The movie, Power of 1, sponsored by 2baba Foundation, among others and directed by Izu Ojukwu berthed at Viva Cinema for the residents of Ota, the industrial city of Ogun State, to catch a glimpse of.
And at the end of the more than two hours screening, the picture, which made its debut at the cinema that incidentally opened for the first time on that day, thrilled the audience that were mainly youths, its target audience according to Mr. Efe Omorogbe who wrote the screenplay, as they concluded that there was no better time to release the movie than now.
They said that the message the film carried is the real life situation in Nigeria now, with majority suffering the hardship in the land.
Some of them, who spoke to this reporter, wished that the film will be seen by as many Nigerians as possible – young or old.
The Power of 1 is an adaptation of the protest which 2face Idibia, the popular musician, proposed last year but called it off at the last minute due to pressures from government and security agents in Nigeria.
In halting the protest then, the musician had hinted that it will return in other ways, now instead of the peaceful march protest he had planned, it has come back in a movie form.
That other way according to Omorogbe who also spoke to us at a similar screening of the movie at The Grand Cinema Lekki, Lagos State, where two presidential candidates for this year’s presidential election, Oby Ezekwesili and Fela Durotoye, graced the screening said “that other way which 2baba talked about when he cancelled the protest is this film.”
He said “everything about the film from the cast and crew is real” just as he described it as “the biggest budget film in Nigeria presently.”
The movie characters are Alex Ekubo (Legit) who ignited the anxiety for the protest through his posting in the social media, Jide Kosoko who acted the role of a governor who wanted to bribe the organisers of the protest off their planned protest but was rebuffed by Ramsy Nouah who is known as Edafe one of Legit’s friends who helped out in planning the logistics for the protest.
Others were Jibola Dabo the white bearded actor known in the movie as Kufre, Bimbo Manuel played the role of Fatai Owoseni, the former Lagos State Police Command Commissioner who also acted the role of a police commissioner in the movie, Rachael Oniga who played the role of Legit’s mother and Annie Idibia who known as Clara, the wife of Legit.
All in all, the movie which has the potential of grossing many awards this year, parades time tested stars all of whom interpreted their roles well.
The film locations sets were mainly in Lagos. It sought to bring to the fore, the masses’ suffering due to neglect by governments at all levels, a neglect which got to a frustration level for Legit that he decided to react with a protest but because of the fear that politicians and other elements in the society, might hijack it for their own selfish interest, he pulled the plug on the action at the last minute.
But the take away in all of that is that one person can help make a change in the society and that was what Legit and his friends were able to achieve as they got both government and security agents worried as to what the protest might result into and vowed to do anything necessary to avert it.
