I wasted 10 years of my life working in government

Kingsley Ogbonna popularly known as Dauda, is a veteran Nollywood actor and comedian. A former Special Adviser on Arts, Culture and Tourism to former governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia state, he is also a trained lawyer. Dauda is back to what he knows how to do best, which is making people laugh. Enjoy this interview ORJI ONYEKWERE had with him.

You’re now into skit-making, what’s happening to stand up comedy and your acting career?

About 10 years ago, I left the industry to go and work as Special Adviser on Arts, Culture and Tourism. Within that period I have to go back to school to study law. Last year, I went to the Law School and throughout last year, I was in Law School and I was called to bar this year in February.

By April, I said let me go back to what people used to know me for and what I know how to do best which is acting. Now movies cannot give you much and coming back to movies to start afresh, looking at the kind of money I want in a movie, it is not advisable. You can see that there are no comedy movies again.

What they do now is to make movies and just put you as a comic relief. Nobody wants to sit down for two hours for people to watch and make them laugh, instead they prefer to go to Facebook, Tiktok, Instagram, and have some minutes’ laughter. The skits we shoot are like a movie, but it’s encompassing, everything is incorporated in it. What they will show you in two hours movie, you see it be given in three minutes in skit and it will still make you laugh.

Having come back from school, the time I spent in the government; if I knew, I would not have gone there because the time I spent there is showing on me now. I am paying the price now. Because I would have gone into the streets from that 2020 during the COVID period, when the likes of Shaggy, Sabinus, Mbakara, Untouchable and Apama all started their thing.

If I had started at the same time, I would have been so big by now. Do you know much they are making now? You see them making millions of naira, in a month they make like one hundred million naira. You can imagine, if I had started then and this is what I know how to do best.

I am not saying they are not good, they are; but I know that when it comes to making people laugh, I am better than some of them. That’s why I decided to come back because anytime somebody wakes up that’s his morning. The whole years I spent outside the entertainment industry, the only thing I gained was the law I went to read.

You regretted your job as a special adviser

Yes, to an extent though it added to my experience. . I got the experience but what I got from the government house in terms of the monetary value is not commiserates to the years I put in.

But a lot of people will say the previous government in Abia state did not make any impact in the art, culture and tourism sector which was your area of coverage.

If you knew the salary of a special adviser then you will marvel. I was paid ₦110,000 as a special adviser. You will do a proposal to the governor and they will approve it but to get the money is another uphill task because they will tell you that approval is not payment and you see yourself not having any money to work.

Maybe when the money is signed for a particular project, let’s say ₦10,000,000, it might take you up to another two years to get the money and you will be getting it in bits. The little one you have you can’t use it to execute the budget and you will be discouraged to go and get another one from the governor even if he is interested in signing for you.

I just concentrated on my school activities and once in a while, I will send a proposal. If they pay you money in piece meal, what are you going to do with it, is it not to pay the children’s school fees and then buy a new car for yourself

But the money they approved is for a project?

Yes, it’s for a project but you that worked, won’t you put something in your pocket? If they approved ten million and you use seven million to do the work, have you not tried? If anybody tells you that he is in government and he doesn’t put something in his pocket, what is he doing there? It’s not when they approved ten million, you use three million to work and pocket the remaining, that’s very bad.

But that’s the corruption we are talking about, using the money that have been assigned for a project for your personal use?

That’s not good but that does not mean something will not enter your pocket.

Why did your father insist that it’s either you read law or you marry a lawyer?

It’s because he so much love that profession. In my village, he was a pocket lawyer, what I mean, someone who served the whites then in Ibadan. He knows the law to an extent, the one they were using to intimidate people in the village. So they were using it that even the police will tell the entire community that my father is the only wise man they have.

Unfortunately he died in 2015, while I started my law course in2016. If he were to be alive before I got admission, he wouldn’t have died, he would have fought to stay alive and see me become a lawyer

How did you come about the name Dauda?

It came when I was in school at the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra State, where I read marketing. There was a dance I did on stage because I have been on stage all my life. I use to come and dance Ajasco in school if there’s any event because we used to have the Ukaonu’s club in Aba then. I will watch and after watching, I will come and dance.

During the end of the year party for the kindergarten children I will be the one to dance to the extent the proprietor now said my father should forget about paying my fees that he will be the training me in school. So, in my kindergarten, I got a scholarship for dancing. Then I used to do break dance and I was the junior choir master of Seven Day Adventist Church, Umuagu District.

I had some churches under my district and I was their general choirmaster .In my second year in secondary school, I started dancing break dance. From there, I went to Government College in Kaduna State where we have a cadet, that’s the military which we go to bush to camp or hike. So, anytime I am coming back I will be throwing my legs like a wounded soldier.

I wrote JAMB and Poly JAMB and got admission to read Sociology and Anthropology in University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu state and Marketing in Oko. My father said I should go and read marketing so that I will get a job in time and be able to train my younger ones. But if I knew, I would have studied sociology because that’s one of the best courses now.

After graduation, in 1998, I went for Youth Service in Yola, Adamawa State and in 1999 I joined the industry. So Tony One Week said that name I used to bear in school ‘Dauda’, I should bear it in the movie Hooligan. There’s a club Thriller Entertainment Club, Oko, which I belong, I used to dance Michael Jackson songs. I was the president of the club and Chiefo of the Kegite s club.

I was coronated in 1996.I reigned with Tom Diga, the Chiefo that died in December 1997. All my life has been entertainment and so when I got into the industry it was not difficult for me to adapt. The first movie that made me a star was Hooligan, then Radical part2 and Criminal.

Why did you start with movies with bad names?

It’s what the producers gave me.

Comedians during your time were natural with their jokes unlike today’s comedians but they are still making the money. So, what do have to say to this?

We are growing. Those days who imagined that anybody will thrive with stand upcomedy.Again most of them thrived with our jokes. They picked our jokes refined and rejigged it. In Nigeria, if you bring up something that doesn’t have to do with scandals, fight, misunderstanding you will not get the necessary followership.

There was a skit I made and it was a real life story but because it was quarrel, I had about 2 million views. If you make a normal skit, you will just get 2000 views.

Sometimes you just see Mbakara and VerydarkMAN quarrelling and you see people commenting. Verydarkman because of his controversial nature you see people commenting about it. That’s why jokes today are not natural jokes but more of character assassination. People are no longer ready to sit and learn jokes

Do you still like to feature in home movies?

Yes, I just left a set. I did some movies in Asaba early last month, last year December I did some movies where they also paid me well. Acting is very strenuous, be on set for 10 days, you don’t own yourself again and at the end of the day somebody comes to pay you ₦500,000.But if you have a good skit, you will do that and it might get you about 2m views, this can fetch you about 3000 dollars just for one skit.

Check how much it’s in the foreign exchange. There are people doing up to 10 skits in a month that are hits, so you can imagine how much they are making in a month.

Were you not in this country when they say that Mark Angel makes 300,000 dollars a month? The likes of Sabinus rakes in about #100,000,000 monthly because they have different platforms with different names. This is a business where you gathered people and they will be making money for you.

Are you practicing law?

Once in a while I wear my wig and go to court. Do you know how much they pay lawyers? The highest they pay these young new lawyers are just ₦50,000.Before you will practice to the stage where you will be making money; you must have spent 20-25 years in the business.

QUOTE:

If anybody tells you that he is in government and doesn’t put something in his pocket, what is he doing there?