Nigeria News
I’m Not All About Beauty
Not many are aware that pretty Nollywood actress Nuella Njubigbo is also a scriptwriter. The fast rising actress is debuting as a producer with her own film titled Jujuwood. In this interview with FUNSHO AROGUNDADE, Nuella speaks about the movie, her relationship and other issues
Nuella Njubigbo
We learnt you are about to make your debut as a movie producer…
Yes. I am going into movie production. I have shot my debut movie titled Jujuwood. It features Funke Akindele, Halima Abubakar, Ruth Kadir, myself and a lot of other people. It will be released very soon.
That title is strange.
That’s true. But Jujuwood simply tells the stories of how far some people can go in the industry just to get what they want.
Is the script about your personal experience?
Not really. I have not had any personal experience of such. But we hear a lot of gossips about what goes on in our industry. To be honest, I don’t know how true they are. People tell stories of their experiences but there is no way I can ascertain if they are true. But first of all, I am a scriptwriter. And you know how the mind of a writer works. I just had this thing in my head. That is what inspired the story. I would say the story is embellished with some fiction to give the script a life.
Why settled for a movie with a Juju theme instead of treating a contemporary story?
As a moviemaker, you can deal with every kind of issue. Others have talked about politics, love, betrayal and various things that are happening in Nigeria. Juju is just one of those things that is also very fundamental. But what I intend to achieve at the end of the day, is to make people understand the advantages of knowing God. We want to tell people to believe in themselves rather than being diabolical.
You recently shaved off your lush hair.
Yes, that was a long time ago. It wasn’t easy but I had to do it for a role in a movie.
You must have been paid handsomely to do that?
I won’t tell you how much I was paid because if I should disclose it, people would say they don’t pay us that kind of money.
What is the title of the movie and is it out yet?
The movie is called Tears of A Widow. It was very challenging. I had to speak bad English as an illiterate widow.
Tell us how your interest in acting began?
My foray into Nollywood dates back to 2007. As a student then, I loved to watch a lot of movies and I remember using part of my pocket money to buy movies. I’ve always loved movies. One day, I was watching a movie in 2007 and I got so interested in the movie. At a point I told myself that I could actually do this. I called a family friend of mine, Mike Odife, who was into movie directing. I told him of my interest in acting and he introduced me to a producer who was having an audition in Owerri. I was in school then. I got my form and I did one or two auditions. I later called him again to let him know that I could write as well. So he asked me to write a story for him which I did and he liked it. So, I actually started writing first before even acting. And I have written many screenplays thereafter.
Like how many movies you have written so far?
I have screen played about 15 movies including films like Lord of Marriage, Next of Kin and Royal Palace.
How much do you charge per movie?
I can’t tell you that except we have business to do.
Tell us, if there is any of your experience on sex-for-role in Nollywood?
For me, I would always say that this issue is a matter of personal decision. Because if someone comes to me and tells me he would give me role but I have to release my body before he could release the script to me, I would dare such person. It is not by force to act. If you really believe in yourself, I don’t think you have to play that game.
What are your views about critics who insinuate that you only rely on your beauty and possess no acting skill?
I don’t know about that. I write scripts and act as well. I don’t know about being a pretty face. I am not all about beauty. People can only look at beauty for a few months. When they get tired of seeing your pretty face, they will let you go if you can’t act. So it’s not about beauty.
How have you been dealing with negative press?
I have been coping. Whenever the press controversies come up, I don’t exactly feel happy about it especially when you know that they are not really true.
Many have been so concerned about the kind of opulence you actresses display. Recently you bought an SUV that you claimed cost you over N8million. Are you saying all these came from your earning from movies?
