, if you meet a Christian you don’t need to be told; it is not by going to church every Sunday that makes you a Christian. After studying s church goer, do you see that holiness in him or her? After interacting with some people you can’t but ask if they are Christians or not. Your character should be telling people that you are a Christian.

That is what we are saying, not your position or the number of times you go to church. As for me, I am a practical Christian – you don’t need to shout church all the time, but I believe in the Creator and I believe in the power of the mind. You don’t keep bad things in your mind because, for me, I believe when you do that and you sleep, your subconscious will still dwell on those things even when you are sleeping. It is always good for you as a person to keep your mind clean, remember we are not perfect as mortals, we are bound to make mistakes, but when we ask God for forgiveness He will forgive us.

Can you reproduce the status you have as the king of “soap” into feature films, as you will be in the cinema from the 29th of this month?
You see, whether you educate or entertain people in magazines, films or television you are giving out the same thing. The difference is in the medium you are using and the format. The idea is to pass a message and it could be done in so many ways.

The main thing is to get the message across to your audience. If you look at any production or service, you will talk about the four big “Ms” – Money, Man, Machine and Material. If you compare the production of television and cinema, the only difference is that the machine used for cinema will be heavier than that of television. You use the same money, same cast and crew, the material would also differ in some areas, but basically it’s still doing the same thing in a different way.

What makes a good movie?
What makes a good movie are the same requirements for a good television programme, they are both movies but a movie is bigger, the pictures move on television, they also move on big screen, so it is only in the size of the screen. Now, as in what makes a good movie, what makes a good film an authentic programme? One, a producer, is he really a producer? That question is very vital, this is one thing people don’t think about, you can’t say because you have enough money at your disposal you want to start a church, is there divine instruction to do it?

You see, it is not just money, the same thing I have been trying to tell people, before you can become a doctor, you need to go to a medical school, before you become a lawyer you need to go to law school. The job of a producer is a calling, we are like prophets, we are like pastors, you need to be called as a producer, it is a spiritual thing. In the art world, in any area of creativity in particular, theatre art in general, each artist, everybody has his own calling, you need to know, if your calling is in the area of acting, in which case you just restrict yourself to acting, you will excel in it, you will shine in it, you will make all the money you want in this world because it is your calling.

You need to find out if your calling is in the area of editing, because a film production has many departments, find out where your calling is, if your calling is in the area of acting, restrict yourself to acting, when you want to become a producer, you fail, because the producer is someone that has been called and anointed by the Almighty Creator to produce; the job of a producer is entirely spiritual. What does a producer do? He gets the right story, he gets the right director, he is not supposed to carry camera or write any story by himself, he is just a facilitator, he is an organiser, you get my point?

The job of a producer is to get the right story, the right men. He is to get the best material, the right material, whether it is comedy, romantic story, religious story, it is his duty to get the right story, the right material, the right equipment, the right men, cast and crew and the right money. So, getting the right story, that is when spirituality comes into play, it is God Himself that will tell you this is the right story and He will tell only the person that is anointed to do so.

That brings us to the idea of natural calling?
What is natural? A gift of nature; what is nature? God, because my own anointing is in story, if you pack hundred stories on my table and tell me you want a story that will captivate the people living in Ikoyi, if I go through the synopses of the stories, I will pick the best story, I will not miss it, but if you ask an actor, who is not a producer, who parades himself as a producer, to pick the right story from a stack of hundred stories, he won’t know the one to pick because he hasn’t got the anointing for stories, and once you pick the wrong story for production, failure at the beginning sets you out for total failure.

When you see a lot of stories on television or any film, the so-called producer may have money and material, even the men we are talking about, but it requires the intervention of God for you to do the right casting. The story you watched yesterday, for instance, it was a beautiful story, everybody said it, it would have been marred by wrong casting, maybe instead of using Ramsey Noah, you now used Segun Arinze; doing the right casting, knowing the right person for the right role, is a divine thing, it is a spiritual thing.

If you look at Super Story, what makes Super Story so popular, we all know that this television thing is a make-believe, but then for you to succeed at that make-believe, you have to make it credible and you can only make it credible by getting the right persons to assume the right role, look at yesterday’s, for instance, Olu Jacobs now speaking as the bishop, he looks like a real bishop, a foreigner coming to this country will not believe he is not a bishop, a foreigner coming to this country will not know that our pastor is not a real pastor, that is correct casting, which comes only from God.

If your own calling is editing and you are asked to produce a film or a book, you cannot achieve that, you will do the best editing and the best graphics, beautiful effect and everything, but everything will go wrong with the casting, because you don’t have the anointing to identify the best person.

When I get a story, my spirit will just tell me this is the best person for this one and I will go looking for the person, even if the person is my enemy, I will beg him because I know that without him in it, without her there, the thing cannot work, because I know that is the element of good movie. So, it’s spiritual. You have to be called as a producer, if not, you will produce a beautiful nonsense.

I have seen some drama programmes on television, both foreign and local on television, and I know what went wrong, I know that this or that person has not been called as a producer, they have money to produce, you will see beautiful things: beautiful sets, beautiful cameras and other things, but watch it for five minutes, you are already sleeping because you don’t know the story. You can only identify a good story by His grace, and that is the truth. So, now you know who a producer should be – he is the spiritual head of production.

So, the producer is the key to production?
He is even more than the key, he is the production because, as I said earlier, a producer says this is the right story, the right crew, there are many directors, who specialise in various types of drama, so if a producer wants to produce comedy, he should be able to know which director is best suited for the comedy; not all directors are suited for comedy, some are so serious-minded that they cannot direct comedy – the comedy will be too strong. So, it is the duty of the producer, with the help of God, to be able to identify the right director for the story he has on his table.

