A woman of many parts, Amb.Queen Blessing Ebigieson has built a reputation over the years in the entertainment industry, which has seen her spend two decades in the industry without any dent. Currently, she is President of Association of Movie Production, AMP. She speaks more about her vision for the association in this exclusive interview with Sam Onyekwere.
One of your re-election promises is to empower AMP members. How do you want to do that ?
The producers are the mothers of the industry. I don’t only do things that affect my members directly though they’re also the priority. The whole industry is also on our mind because if it’s good for the industry, it’s also good for us. It’s not necessarily my members that will benefit from the leadership I bring.
The promise was made during my first tenure in office, the one and half years I completed for my predecessor, late Peace Anyiam Osuigwe. That completed our tenure because I took over as her vice president to complete our tenure.
Now I have been sworn in, in my own capacity to run my own tenure. My tenure started from September 29th 2024. Since I took over, right from the last tenure, I have been doing collaborations to bring film productions and make sure my producers are exposed to international collaboration with other film makers around and also broker deals.
What the association does is, if you want to negotiate insurance for instance, there’s a level you can go, but because of the number we bring as an association, there’s a particular premium we can get for our members that one person cannot get. We have been able to broker health insurance scheme for our members. A lot of them are insured and they got it at a low premium because of our numbers.
We’re also trying to see how we can get production insurance which will also come at a cheap rate. Every producer can insure their production team before they go on set.
There are also new platforms that came on board Flicks On, which belongs to a member of AMP. We went into agreement with them so that our members can post their films there. The thing is that the more platforms we get, the more money the producers make posting their films.
When it comes to capacity building, workshops etc, we collaborate with different institutions to ensure that each time they do this training, our members are carried.
We are about to sign a partnership deal with some people in the United Kingdom, they are about to launch a different kind of AI App, tailored for Africa and it can help you with your stories, help you streamline your production, translate our language film.
So it makes production easy and make the life of the producers easier. Translating and other things are the writers job and with this App, you can do it yourself, even the writer will not delay your work. We will sign agreement with them as soon as they come to Nigeria.
Our members will be the first beneficiaries of this tool. We already negotiated with them that before our members start downloading your app and pay for subscription, you have to come and train them free to understand what the app is all about and hour to use it. So this is what we are and I am more focused on collaboration. If you come to me with an idea, I don’t shove it aside, I look at it.
I had a meeting with head of Premier Music and it’s about how we can collaborate to see how my members can start using movies from popular singers like Davido, Whizkid and co, at a very cheap rate, rather than using it without authorisation and getting into problems when they upload it on YouTube and others.You get paid through this people that own the right and at a very low price.
Sometimes these popular songs can even push your work. So, we are looking at the way we can work together . Most times, I am involved in a meeting trying to see how the lives of my producers can be better and I am different fora talking about the industry on how government and the private sector can come in.
I want to believe that the incident of the boat mishap that took the life of Actor Junior Pope and other crew members last year must have triggered this idea.
No. It’s not . For starters, when it comes to the Jnr Pope issue, the people that own the facility should have made sure everyone used the life jacket. Even if the producer had production insurance that does not mean the insurance company will be held liable . They will tell you, you killed yourself because you didn’t wear life jacket. It’s just like you insured your house and you set fire on the house. The insurance company will not pay for any damages. Even if the production was insured, the production company would have to bore the brunt of what happened because they never ensured the cast wear life jackets, again, the boat riders would also have insisted.
It’s not this incident that triggered the insurance issue because there are little things that happen on locations. Maybe you are shooting and the camera falls down, you know that cameras are expensive. We know that these studios don’t even insure some of these equipments. While we are waiting for them to do the right thing, we will do what we ought to do, so that those responsibilities are taken off the shoulders of the producers.
At the end of the day, it’s the producer that will still pay for the insurance.
We are just an association, how much do we have? Going as an association reduces the money as against you going as an individual.
I used two cameras for my production last year. The main camera man was running down to check if the second camera man has set his own well. He climbed down the staircase but going back, he hit his leg on the staircase and he got injured and there was blood everywhere.
This is a beautiful apartment we rented in Lekki. There was no where anyone could have gotten injured in such an environment but it happened. If there was a production insurance that could have taken care of such accident but I have to bear the cost myself.
