P.M. News (Lagos)
Anthony Okoro
8 September 2000
Lagos — Lagos metropolis and indeed, the Nigerian society is witnessing the last hours of the cinema-going tradition.
In the late 1970s and through the 1980s, Danjuma International Cinema, Moricass Road, Agege was the toast of cinema lovers in Lagos.
A brainchild of the late business mogul, Alhaji Danjuma Haruna, Danjuma International Cinema was the place to go for the best in American, Indian and Chinese films.
Then, there was also Jebako Cinema, located on Capitol Road. It was established as an arm of the more popular Jebako Cinema in Idi-Oro, Mushin. Larco Super Cinema at Agbotikuyo and Pen Cinema later swelled up the number of cinema houses in Agege.
Throughout the period mentioned above, cinema lovers were indeed getting so much fun and Agege was also fittingly tagged the "Home of Cinemas". But unfortunately today, only Pen Cinema, out of the four cinema houses mentioned above is still functioning at full throttle.
Even then, Pen Cinema itself is having a feel of the hard times as it is operating under a very harsh business climate and its declining infrastructure is all too apparent.
To say Danjuma Cinema is on the throes of death is to say the obvious as it only occasionally renders skeletal services. The others (located in the Agege area), Jebako and Larco Super cinemas have since died prematurely. The problem with Danjuma Cinema started about six years ago when its owner, Alhaji Danjuma Haruna got afflicted with a life-threatening illness. The illness rendered him bed-ridden for four years before he gave up the ghost two years ago. It is an understatement that Danjuma’s illness gulped a lot of money and with the dwindling fortunes of cinema business in the country, the cinema aspect of Danjuma’s business ceased to thrive.
When P.M. News visited the Moricass Road base of the cinema house during the week, two things made the place look like a pale shadow of its former self. In the first instance, unlike what obtained in the past, there were no posters to indicate what films to expect.
Secondly, those good old fellows who used to sell roasted meat, otherwise known as Suya in the vicinity of the cinema house were nowhere to be found. They were said to have all left.
An observer informed P.M.News: "They still show films there, but you yourself can see that it is no longer regular. I think the place is almost totally dead now." The case of Jebako Cinema situated along Capitol Road is even worse. The cinema house is no more being used for the purpose for which it was originally set up. It has since been converted into a brothel!
"Which day did they even show any film here last? Is it not many months ago.? A resident of the area asked an inquisitive P.M.News reporter. Of course, Jebako is located in the ghetto area of Agege, linking Isale-Oja with old Abeokuta Motor Road. The area, P.M. News findings revealed is totally overcrowded, giving room for all sorts of nefarious activities, prostitution being one of them. Little wonder that the old Jebako Cinema now plays host to women of easy virtue, who have since found a new use for it. For Larco Super Cinema, also in Agege, Cinema activities ceased in the place in the early 90s. An insider informed P.M. News that its cinema business came to a halt following what he called "low returns." Initially, some apartments in the cinema house were rented out to businessmen dealing in provisions. Now, however, a parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) has fully taken over the top floor of the building, while the ground floor is being used for supermarkets. The success story of Pen Cinema, also in Agege, which is still ''standing,'' according to one of its Co-ordinators, Mr. Wale Ayinde is about sticking to the old game. The cinema house now concentrates more on showing Indian and Chinese films.
"At Pen Cinema, we only show Indian, Chinese and American films and not all those home video stuff. The response of people has been quite positive. The home video has not in anyway hindered people from visiting Pen Cinema", he boasted.
He continued: "There is nothing so spectacular about the home video that makes it more special, or makes it a threat to the cinema business. The cinema industry, despite all odds is still thriving." According to Ayinde, films are shown three times daily there, beginning from 3.00p.m., except on Sundays when it opens by 12 noon.
P.M.News also discovered that apart from Pen Cinema, the Community Cinema, Egbe is also still in business.
The survival strategy of the Egbe Community Cinema situated at Ile-Iwe bus-stop is the ability to get the best of both English and Yoruba films. "Egbe has developed and this is the only cinema house here, so it is not surprising that the cinema house is thriving", a resident of the area told P.M. News.
The cinema houses in Lagos' most notorious ghetto, Ajegunle also suffer the same fate as many of those in Agege.
P.M. News investigations revealed that out of the four cinema houses that hitherto existed in the area, only one is at the moment functioning, while the rest have either been converted to churches or simply abandoned. For instance, the popular Oregie Cinema at 1 Durojaiye Street, Ajegunle, built in the 1970s has since stopped functioning.
