Government has slowed down entertainment’s development –Wole Oni

Oni

Wole Oni is a music heavyweight. He’s the producer of the evergreen songs, Kosobabire by Folake Umosen, Olo Mi by Tosin Martins, Ijoba Orun by Lara George and probably the greatest gospel song in recent times, Igwe by Midnight Crew.

He’s also a jazz pianist and is sought after for concert performances. Oseyiza Oogbodo Blog ran into him at an event recently and they had a tete-a-tete in which he disclosed that the current Nigeria government is not really aiding the entertainment industry’s growth and has even slowed it down.

Asked to give his honest view of the music industry, “Erm, well, I think right about before now, we can see the success of the development. But about a year and thereabouts now, because of the economic state, it’s been slacking, it’s not really been as fluent as it should be, all thanks to our government anyway. But however, artists and entertainers on their own part are trying to push us on the international perspective which I think they are cutting edges and they’re breaking through.

“Why do I say that, because of course I’m also one of those who can say that music from Africa has gained more recognition in terms of what it used to be. People used to have an industry craze about what we have here in Africa as to oh, Nigerians are not … but entertainment in itself is reshaping the minds of the international world about who we are as Nigerians and to see our creativity. So I’ll think that in that direction, we’ve done very well for ourselves.

“Yes, we’re hoping to do more when the fundings are there. Any industry will be great when the funding is there. I’ve seen the film, Black Panther, shot with two hundred million dollars. Come on. If we have such money in Nigeria to shoot a movie, I’m sure everybody will die. They’ll say, die put. So, but by and large, we’re trying to, you know, prepare ourselves gradually into what the real industry’s supposed to be whereby people have their own intellectual property protected and you have your hard labour being paid for and being appreciated, not just that oh, you’ve to be in every movie or every music to survive which is almost like working from hand to mouth.

“People should be able to do one project that is big and be able to, at least go for one year vacation to refresh. But I think in a nutshell that the Nigerian entertainment industry is gaining weight every day but I just pray that the country will be balanced such that everything will be as they should be.”