I can only speak for myself. I have other businesses that I do by the side. But even if it’s just acting, what I earn can actually get me such car and even live well. Those saying all that, I am not sure they have gone to the market to see the number of movies I have done in the last one year. I have done a lot. In January alone I shot five movies. Even if I am paid just N150,000, multiply it by the amount of movies I have done. Now, multiply that with what I will do in an entire year, of course I can conveniently buy this car. It is funny the way people look at us in this industry and think we are poor people. I heard that as at the time Tonto Dike bought her Hummer Jeep, she was charging N400,000 upward. In a month, Tonto can shoot six movies. So multiply that N400,000 by six in a month. Even if she doesn’t have the whole money for the car of her choice, she can deposit half of the money with a dealer and they will give her the car because she is a star. So, people need to understand all this whenever they want to criticize us.
Tell us about your love life?
I am in a relationship. That is all I can tell you.
You have been romantically linked with some notable celebrities, including a footballer and a governor. How true are all these?
Honestly, initially it wasn’t funny at all. At a point it got annoying and it got funny again reading all these stories. It was laughable when I read all these because I have never met the said governor before. I have not even seen him from a distance. I only see him on TV and newspapers. People will always talk but the truth is I don’t know that man. I don’t know who he is.
What about the footballer?
Please, I would not want to speak further on that part of my private life. Isn’t it funny that within a space of eight months, a certain person will write that I was dating three people? I mean how do you want to share them?
What lessons have that scandal thought you?
It has made me realise how much I am loved by my fans. And it has taught me to expect anything. You can’t please everybody, no matter how much you try.
What will you say have been the pains and gains of being a star?
The pain, of course, is losing my privacy. There is also the problem of people misunderstanding you. As a movie star, you say one little thing and people add some other things to it, especially the media. There are instances when you intend to make somebody laugh and he or she ends up being angry. People want to judge you. They want to come into your heart and take what is there. They don’t want to believe what you say. Those are the pains. But the gains too have been so good. I thank God for where I am today as I’m a better person.
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Posted in Nigeria News. A DisNaija.Com network.
Source: PM News
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The Kano State Government on Saturday said it has transferred 1,098 ‘almajiris’ to different states of the country.
The commissioner for local government, Murtala Garo, disclosed this while presenting a report before the state’s task force on COVID-19 at the government house, Kano.
Almajiris are children who are supposed to be learning Islamic studies while living with their Islamic teachers. Majority of them, however, end up begging on the streets of Northern Nigeria. They constitute a large number of Nigeria’s over 10 million out-of-school children.
Mr Garo said the Kano government transported 419 almajiris to Katsina, 524 to Jigawa and 155 to Kaduna. He said all of them tested negative for coronavirus before leaving the Kano State.
Despite the coronavirus test done in Kano for the almajiris, the Jigawa government earlier said it would quarantine for two weeks all the almajiris that recently arrived from Kano.
Mr Garo said another 100 almajiris scheduled to be taken to Bauchi State also tested negative to COVID-19.
In a remark, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje said the COVID-19 situation in Kano was getting worse. He appealed for a collaborative effort to curtail the spread of the virus in the state.
Mr Ganduje, who commended residents for complying with the lockdown imposed in the state, said the decision was taken to halt the spread of the virus.
Kano State, as of Saturday night, has 77 coronavirus cases, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
The decision to transfer the Kano almajiris is part of the agreement reached between Northern governors that almajiris in each state be transferred to their states of origin.
However, even before the latest agreement by the governors, the Kano government had been transferring almajiris to other states and neighbouring countries after it banned street begging in the state, most populous in Northern Nigeria.
Despite the transfers, however, no concrete step has been taken to ensure such children do not return to Kano streets as there is freedom of movement across Nigeria although interstate travel was recently banned to check the spread of the coronavirus.
Sourced From: Premium Times Nigeria
By Ugochukwu Alaribe
Operatives of the Abia State Vigilante Service, AVS, popularly known as ‘Bakassi Boys’ have arrested 24 market women hidden in a container truck, at Ekwereazu Ngwa, the boundary community between Abia and Akwa Ibom states.