Sources said the cinema house ''died'' about six years ago following the death of its owner. The place was said to have been briefly managed by the son of the proprietor before it finally collapsed.
Today, the top floor of the cinema house is now occupied by the Redeemed Christian Church of God (Zion Chapel). A member of the Church told P.M. News that they have been there for the past five years.
Similarly, the ground floor of Oregie Cinema has been turned into schools. Presently, there are about four coaching centres owned by different people, preparing students for such examinations as GCE, JME and the like. They are also now Common Entrance Examination centres for pupils and an adult education class.
Mr. John-Ken Ige, a professional teacher who operates an evening lesson there told P.M. News that he had been occupying the place for the past three years. He said Oregie cinema was the most popular cinema house in the entire Ajegunle area in the 1970s and 1980s, noting that the place simply collapsed upon the death of its owner.
He hinted that apart from the church and educational centres operating there, the place is normally used for wedding receptions, parties and other social gatherings.
Ige blamed the collapse of the cinema houses on the emergence of home videos, arguing that people are no longer patronising them as was the case several years back.
When P.M. News visited the place, it was a beehive of activities. From afar, one can easily hear the cacophony of voices emanating from the cinema house as a result of the activities of the church and those of the preparatory classes.
Like Oregie Cinema, the Boundary Cinema situated at Baale Street, Ajegunle has also ceased to exist. But unlike the former, Boundary Cinema is not being put to any use.
At the time P.M.News visited the place, a large sign post had been erected in front of the cinema house with an inscription: "For Sale". It was gathered that ever since the notice was erected, no tangible result has been achieved to that effect.Similarly, it was gathered that the cinema house built in the late 1970s was very popular until its demise.
P.M.News investigations revealed that the only cinema house still operating in the area at the moment is God Dey Cinema Limited, located at 163 Kirikiri Road, Olodi-Apapa.
Like Pen Cinema in Agege, its survival trick, it was gathered, lies in the ability to show the best of American, Indian and Chinese films.
In Lagos Island, all the Cinema houses that hitherto operated there have been converted into churches.
Like locusts, Christians now storm erstwhile cinema houses in their thousands for weekly devotional services, and gradually, the former den of robbers are being transformed into houses of God!.
The first cinema house to be converted into a holy sanctuary in Lagos Island was the Plaza Cinema situated at the Plaza Building, 5/7 MC Carthy Street, Onikan, Lagos.It now houses the Grace Assembly of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).
Today, the entire Plaza Cinema House has been taken over by the church, while other areas in the building have been turned to business outfits such as Salvation Travel Agency and Computech Service Limited.According to P.M.News checks, the RCCG took over the Plaza building at about 1995. A very reliable source told P.M.News that the landlord, having realised that he had ceased to make decent returns from the cinema business thought (wisely) that the rent will be regular if a church takes it over. A member of the Church who preferred anonymity hinted that the Cinema house, to an extent, perfectly suits the purpose of worship and that subtle efforts are afoot to acquire both the shop and the business centre.
The Plaza Cinema prides itself with facilities such as permanent collapsible seats with capable of sitting between 700 and 1000 people. The landlord, sources said is based in Warri, Delta State.
Adjacent to Plaza is the Kings Cinema at 97A Lewis Street, Lafiaji, Lagos which had since been taken over by the Flamming Sword Ministry headed by Rev. Babalola, its spiritual head and founder.
However, the acquisition of the Cinema house by the Flamming Sword has been described as a good omen.
"To the glory of God, in a nutshell, the environment around Kings Cinema had been very unsafe. Hoodlums usually sat both outside and inside the cinema house, selling Indian hemp and as well indulging in immoral acts. Today, the coming of the church has broken the yoke," a resident of the area and Church member declared.
He maintained that following the coming of the Church, coupled with the lynching sometime ago of two Area Boys, the area is now witnessing peace and tranquility.
In Surulere area of Lagos, the story has been the same. The fact that things were no longer at ease with cinema houses in the area became noticeable in the late 1980s when a popular cinema house in Akerele, Super Cinema began to play host to a congregation, the popular Christ Chapel headed by Pastor Tunde Joda.
First timers to that end of Surulere on weekdays then would assume the film house was having a special session, especially on Wednesdays when the church normally has its midweek evening service.
Cars of all shades, mainly elegant, often dot the premises of the Super Cinema. Though the premises used to offer skeletal services, today, however, film business has completely been forgotten in Akerele area of Surulere. Super Cinema has closed shop. The edifice which used to be known as Super Cinema has now given way to a multipurpose concern.
