 So culture, I've got the one and the only sonny rabbo here with me, of course, the elegant stallion herself. Onyeka onwenu, and guess what, Timak is here. Timak, you know, people don't know that. I don't know what, 1970 something, we used to live opposite each other back in those days and I came into your apartment one day and I thought, well, these are people who will set the world on fire. And then you disappear to America and we saw you back. Come on, culture, we've touched the world. Please onyeka, take it away. In 1973, 72, 73 correct me if I'm wrong, when the economy of the US was down, it was Hollywood to the rescue, virtually saved the country. Right now, what Nigeria is doing in entertainment around the world is phenomenal. And it is something that we started by going on strike in a military administration when it was only a civil offence to pirate and we said no, it's criminal. We began to make the point that the entertainment industry is so important to spreading our culture, getting people to know us for who we are and what we can produce. And also for employment, when you see somebody like Timak, please look behind him and there are families that are standing behind him that through his music, through his performances, he is supporting. So when people see us, they think, oh, it's this ego thing, they are stars. No, no, no, no, no, it's called show business. It's because you cannot have the show without the business and you can't have the business without the show. So in terms of earning power of the young people and even us older ones, still we're hanging in tough, there is so much to be gained from the entertainment industry but we don't take it seriously. The gains that we have made have been individual effort. And quite honestly, we don't need government to be involved in everything. What we are asking for is that proverbial enabling environment and a level playing field so that we, with our brilliant ideas, with our films now catching the eye of the world, with our music rising high, we can tell them what Nigeria is about. There is greater respect for Nigeria because of the entertainment business and in terms of what we are here to do, if, when, not if, when this administration comes in of a man who is a businessman who also has an idea of what the entertainment industry can do and his running mate and talking about obesity, the whole thing changes exponentially, we are going up because I don't want to operate in a country where there is so much violence I can't carry out my craft. Going for a performance we are talking in the waiting room that you could perform in Zaria, you drive down to this and you go Kaduna, Kano, this and that and it was all fun and we were all sharing and getting to know parts of the country and then getting to know our music, we've lost all that. I rest my case. Clearly, it's not about government giving, it's about the environment. When Frank Gweke was Minister for Information and Culture at this time I was at the Film Corporation in Jaws they set up a committee, a partner, whatever they call these things to look at how the motion picture business could be financed and for whatever things I had, they asked me to chair it a lot of work was done, we had the fruits so we need to find different ways to create that enabling environment so that we can thrive through culture and you have been in the middle of everything in Nigeria for the last 900 years. Why hasn't it happened? A major setback, there is no will power from government to even allow the enabling environment to exist and then the film industry wrestled its life from source they didn't wait for anybody because if they waited nothing would have happened. Music industry, the same thing. So I'm not surprised, everything Oyeka said is not only just so true but team back who is here with us, thank you. Thanks to see you again. Thank you. Haven't seen you in years. With your flute you used to just make your statement whether government was listening or not. Were we in the media, I think we did our best maybe not enough but we did the best we could to make sure that individual talents had room to express themselves and their talents but then the buying public was prone to piracy enablement in being able to buy and sell and then there was no control. So all of those things put together made the entertainment industry wish was she business unfortunately. Now the government said when and I like the use of when when this government comes in and it wakes up to its responsibility and promise I have a feeling that the entertainment industry will skyrocket. I know it will. And that's why I think we can profit so much from team Mark. He has worked the two sides of the great pond Like I said I used to go to him across the road I wasn't quite sure whether I was just an entertainer or a business man. He's everything. Then he disappeared and showed up in Hollywood and on that side he made impact. The question is how do we manage to get young entertainers to understand the business that is show business. I would say show business is a reflection is a mirror of the health of an economy. When a country does well there surplus money people go to shows you buy CDs when your economy is down show business suffers. But if you have a listening government they will help. I give an example in Holland where I worked for maybe one year I knew a saxophone player who was fed up with this saxophone he broke it. I went to the government and said this is giving my income the government bought him a saxophone. Can you imagine? Now I would like to give you a short story when Christian Esien died I got a phone call from his excellency Peter Obi that he would like to be part of the funeral arrangements. And he was. You were there? He send a private chat to pick up the coffin all us we flew there he spent three days with us he gave a plot of land ten million for the mausoleum and the best story I must tell you was we had breakfast on the day of the funeral and mother was late he said well you see Timak ladies they always delay I only have a black and a brown suit I said I don't believe you he said come upstairs so he took me to his bedroom and because it was a funeral he was dressed in his black dress with his black shoes in his wardrobe was one brown up and down and a brown shoe I said to him your excellency I believe you down to earth on a supporting