 You're welcome back. Today is World Environment Day the 5th of June 2023 and they're focusing mostly or we are focusing because it's our world we're talking about the environment doesn't belong to somebody in fact it belongs to everybody and someone even said that whatever we're using now is not our own resources we're borrowing it from children that are yet to be born. Well how much are you contributing to making our environment safe and habitable? I'm glad to have in the house here joining us okay via Zoom anyway. Omoyer Uzamere, an Hollywood actor and producer. It's my pleasure to have you. Good morning and welcome to the show Omoye. Good morning. It's good to be on the show. Thank you for having me. Well today is World Environment Day and you are in the creative industry and all that so let's begin with why we are even talking about this right now. Nigerians do not really think it's an issue so why do you think it's an issue right now to be dealt with? Well I think that really is the question here that with the issue of climate change there's so many angles to come from and one of the important angles is the fact that some people don't consider it an issue because there are more pressing issues and Nigeria is one of those and you know come from the angle of climate justice and why we're having this conversation why we did the audio drama that we did was because we wanted Nigerians to understand that when disaster happens it happens to everybody the place titled does the sky fall on everyone and it addresses the fact that even though we do have more pressing economic issues social issues in the country we still do have a climate issue an environmental issue and we wanted to draw attention to that conversation. Now if you're drawing attention to the problem of environment are you drawing attention chiefly to the people or the citizens or you're drawing attention mostly to the government? Well drawing attention to everyone who's involved I believe that everyone is a stakeholder in these issues you know and the urgency is from the environment you know it comes from the need to adjust climate change to prevent the depletion of our resources to you know stop pollution or to mitigate you know pollution to promote sustainable development and to achieve social justice economic justice. Now if the individual knows that they are disenfranchised then we know what to do about the disenfranchisement and if the government understands that this is a pressing issue also then it takes steps to address it so everyone really is involved in this conversation and if you think about simple things and I like to bring it down to simple things if we take my breakfast mug for example and let's say it's plastic if I start to recycle then I stop spending on plastic and then we have less pollution of dirt you know plastics all over the place they're just little things that the individuals can do to make a difference but there are also policy changes that the government can make and if we're working together I believe that there are solutions. Yeah I asked that question because for instance the government came up at one point and said no more using firewood no more using charcoal and all that yet you cannot buy gas you cannot buy you don't have electricity so even if you have an electric cooker you can't use it and all that so people resort to going to and you don't even have the salary to buy a desert gas burner or something. Oh you have a bottle of kerosene. Yeah that was why I was asking that question now climate change is a challenge and everybody is pointing fingers at the people who dump the plastics in the gutters people who do one or two things of course in the houses of the rich you won't see them littered all over and all that but when we are directing our energy where should it go more that's why I asked you you are in the creative industry and there is there is everything about storytelling and so when you're telling your story to get this message across who will be your target audience the ordinary we will be watching your movie or the people who make policies and all that so let's get to know where we can fit in and also see what to say when the time comes. Okay I believe that the place for everyone the power of art really is to spark conversations it's to get us talking about the problems it holds a mirror to society and now what this does is we have in the play you experience an environmental activist and a politician and this is not just an ordinary politician in that sense but it's a local politician who is passionate about his people and they come into an argument so the environmentalist is speaking from a global perspective but the local politician is speaking for his people okay so if we don't burn our roof or fire what are we going to do so it means that everyone comes together we're all stakeholders I don't believe that the place targeted to one person one individual what we're doing is we're having conversations with in with policymakers with environmental activists and with individuals because we believe that this isn't something that falls to one person or one group of people to do it falls to all of us including us as creatives and so this is us playing a part to say hey guys here's this thing let's magnify the issues okay we walk to the policymakers oh sir what can you do what are the policy changes that accommodate the the transformation that we want to see oh here mr and mrs individual what are the lifestyle changes that you need to make I mean for example wasting water you know they're parts of the world where there's no water where people are going through droughts and people who have a lot of water access to water water is being wasted and I'm just saying this as a little example of the ways that we can have lifestyle changes that affect our