The market women, said to be from Akwa Ibom State, were on their way to Aba, when they were arrested with the truck driver and two of his conductors for violating the lockdown order by the state government.
Driver of the truck, Moses Asuquo, claimed he was going to Aba to purchase stock fish, but decided to assist the market women, because they were stranded.
A vigilante source told Sunday Vanguard that the vehicle was impounded while the market women were sent back to Akwa Ibom State.
Commissioner for Home Land Security, Prince Dan Okoli, who confirmed the incident, said that smuggling of people into the state poses great threat to the state government’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID- 19.
Sourced From: Vanguard News
Operatives of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Yaba of the Lagos State police command have arrested one Mrs Nene Steve for allegedly killing her maid, Joy Adole
The maid was allegedly beaten to death by Nene for requesting for her salary at their residence located at 18, Ogundola Street, Bariga area in Lagos.
Narrating the incident, Philips Ejeh, an elder brother to the deceased said that he was sad when they informed him that his sister was beaten to death.
He explained that the deceased was an indigene of Benue State brought to Lagos through an agent and started working with her as a maid in January 2020.
‘’She reported that her boss refused to pay her and anytime she asked for her salary she will start beating her.
She was making an attempt to leave the place but due to the total lockdown she remained there until Sunday when her boss said she caught her stealing noodles and this led to her serious beating and death,’’ Ejeh said.
He called on Lagos State Government and well- meaning people in the country to help them in getting justice for the victim.
The police spokesman, Bala Elkana, stated that the woman and her husband came to Bariga Police Station to a report that their house girl had committed suicide.
Detectives were said to have visited the house and suspected foul play with the position of the rope and bruises all over the body which confirmed that the girl had been tortured to death and the boss decided to hang up the girl to make it look like suicide.
He said: “The police moved on with their investigation and found a lot of sign of violence on her body that she has been tortured before a rope was put on her neck.’’
He added that the police removed the corpse and deposited it in the mortuary for autopsy to further ascertain the cause of the death.
Elkana said the matter has been transferred from Bariga police station to Panti for further investigation while the couple have been arrested and will be charged to court.
Ostensibly alarmed by the latest killings of dozens of soldiers by Boko Haram insurgents, President Muhammadu Buhari has summoned an urgent meeting of Service Chiefs to find ways to stop the trend.
He has also dispatched the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, to the neighbouring Republic of Chad for an urgent meeting with President Idris Deby and his defence counterpart.
Knowledgeable sources said in Abuja on Friday that the president is worried by on the deterioration of security situation on the Nigeria – Chad Border that has led to the recently increased Boko Haram terrorism in the area.
The sources which did not want to be named in Abuja said: “Nigeria has a Chad problem in the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) put together to secure the Lake Chad basin areas and repeal the Boko Haram terrorist attacks against all the countries neighbouring the Lake.”
The sources noted that Chad is believed to be having their own internal security challenges and this has reportedly led to their pulling away their own troops manning their own border around Lake Chad, saying: “That lacuna is being exploited by the Boko Haram terrorists, who go in and out of Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon to launch terrorist acts. This is a clear illustration of the fact that terrorism is beyond national borders.”
When contacted, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed that the Defence Minister is going to Chad but said he is unaware of the purpose.
Meanwhile, the military authorities are said to be in the process of identifying the families of the latest victims with a view to making contact with them.
Credible sources revealed that it is the reason the president is yet to make any pronouncement on the matter.
“The President has called an urgent meeting with the Service Chiefs, as well as the fact that families of the latest victims of the Boko Haram are being identified and contacts made before a government pronouncement on the tragic attacks. This, it is understood, is the reason for the silence of the government over the incident,” the source said.
Sourced From: Tribune
Nigeria records 55 new COVID-19 infections, total now 165,110
Military, Police Ring Abuja to Forestall Boko Haram Attack
UFC: Usman gets N584m after beating Masvidal
Insecurity: Lagos bans occupation of abandoned buildings
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