We don’t do insurance in Nigeria because a lot of people don’t believe in insurance. For instance, when I travel abroad I take my health insurance because for Europe it’s compulsory, but I end up not using it but God forbid if I fall sick, I will have over 30,000 dollars to take care of me.
Have you thought of buying equipment where people will come and rent?
The association is set up as an NGO, we are not there to do business. How much is the dues and registration for us to buy the kind of state of arts equipment people are using today. It’s not the association’s job to buy equipment for people to rent.
What we are doing is to collaborate with studios that already have the equipment to rent this at a cheaper rate for our members. If you decide to delve into every business, you will have yourself to blame at the end of the day. We are collaborating with people to make sure production cost comes down, whether equipment, location bus, or rent apartment.
Your executive is dominated by women, is this intentional?
No. It’s not. For a long time men have ruled the association. I am the second woman to be the president of this association and this association has been registered for more than two decades now. We have had a lot of men rule the association from Paul Obazele, Zik Zulu Okafor, Ralph Nwadike, Madu Chikwendu, etc.
The first female was Peace Anyiam Osuigwe, I was her vice before she was called to glory. Mine was not the first time. We have had situations where women were vice, even late Peace was once a vice president.
It’s not a strategy because when election is called, it’s thrown open for every member that is qualified and if the men don’t come out that’s not our problem. It’s the people that came out that were voted for. We have six executive members with four women in it.
So, the men working with you will not feel intimidated that they are outnumbered?
No. They love the fact that the women are more and I am an easy person to work with, whether you are a man or woman. I am not gender biased and I don’t believe in that too.
What is your greatest fear as a woman. The things you will want to avoid?
I think because of the kind of positions I have held, sitting on a lot of boards because recently I just got appointed into the board of Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival as an advisory board member. I am sitting on a lot of boards, be it as a BoT or advisory person.
A lot of men of God are in my life, from my God parents Arch Bishop Dr Bassey and his wife Bishop Blessing Bassey, my Uncle Apostle Johnson Sulaiman, Bishop Isaac Idahosa. My biological brother Apostle Godwin Chosen. My mother is also a woman of God and my God father Mr Jimi Agbaje.
These people are my mentors and if anything happens, they can call me and say what was that. I am always afraid that something can happen and they will ask but why, what happened?
So, I don’t want to answer any questions and I don’t even like bad publicity or scandals.
That’s why you see I have been scandal free for the past 25 years of my life in Nollywood. I think the phase for scandal is over. I came into Nollywood when I was 18, that was the age of youthful exuberance, but I didn’t do anything to create scandal for myself and there’s no need for that even now that my son is already in the university.
Another thing that makes me afraid of scandal is my son. My son is a prince and you know how people are. When mother’s live there lives in certain way, it affects the children because their friends in the school will taunt them. I live my life remembering there are people I am answerable to.
To a large extent, apart from the fact that my mother raised me well, I have a lot of people to answer to. There are things you can’t find me doing. I am afraid of scandals that’s why I stay on my own. That is not to say that people cannot lie against you and drag you. One thing with me is that I don’t shy away from issues.
Drag me, but by be ready to provide your facts and I will take you to court and you pay for damages.
I am not one of those people you drag and you tell them sorry and they forgive you. No, because I do not like scandals and you cannot deliberately create it for me.
You grew up in the North, how did that mould the kind of woman you are?
I always say I belong to everybody, I belong to nobody. I was born in Benue State. I was nine when we left Benue State for Niger State, that was the part of the north I schooled. I stayed with my mum, she had a restaurant in Kaduna which we were managing at a time and I had to help her sell food. I went to Government Girls College Bida before coming to Lagos to hustle. I kept going back and forth.
I read mass communication in Bida Polytechnic, Niger State . Whether I grew up in the North or South, it would not have made any difference because my mother was a woman of God. She will never allow you wear clothes that will open your body.
I came into Nollywood, it didn’t enter me. I just loved the way my mum made us cover our body.
Opening your body is not sexy but dressing classy means that you have to cover everything. I just love the elegance and the way the northerners dress, you dress elegantly and when you come out, people will look at you with respect.
