Nigerian Filmmaker, Rita Onwurah Decries Treatment Of Nigerian Movie Marketers In Ghana

Rita Onwurah, a Nigerian filmmaker, on Friday decried the treatment of Nigerian movie marketers in Ghana, as she claimed that the Ghanaian marketers refuse to pay after selling movies.

Onwurah said this while reacting to Ghanaian singers, Shatta Wale and Stonebwoy, who had criticized Nigerians for not reciprocating the love shown to them by Ghana.

Narrating an ordeal, Onwurah wrote, “Couldn’t even sell your DVDs in Ghana directly as a Nigerian marketer/ distributor. You’d have to get a Ghanaian marketer, redesign and reprint new DVD jackets with the marketer’s company named as a distributor, to sell. And those ones will sell your films & owe you for months.

“That’s why this whole ‘kwolu anyi n’azu’ (carry us on the back) their music artistes are doing, is as ridiculous as it is annoying. If the tables were turned, they would’ve accused Nigerian artists of wanting to colonise their industry and kicked them out.”

Responding to Stonebwoy’s assertion against Nigerians earlier, the filmmaker had said, “I’m wondering if you guys would do same if it were the other way round. Because I’m willing to place a bet and say ‘no’.”

She added, “Funny seeing their musicians all entitled and demanding. When I can still remember what their movie producers/ marketers did to their Nollywood counterparts.

“They’re mad. Why do you think our actors/ actresses hardly feature in their movies? Those guys are pretty rich with their entitlement when it’s very clear that they’ll do worse if the tables were turned.”