the entertainment industry as I have never seen anybody and we need a president like that because with a little effort moral support some of our problems in the national assembly supported we can make the entertainment industry to support Nigeria as much as crude oil because we have the talent sometimes I'm astonished I get hundreds of CDs of people who need help banks don't help the private industry doesn't help yet they have not yet understood the value how music and the films are now whitewashing Nigeria everywhere you go people talk about fella they talk about whiskey it is a revolution so you need the right person to channel it and let's make money out of it the big money as we make abroad you got a humor me with listening to this story in 1996 in the early days of illegal business school who went to visit the dean of Wharton and wanted to meet the famous business school in Philadelphia the top finance guy world famous so we go and the dean calls him up and says since people from Nigeria would like to meet with you and we walk into this guy's office I was expecting him to have horns like these this great finance guru he says hey you from Nigeria do you dig fella you know they were digging him he says do you dig fella and so besides the revenues that we can get as a country from selling culture which is huge in fact Hollywood essentially shapes America's dominance of the world the blue jeans that everybody wears it's because of the movies the movies made it the that's what for the world the music it used to be that I'll say to my children hey which of my songs do you want to hear we want to hear Michael Jackson and I don't know Michael Jackson's music American music had taken over we began to pull it back for Nigeria and let me say this very quickly you have a population of 200 million people can we please realize the market we have here even if we're enjoying our own music we still love the American but we are digging our own music we have a huge market here in terms of Nollywood second largest third largest in the world we are buying and also sharing with the rest of the world and very quickly I'd like to add to what my brother team said here because what you when you spoke about the LP candidate by the way when you're voting you're not going to see his face what you're going to see is the party mama that is where you put your thumb and if your thumb is too big use your index finger so that it's not extending to the side of the and if your fingernails are too long take the finger there you can put it back on thank you my brother Christy so true what about P-square what about Chimamanda when she needed help it's called empathy when you have a man at the top who empathizes not just with musicians but with ordinary people that he can spend his Christmas and his new year that tells you the kind of government that you're going to I call him Namoche I'm from Arundhizov which is in emo state is from Anambra Obusi when my mom died and I let him know I don't know God must have spoken to him because I'm the one carrying everything I'm the one bearing my mom I had relatives I had siblings where I was carrying everything they say he doesn't give shishi he doesn't give carelessly but because of that empathy he reached out to me he sent his vice to represent him there he sent me cash oh boy did I need it that morning when he came he sent me a car load of drinks oh did I need it now I can talk about the other candidates they ought to have this empathy but we're here talking about the LP candidate and I want to bust that wrong impression he doesn't give shishi no he doesn't throw away money he doesn't use money carelessly his use is not frivolous it's purposeful it's directional and he's a good man God bless you Namoche so you know really what we're dealing with here we're talking about the economy so much today but people forget that culture is the economy a strategy for enabling us turn culture into a major source of income the problems that we have in our country is that we have a day economy we don't have a night economy because one power two security and all of those when we were young governors and undergraduates here in Nigeria we used to go to was it a place on Martin Street by Phoenicia restaurant all the years we lived at 4 am with a taxi now that's hardly what you can do we need to restore the night economy because we will employ twice as many people if we have a day economy and a night economy and that's what gives life to an economy because all those people who earn money are going to spend it and create more possibilities for other people that's why in economics we talk about the secular flows of income and these keep flowing around from households to government, their taxes to companies where we purchase things this is what we need to get this economy going and a big part of it is culture Dr. Tommy I have to mention a few other places where we used to go and party because I don't know you're too old and we need to bring it down to the level of us young people in the sun you would agree with me and you might remember lords oh yes even night shift and all the paradiso phase 2 where are they urbanization just went down the drain that's what happened but they are very important for tourism yes gentlemen no country has a good tourism without entertainment industry an example Thailand is the best example everywhere there is music restaurants, night clubs in the open fields on the king's birthday the late king the whole country had to play jazz because he was a saxophone player with Count Basie before he became the king as a young guy and I had the pleasure to perform about 20 years ago and I said to myself Nigeria has to copy that because people go to visit the country they don't go out at night listen to some Afro beat listen to some jazz listen to local music what do you think is one of the great passions of the president of France Fella when he was here he used to go to the shrine and as president he came and visited the shrine the great power soft power can we bring the banks in here the what banks okay I like the scratch no, it's my hearing the reason being that for such economy to thrive you have to have a base urban centers should normally encourage enterprise to the point where you raise money, you can save it in the bank you can get access to it and recycle it into the system that can I answer