climate positively you know for pollution of plastics for example there's so many ways that that plastic can be recycled you know that we have these plastic bags you know we there's a lot of it around and when we're aware of it then we start to use less of it and if you use less of it then there's a lower demand for plastics you know so this it's all it's all affects everything and it's I believe that it's a cycle you know that everyone industries individuals government agencies local businesses homes everybody's affected and everybody has a part to play I'm just imagining walking around a market in Lagos here for instance and I don't hear madam gimme lilon thanks I don't know how that works it would be a strange world to me anyway but now I asked you off-camera if you were an activist and you said no no no but how did you come to get other theaters to partner with you on a podcast focused on the environment and climate change well thing is I was invited to collaborate on this project there's a producer called sunny drake he's a producer based in canada and he partnered with the why not theater and invited eight other production companies from around the world to tell climate change stories from a local perspective and preferring local solutions so we have one from Nigeria there's Mauritius, Chile, India, Australia and four provinces in Canada basically what we were to do to create so I created the I'm rather produced the Nigerian audio drama it was written by Pemua Deshi a writer based in Joss and she told a story that was dear to her heart something that actually happened or based on an actual event in in Joss where a 500 year olive tree was being cut down for firewood and when you think of a 500 year old olive tree that tree has been standing or was standing for 500 years and it got cut down for firewood that got burned in let's say a few months now that's a lot of history and if you think about the issue of deforestation in Nigeria how trees are being chopped down and the environmental issues I think that deforestation is something that we should be talking about you know in Nigeria and actually making doing taking steps to make a difference you know to stop the cutting down of trees and slow down are we planting more trees what are we doing instead of this this you know the logging what are we doing differently and I would say that our job as creatives is really to as I said hold a mirror to society it's to call attention to the issues we're not experts on the issue but what we do we do some research we find out what the issues are we magnify them and then we pass the baton onto the next set of people and that's really what we're here to do and so in a sense you would consider me an activist but really I'm an activist because I'm passionate about using storytelling for social change I'm passionate about using art you know to to drive society forward so how's that been working for you especially in Nigeria how do you think um what hope do you have that you can really change the narrative because if you go to or or lose or soon they call it or something somewhere they call Tolgate you find the dump site of Lagos state and there are people who actually leave there they are married and leave there they raise children there that is an industry for them there are people who make a living out of the dump sites that we have the the waste beans that we have around our houses and all that so Nigerians don't seem to really care how do you think it's an issue how how how would you rate your success you know in trying to change the narrative I know it is small small by small as we say it but how has it been how has it worked out for you well I think that the rating will go to the people who do ratings for us it's it's having the conversations it's and this is how we start you know we come on your show and thank you for having us we have this conversation on your show we go to the radio stations we go to the grassroots and I do believe that there can be and still is a lot of work for people who work in the dump sites and the idea really is that when let's think for example of recycling if trash is properly separated then it makes their job easier if at my house I have two two bills one being for recycling and one being for waste that is biodegradable it means that all my food goes in that one and then you know it can be used as manure for example and the trash that goes into the recycle bins will go straight to these people who make a living from recycling trash and they don't have to do it in those deplorable conditions they actually don't they can do it in a nice sanitary place where food waste and even you know all kinds of imagine baby diapers mixing with plastic bottles and they have to sort through that they shouldn't have to if in my house I separate them already and that's really the practice is that what we're doing this and one of the ways we'll measure this the success of these things is when individuals start to credit um an interview that someone gave either DME and it's live sets and of the actors on the production of myself just to say that oh I heard about this on the radio I heard about this on television I read about this somewhere on Twitter or on Instagram and I decided to make it change let me give you an example when I was much younger I read something about um about water about the way and I said oh and I became very conscious of how I used water and so when you know sometimes you know you read this thing where they'll tell you unspractical things brush your teeth using a cup of water rather than turning on the faucet and allow the water to just keep pouring and when we're conscious about these things when we realize that we want to leave this earth a little better for the people coming on after us you know for example it wasn't the out here