Former military leader
of Nigeria, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, who presided over the
cancellation of that controversial June 12, presidential election won by
late MKO Abiola, will be in the public domain again to give account of
his evil days in office.
Award-winning film maker, Obi Emelonye
announced earlier this week, his plans to commence production of "
Badamasi", a biopic film on the former military leader.
Pre-product
ion for" Badamasi"is scheduled to begin next month and will run till June, 2017.
Intimating the press earlier in the week, about the project, Emelonye,
who flew into the country from London, said, "Badamasi" is a story of
Love, war, politics, violence, diplomacy, coups, corruption and
governance laced with heavy dose of Machiavellian intrigue. He said, his
decision to embark on this project is informed by the need to profile a
Nigerian leader in a historical faithful biographical film , a
treatment that has been meted out to other African leaders like Nelson
Mandela, Patrice Lumumba and Idi Amin of Uganda.
"The time has come
for Nigerians to start telling their stories. This journey started in
2012 when I watched Mandela. As I watched it, I felt proud as an
African. As Nigerians, we have several historical figures who haven’t
been immortalised on the big and small screens for the world to see,’ he
narrated.
The Badamasi film project, according to Emelonye, is
shaped to be hard-hitting, controversial but historically factual in its
treatment of Ibrahim Babangida's rise from orphan obscurity to the
zenith of Nigerian military power, in afraid of touching raw-nerves and
being boldly revealing with the ultimate aim of giving the viewers
unprecedented access into some of the most defining and controversial
moments of Nigeria's journey to nationhood; from the civil war to the
many coups, from the IBB years to June 12 saga.
