For The Hijack, Ugbomah Returns With A Bang

ONLY recently, filmmaker and entertainment promoter, Chief Eddie Ugbomah hosted select industry members in his Ilogbo residence and treated them to a celebration of the New Yam. Present at the small gathering were such movie personalities like Zeb Ejiro, Dejumo Lewis, Joe Dudu, Dele Osawe and few others.First to be served were garden eggs and prawn egg with palm wine. Then came the roasted yam, palm oil and dry fish. Lots of wine flowed afterwards.Ugbomah took time to explain the cultural significance of the feast as he met his father doing it, saying, 'it's roasted yam only. Actually, we are supposed to sit where they are roasting the yam, which is eaten with palm oil and a specially prepared catfish brought from home. The drink for the day is palm wine and ogogoro (locally distilled gin).'I have been doing this since I was 19 and in honour of my father and when I became a chief, I have to do this with regulation. I have three chieftaincy titles in Aboh, Delta State; then I got one from Lagos here in 1966 and another one from Edo State. I usually do the libation before the event starts, that is why you see this chalk on my eyes.'Ugbomah, who will be 72 in December, has done a lot of working documenting the motion picture industry that has given him fame and fortune. But asked whether he would also make a movie on the yearly celebration of New Yam, he said, 'Not a movie, but a documentary. I'm shooting the history of motion picture in Nigerian and I have done 52 episodes. The only station that will buy it at a reasonable rate is AIT. Other stations have applied to buy it at N15,000 per episode; I don't want to mention names, but it's an insult. And the biggest disgrace is that every station in Nigerian today wants to be viewed on cable TV, which means they do not exist.'In any case, what I'm doing is too much; I'm doing a project worth more than N20 million on my own. Where is the money' I don't have tenants; I have sold all my landed property. I'm selling this house too because I want to shoot a serious film called, The Hijack. I'm not a small boy in entertainment; I'm like an oracle, an encyclopedia and an icon in the industry. All I'm saying is for the betterment of the industry. I'm challenging them so they can grow up. I praise the Igbo who used their money to finance the home video but there are some, too, who wanted to great rich overnight - they put in money on Monday and they want to get it back on Friday!'Ugbomah, who has repeatedly expressed his dissatisfaction with the way things are being run in the country, said he would probably shoot his new film, The Hijack either abroad or go abroad shortly after making the movie to live his life in retirement.
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