Tell us about your first feature film?
My first feature film was in 1983/84, it came out in 1984, it was called Papa Ajasco comedy film, it was a box office hit then, the main bowl of the theatre was open to producers to showcase their films, it contained over 5,000 people, and the hall was filled to the brim. The film went out of the country, celluloid film, not all these ones we are doing these days, it went out of Nigeria – to Ghana, West Africa – it was very popular.

Who played Papa Ajasco?
Peter Fatomilola played Papa Ajasco. Aluwe played Pa Jimoh; then we had not put together the television cast. So, it was basically the magazine thing then. We just picked people that looked like the characters and it was beautiful. So, in 1984, that was my first feature film, since then, because we have to embrace specialisation, I have kept to television, I don’t want to de-focus myself.

What brought about specialisation?
That is because the more you specialise in something, the more you will become better in it. And then the cinema culture, it had always been there, but the facilities, the cinema halls are not there, but now that Ben Bruce has revived the cinema culture and made film halls available for films, I’m now encouraged to come out with one film a year, but my film must contain two or three powerful messages.

I can’t do a film just for film’s sake, I can’t do a film for fun, I can’t just do a romance film or an action film just for fun, when you watch the film, you go out with a message, because as a producer, you have the power to make the world better and that power I have decided to use more and more. You have the power to change the world through your works. And if you look at the current Papa Ajasco, we are doing a satire of politics and it’s a food for thought for everybody. I don’t have to go and campaign, but through my works things can change for better.

How did this whole journey start?
I was born and brought up like any other kid, but at the age of six, seven, eight, I discovered that I had immense talent in about three areas – drawing, acting and music. Without studying arts in school, I was drawing better than anybody. At the age of nine, 10, 11, each time Ogunde, Ogungbe and Ogunmola came to Ife area to perform, I would go there and watch them, and then go home and make a magazine of what I saw. And I will distribute magazines to people that “see Ogunde”.

So, at that age, I started publishing in a way, and so in the secondary school, I was very good at those things; I even formed a school band when I was in Form Four, that was at City Academy, I formed a school band, I was the best actor in the school and I was also drawing wonderfully, the journey continued to Kings College, Lagos, where I went for my HSC in 1968 and 1969.

While there, I also formed a school band; most of my band boys are big men today, former Finance Minister was in my group, Samusdeen Usman, we used to play together, Atedo Peter also, they were all my juniors, Kayode Sofola, Chairman of UBA, was my classmate, many more like that. I am sure Sanusi was very much our junior at Kings College. So, I was good at those three things then. When I entered the University of Lagos, there was no opportunity for me to play music, there was no school band, there was no opportunity to act, because there was no opportunity for acting, the only opportunity was for drawing,

What did you study?
Business Administration, 1971 to 1974. So, I grabbed the drawing opportunity and became the most popular cartoonist. During the four years, we were churning out campus magazines, The Vipers, we were doing caricatures of students.

Who owned The Vipers?
We had clubs, campus clubs, so the magazines are products and organs of the clubs. If I draw you, I don’t need to put your name, people will know that you are the one, so my interest in drawing was fired at the University of Lagos.

Were you making money?
We were making money because when I took over publishing of the campus magazine, the circulation figure rose from about 10.000 copies to 100,000; we were selling at Akoka and LUTH at Idi-Araba, we were all over the campuses making money. When I left the University of Lagos, I now decided to start an extension of that kind of magazine, a cartoon magazine to entertain the general public. That was how I introduced Ikebe Super in December 1976; from 5,000, 10,000 copies it started rising every day to 500,000 copies.

Then I also introduced Super Story magazine that even became bigger, I introduced Binta magazine for children, so in 1997, it was the Ikebe Super stories that I now converted to television series to form Papa Ajasco & Company, and in 2000, it was the same stories in Super Story magazine that I used for the television programme: all the Suara stuff, they are from the magazine, from print to electronics and that is what I have been doing since then.

What about Binta?
We started Binta on television; we started it until we decided to rest it when we were not getting enough adverts to sustain it, because the agencies then were not patronising children programmes; they believed they had to target their mothers in family soaps rather than children who don’t have money; that was their thinking then. So, we had to rest it, but now we have revived it under another banner – Nnenna and Friends – that is what we are now using for the children; that is what we are using to educate children in Nigeria.

In the beginning, as an entrepreneur, how easy or how tough was it?
It was relatively easy, I finished my youth service in 1975 and I saved some money during the service, I also got some money from my mother then, I added to the money I saved from youth service to start the magazine, and I was also able to enjoy thrift credit, by that I mean the printer allowed me to print on credit – sell the magazine before I pay for printing.

But a lot of people said you were born with a silver spoon?
Yes, silver spoon, that is true, that was why I was able to borrow money from my mother. My father was the Nigerian Tobacco company distributor for the whole of Ife area. He was a big man in his time, he was one of the biggest men in that area, and so I had no problem with my school fees. I grew up without any stress. Maybe to that extent, they discovered a silver spoon in my mouth.

But as an entrepreneur, did that make life easier?
Yes, we had it good, he was a Mobil distributor, Nigeria Biscuit Company distributor; he was a big man.

For you as an entrepreneur, did that give you an easy start?
Yes, number one, before I went for B.Sc., Business Administration, I had already learnt business from my father, because I was born into his business, I was working with him. You know, formal education is different from reality.

The business skills I acquired while working with my dad were, to me, more important than what I learnt in the university. Like Fela said, if you learn driving in America, when you come to Nigeria, you still have to learn driving. You know, because their traffic is different from ours, the same thing with business.

-Sunwp_posts

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Posted by admin on Jan 29 2011. Filed under Headlines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry