Nigerian through movies-Tunde Aina
Augustine Togonu-Bickersteth
Nigeria’s history needs to be told through movies — Tunde Aina
A veteran broadcaster and filmmaker, Tunde Aina, is also the Chief Operating Officer of StarTimes Nigeria. He speaks with FAITH AJAYI about his career and other issues
You were appointed a member of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences shortly after you were selected as a juror for the same body. Did you see that appointment coming?
Starting from being a juror, I did not see it coming. I was nominated to serve as a juror, and it is a sort of recognition— to judge the work of others. It was after the juror duty that I decided to learn more about the academy itself. I found out that jurors are encouraged to apply for membership. So, I applied and it was approved.
What mark do you intend to make as a member of the academy, and how will it benefit Nigeria’s film and TV industry?
One of the things that the academy does is recognising excellence in TV programming. But, Nigerian productions hardly make it in that competition. I think that could be a result of ignorance of what is even expected, the expertise of production crew and personnel, or the issue of funding. So, one of the things I hope to do is educate Nigerian producers on how to up their game, so they can have a good chance of either being nominated or winning awards at the International Emmy Awards.
You are also a juror for the International Emmy Awards. What contributions have you made in that regard?
As a juror, one is part of a panel and one assesses content. For the content one assesses, they (organisers) try to make sure one does not have personal interest in them. For example, my panel was made up mostly of Africans, and most of the contents we looked at were from outside Africa. We looked at content from Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Canada and Argentina. The two main criteria one considers are the creativity of the content and the technical execution.
As the Chief Operating Officer at StarTimes, what are your job deliverables?
As the COO of StarTimes, I am in charge of the media department. The media department is about production, acquisition and monetisation of content. We produce as well as buy content. We have a media sales department that looks for brands to partner with such content, to sponsor content or to place advertisements on the channels.
You worked with the Nigerian Television Authority for over 20 years. What do you consider to be your greatest achievements while working with the organisation?
What I consider to be my greatest achievement in NTA was the introduction of the tapeless play out system. In 2009, when StarTimes came to Nigeria, NTA decided to launch many channels, including a platform called ‘wonder cube’. I was the head of IT, so I was in charge of executing that project. It was an integrated play out system, where we automated the play out system of the news production, and digitised the archiving system; all working together as one integrated system. That was a big revolution from what had been done before, and it was still new in the market then.
You left NTA as the Head of the IT department. What were the legacies you left behind?
One of the legacies was the creation of an IT department in NTA. The organisation did not have a dedicated IT department, but as things started changing, IT started coming into the workplace and needed to be given more attention. When I came back from the UK where I went to study for a Master’s degree, I made a case to the management that we needed to have an IT department. The IT department was then created, and I was the first head of IT for NTA.
StarTimes has a joint venture partnership with NTA. What does that entail?
StarTimes is a paid TV platform, while NTA is the national broadcaster, that is spread all over Nigeria. NTA already has infrastructure and StarTimes came with a joint venture to start a business. When StarTimes came, it was more focused on digital terrestrial television platforms, even though satellite was introduced later.
You have produced several movies, including ‘Underbelly’ and ‘The Rise of Igbinogun’. What inspires the stories you tell?
What I do in StarTimes is more of content creation, and content creation for TV is mostly series (soap operas). Nowadays, we hardly make movies specifically for TV, even though the movie may end up on TV later. The industry is growing and I feel the industry can benefit from some of our experiences. When I say ‘our’, I am referring to other professionals who have been in this space for a long time. We have different skills and advantages, which we can use to make the industry better.
In terms of stories, I felt that we were not looking too much into our history, and we need to put it out there. Yes, we have a lot of epic movies, but the way they are mostly cheap productions that only end up on small paid TV channels. Even the cinemas are not excited about exhibiting epic movies. These are some of the things that influenced me. Sometimes, the lessons one learns from a movie are not so obvious, such as in Igbinogun. We are Africans and traditionally, the same value is not placed on male and female children. Things are changing, but majority of the population does not place the same value on both genders. Igbinogun was supposed to show people that there really isn’t a difference between male and female children. They can both achieve whatever they want to achieve. A child is a blessing, irrespective of the gender.
What do you find the most challenging as a filmmaker?
I think expertise. We don’t have many good hands in the industry. Many of the production personnel have not been opportune to really learn the craft. Many of them are self-taught; they just get experience here and there. It shows in the quality of their work, because the opportunities have not been there for them to improve on their skills, and for them to really know the standard.
Another challenge is distribution. The distribution space is still not very well established. One makes movies because they want to create something, but at the end of the day, one also wants to earn some money, which is largely dependent on distribution. A lot of people in the industry put in their blood and sweat, but they are not able to get anything out of it because the distribution space is not as mature as it should be.