people like in my parents generation you say it wasn't really this hot when it was hot you know when we see that or when it's cold it gets way colder than it used to be those are changes and we wonder what changes are gonna take place for the next generation of people our job really is to is to give back to the earth as the earth is giving to us you know I think that it's an exchange and we should be it should be a symbiotic relationship and you know I would love that that happens maybe we are our our skins are getting lighter that's why we feel the hotness and the coldness okay that's the conversation all right well work us through our time is running out work us through the kind of hurdles that someone who is telling your kind of story is likely to face what do you with your own experience what are the hurdles that you have to go through to put this message out there because Nigeria it's it's a difficult thing especially when like my guest before you came on said it's a matter of culture so when you're speaking to a culture of a people you're bound to have some challenges so what are some of these challenges that you find in the course of doing what you do for people to get the message well I think all of the challenges would be some of the challenges rather would be the challenges you normally find with telling a story and whatever story you want to tell there'll be certain challenges maybe the only difference would be that with something that is more shall I say conscious you'd find that it's not as entertaining as it would normally be and so as storytellers we have to try to make our stories as entertaining as compelling as any other story and once we do that I believe the audience will be inspired the audience will be attracted to it and they'll listen to it and they'll get the message you know they say that there's spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down and we are art is that spoonful of sugar if we walked up to somebody say hey you need to stop doing this oh you need to change your life and you say why but if they are told a story and then so the challenges would be the usual challenges with storytelling and there'll be sometimes it's funding sometimes it's getting people to pay attention to to to it because it's not the mainstream storytelling but then I believe that there's room for everyone and for say let's imagine that I'm the first person to do something like this another person sees it and knows that it's possible and just that window you know allows an the next person to tell a story just like this or tell a story a little different but similar you know and once there are more and more stories in the landscape I believe that it becomes a bigger issue than it it might have appeared to be so as for challenges it's really really the same as as some people say it's the same but different okay let's just talk finally to the people of Nigeria because before the story is told on the screen we have the opportunity right now for you to tell a story to the people not naturally a story but say something to the people who may not have had this message before now what are you telling the Nigerian people what kind of behavioural change do you want them to have and why just in one minute please okay can I do it in vernacular okay okay country people have fun you know say this climate matter they say now we both think they say no be no be we you know we have a problem but you know say when when they fall they fall on everybody and when sun they shine they shine on everybody so whether now we both or no be we both it will happen to all of us so what do we go do we go do our part so that other people will do their part and if everybody to do their part whether it be mama or piquin or it be government worker whether they pack the tea for for what should be whether you they drive your fancy mutu make all of us understand say if it make difference for our society so whether now rubber where they throw we anyhow not wearing that again in fact some people deal with them they collect they give you money they give you benefits when you bring your plastic go give them you know if not three you know they cut cut three because three they take very long time to grow three are like human being three get spirits three get all those things where you've look at if you two are many high three get life and they take long time and three get very plenty benefits for us see the flooding where they happen for Nigeria when you really fall people they die you know not issue so we believe say if everybody they do small small things it get plenty different agencies within that they call them climate change environmentalist agencies NGOs where they do things will follow them help them join them do their work tell them say what I feel do have its health everything when they do what else in life had though but it gets small small things we would think do every single one of us so join these agencies partner with agencies in your area there's some in Lagos there's a new dawn project you can go up to them and get on their website is the new dawn project go up to them and sign up to work with them sign up to be a partner with what they're doing in your area thank you very much all right they came with fine pigeons cost sweet for him mode for the user I'm signed contract all right thank you so much for coming on the show thanks for having me okay we've been talking with nolly wood actor and producer who is also a climate or environment activist even though she would not accept to be called that what she just wants to be called nolly wood actor and producer we were talking about climate change we were talking about environmental sustainability on world environment they will take a short break when we return we'll be doing sports and rapping up on the show stay with us