this, the bank of industry is actually doing a good job but they don't have counters they finance nollywood movies I had good meetings with them if an artist comes with a good proposal and he has no collateral they will listen and they help they are the only ones but there was couple of years ago the rumor that the world bank had 200 million available for the entertainment industry and I worked very hard with them together in the end there was no money there actually but I realized one thing that then the people in power did not understand that it would be actually better use that money and create money in investing it into medium terminal trading or something so you can give a grant and not alone you can give somebody 10 million naira because he deserves it not as a loan but as a gift but make the best out of it and account to us and that's what I'm trying to talk to banks you are so rich you're making billions and billions every quarter there is actually the endowment of the art from festock time saying you put money into education and the art it's tax deductible up to 10% of your free tax and nobody remembers that you can write it off your tax 10% you can give the entertainment industry give it to credible people we formed the entertainment cooperative society they know that we formed the entertainment foundation where you can put money in we know which of the musicians are serious we don't give it to anybody and disappear there are many musicians with a little financial help let me remind you that we here have been in the business for a long time and we've been there we got to the top and we stayed at the top why I'm self-financing in the 1980s the record companies began to divest from Nigeria in droves EMI them polygram deca they closed down where people like us who formed record companies you go and do your shows you save your money and you put into your recording you are financing every even up until now and it's because we don't have that environment where people understand that investment in the arts is really good investment that you make money from we need that enabling environment we need that enabling environment that enabling environment that's the key when the new government comes in I would hope but praying that new government does need some pushing from the people at play because institutions are the very bedrock of human progress institutions do not get decreed into existence institutions come from interested parties engaging in the manner that they begin to create boundaries within which you can predict conduct that's what we need to do that's what the people who have gone out and are doing things in Hollywood have started the thing is to build on what they have done to make those concrete and allowed the state to use it to ensure that people get the opportunities that they deserve so we can build a great country so our children can be proud ensure that green passport and say yes I am Nigeria I love that well the idea of being in Nigeria and proudly so it is happening already there are Nigerians in governments of the world British governments European governments so what is left is the challenge is for us now to recognize what we have who we are and the talents we possess to make all these things work I mean talk about talents the Nigerians who are living abroad who are actually entertaining successfully making money abroad not bringing it home abroad we have to find ensuring that as global citizens we work the world and invest Nigeria I'd like to say to my people in the entertainment industry we have a marvelous opportunity here to rescue this country don't sit back and think that somebody is going to do it for you we've had our complaints we've had our issues and for some reason everything is coming together it's coming together that we have a listening candidate who would make a listening president who is going to fight corruption which leads to the flight of funds outside my country so that I don't have that investment coming in unless I bring it personally wherever you are if you do not have your PVC already go and fetch it go and vote do this for yourself do it for your children do it for your grandchildren do it for the future we don't have an opportunity we know we've come close to the brink so many times and this god who is a Nigerian has always pulled us back this one get as he be he has given you the opportunity he has given you the candidates now it's up to you to do something about it you will put them there so don't sit back and think that other people are going to do it for you you will regret it please hear me and hear me well I may adhere something which is very important after the new government is there musicians and actors have to support the government in paying tax we have to add to the gross domestic product so we become valuable to the government the moment we all pay tax we become more and more important to the government I was involved with trying to get musicians to pay tax and then we had to go to the way asking MTN, GLO etc to deduct from the at source from the ringtone I found that some musicians were making 10-20 million naira a month and not paying tax from ringtone yes but some companies were paying and some were not paying and I'd like to complain about that I'm not going to name them but when this government comes in things have to be done properly we do a lot of work and people are violating and making use of our intellectual property we have fought and fought we need a reasonable government that will make sure you are hungry they are starving it's not everyone that has the opportunity to bring out a song and it goes to the top 10 it's not everybody that has the opportunity to do a live show we are fortunate, thank God but I'm thinking of my fellow musicians who cannot put food on the table yet they are so talented I'm thinking of the young people that God have given them such huge talents but no way to show it this is the problem we have anyway time speeds away when you are having fun and it has done so to us this has been a marathon but sometimes it's almost all gone we have only 2 hours a little to go so we must end this even though we are enjoying ourselves so much what is important is that culture matters culture tourism cruise go there and vote ensure that you collect your pvc and that you vote and you bid that revolution will move us to the next level