The case of Jebako Cinema in Idi-Oro is slightly different because the Cinema house still fulfils its traditional obligation of showing films, though mostly home video stuff.
P.M.News investigations revealed that the cinema house only performs the purpose for which it was actually founded only when the need arises. At the now dilapidated building which houses Jebako, cinema services are offered once in a while, but most of the time its patrons are shown home videos. Mr. Dehinde Kaka, a resident in Church Street, Idi-Oro is a beneficiary of the declining cinema business as he has capitalised on the situation by veering into video business. He explained that he normally runs neighbourhood promotions for any home video that is popular among the community masses.
What Kaka and his like normally do is to identify a popular home video, purchase one and show it to the people, using a ready facility offered by Jebako Cinema.Though not really thriving, he explained that the business, at least, affords him the opportunity to put body and soul together. The same, cannot, however be said of Casino Cinema located on Herbert Macaulay, Yaba and strategically positioned near the ever bustling Rowe Park, being one of the most patronised amusement parks in Lagos. Little wonder then that the cinema house is almost being taken over by the Redeemed Christian Church of God. Religious activities take place in the cinema house, while film shows would appear to take the back seat, whereas the edifice was erected primarily to provide cinema services.Apart from church services, wedding reception and other social activities also take place in Casino Cinema.
Metro Cinema, situated at Onipanu is at the moment playing host to three different religious sects, signifying that things are no longer well with the cinema house.
Similarly, Rialto Cinema, Abule Oja, Akoka has been taken over by religious organisations.
Sources told P.M.News that owners of cinema houses make good money by letting out spaces to religious organisations and making such facilities available to organisers of social programmes .
Some of these organisations, it was gathered, pay as much as N15,000 per event to some of these cinema houses.
Apart from the lucrative nature of letting spaces to religious and social organisations, popular actor, Doyin Hassan told P.M. News that there are many factors that have led to the demise of these cinema houses. Hassan, it would be recalled played the role of Olojowon in Saworo-Ide, Boniface in Died wretched, Omiran in Sango and Chief Priest in Royal Tears, among others.
The actor ascribed the crippling feature of Cinema houses in Lagos State in particular and Nigeria in general to the use of celluloid which was the order of the day in the film industry in the 1980s when the culture was still in vogue. The trend, according to him, suffered a setback with the emergence of home video, noting that this eventually became the undoing of cinemas.
The home video which came then, Hassan explained was of low quality celluloid and very cheap to produce, but admitted that the trend has changed negatively.Coupled with this fact is the attitude of Igbo marketers whom he said want quick returns and so resorted to home video.
"So the trend now shifted to home video and normally, if you have home video, what do you want in a cinema house?" Hassan asked rhetorically. He also blamed poor maintenance of cinema houses as another crucial factor responsible for the decline of the film industry in the state.
As far as Kolawole Adedojo Ogunbanwo, an ace cinematographer and retired film Director/Manager of the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) is concerned, the film industry will continue to decline for as long as the Nigerian economy remains comatose.
He stressed that in Nigeria today, there are more video productions than the actual film, nothing that "video is cost effective while celluloid takes some capital to get out because of so many factors linked to its production" .
He called on rich Nigerians to back film production, while enough training facilities should be provided, maintaining that this is the only way to bail out the film industry from its present dwindling status.
One other very vital factor responsible for the declining patronage of cinema houses and by extension their collapse is the security situation of the city of Lagos.
Since the Nigerian economy began to depreciate, crime wave here has appreciated, forcing people to keep indoors rather than go to cinema houses,often patronised by robbers and other anti-social elements. It is only the National Arts Theatre, Iganmu that appears to be restoring the cinema culture in Lagos.Yet, the National Theatre is just a shadow of itself in the sense that most of the facilities that were enjoyed in it in 1977 during the 2nd World Black Festival of Arts and Culture, a.k.a. Festac ’77, for which it was built are no more there. It is so bad now that in some of the halls, cinema goers are not free from getting wet whenever it is raining outside. The roof has sagged and nobody seems to care.
With most cinema halls these days changing status to coaching classes, churches, warehouses and even business centres, the knell of the cinema culture seems to be jingling at high pitch. This is heightened by the fact that current technology has brought about Video CDs with all the effects of the cinema hall.
Plus, the insecurity that sadly, is lately associated with urban living and night crawling, in just some years to come, telling the younger generation about the cinema hall and all its excitement would sound close to a moonlight tale.
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