Written by Ibrahim Musa Giginyu Sunday, 18 March 2012 05:00
Musa Abdullahi Sufi seems to be a force to reckon with in the entertainment industry not only in Nigeria but globally. He is a writer, an artiste and a development worker whose quest for equity has taken him across Africa and Europe. In this interview, Sufi talked on how he combined acting and development work and lots more.
Can you tell us your brief biography?
My name is Musa Abdullahi Sufi, I had my primary school education at Kawaji Jigirya Special Primary School, I attended Kawaji Secondary School for my post primary school education. I then went to College of Arts, Science and Remedial Studies (CAS) Kano, from there I went to Bayero University Kano where I had my two different degrees.
After that, my childhood passion appealed to me and I found myself neck deep in development work. However, this did not deter me from pursuing other important aspects in my life, which is writing and movie making.
How did you manage to combine these different things at a time?
It all depends in the way you see things. As a development worker, I am always with the people at the grassroots and as a writer, I explore the ills and vices among the people for those at the helm of affairs to read and act upon; as an actor I reflect what I have gathered as a development worker coupled with what I have put into writing to make a movie which will tell the story as a whole. So you can see the whole issue is that of coordination, and I am glad I am able to cope up with the three effectively so far.
Similarly, as a writer, I wrote so many poems about maternal mortality and what individuals and the communities should do to avert such avoidable deaths.
How many books do you have to your credits?
Unfortunately I have written about three books but all were distressed by a computer. Moreover, most of my works have been featured in magazines, Journals and newspapers both national and international. Some of my works have also featured in some anthologies within and outside Nigeria. Though I have been drawn back by what happened, most of my works are in my blogs so I am able to gather them. And presently I am working on three books one of which is a collection of my poems which I call ‘My Kano and other Poems’ and the others include a collection of short stories and the other is a prose on babies and parents.
As a development worker do you own an NGO of your own?
Actually no, I don’t have any of my own but I have been working with different NGOs home and abroad such as working with the British Council and recently, I have just finished working on maternal child health care. It has been a tremendous achievement in working at that angle via creating awareness on behavioural change among our communities. I am also working with some local NGOs in Kano.
Do you have any movie to your credit?
I have been involved with the movie industry for long and I have appeared in many movies most especially those produced by Ummi Production such as Gumurzu, Amir among others and the recent one is Noor, which was released not quite long ago. I have played different roles in many movies and I have been involved with different aspects of movie production that range from script writing, story writing and directing. And again, I have been involved in many documentaries which include the most talked about documentary called ‘Kainji Dam: The Untold Story’, a documentary on the way the people that sacrificed their heritage for the construction of the dam are suffering today. Though it is a personal effort, I am proud that via one of my works, the National House of Assembly’s attention was drawn to a very sensitive issue like the neglect suffered by the people of Kainji. However, I am working on a particular movie that will feature the history of this people because they have a wonderful history worth telling. I forget to tell you that I got to know about these people when I was posted to Niger State for my NYSC. My good relationship with the community members in that area made them take me as part of them and I believe the cordial relationship we enjoyed is what I am trying to pay back to the community of Kainji.
So, being involved in development work and entertainment what can you say are the challenges affecting both sectors?
There is this problem of superiority complex among authors. You will find out that when one is trying to make something another is busy condemning his efforts and this honestly crippled the sector as many will give up after their first attempts. And also the issue of funding; be it at the local or international level it is also faulty. However, there is actually zero concern on government’s part with regards to funding the writers or movie makers in the state. Though recently I heard that the Kano State government is going to do something on the issue of funding the movie industry which we hope writers will also benefit from.
Another problem is that writers do not want to read or rather make researches on other people’s work, and it is clear that you can’t be a good writer without reading others work to improve upon yours.
Experts are criticising the movie industry for lack of symmetry between the theme of a movie and the characters in the movie; is that criticism justifiable?
I think every movie being produced has a massage to disseminate, but sometimes the technical aspect is where the problem usually lies. And I want to make it clear here that there is actually a difference between dramas and movies, people mistake movie for a drama. This distinction is what brought the issue of lack of synergy between the most vital aspects of movie making.
And like I have said earlier, unlike our counterparts elsewhere, we lack support from our traditional leaders, religious leaders and the government itself. Therefore, those operating within the industry are left to fend for themselves without fatherly and religious advices; this really affects the quality and acceptability of our movies by our people. But with the way things are moving now, I have confidence that things will surely change for the better. In fact things have already started changing, because the international community has recognised the industry. It is a tremendous achievement to the industry when a person from the international community not only appreciates our work but also decides to join us, just like Hadiza from Gabon did and she is doing very well.
What is your advice to your colleagues in the industry?
Let us understand that apart from earning a living through what we do, we do have some responsibilities that we ought to have been discharging and that is promoting our culture and protecting the good virtues of where we come from. These are lacking among us, therefore we should bear in mind that we have a lineage to protect.
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