The Patriot Institute of Journalism and Arts (PIJA), Lance Magazine is a public-centric independent media organisation dedicated to fighting injustice, fostering social justice and community development through the telling and retelling of the marginalised-oriented stories.
No one would have thought Niyi Atapa Adeniyi could produce and direct such masterpiece; being one of the youngest producers in Nollywood. Indeed with Maami, we can easily conclude that Mr Atapa is truly a connoisseur who has mastered the art and craft of movie production.
The movie, Maami, portrayed the story of a young Nigerian named Mayowa, whose parents placed so much value on education and academic qualification, which they believe is the only key to their only son getting a good job—the good job which his father could not get.
Mayowa successfully graduated from the University of Lagos with a First-Class degree, then proceeded to seek for job in the ever busy city of Lagos and with that fashionable excellent certificate; after he had invested all his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) allowances on Forex trading and lost, woefully.
The search for job and more, all ended in disappointment as Mayowa’s search lingered to infinity. Things got more sore as his mother famously known as “Iya Certificate”, who could have been a source of consolation for him, tormented him day and night. To add to the misery, Mayowa got rejected by a beautiful damsel who bidded to leap for a durable relationship embroidered with luxuries. All of these made depression overflow his tired heart. Mayowa thought of nothing but death and so, he committed suicide.
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Nigeria, in the recent years has witnessed series of suicides as well as its attempts; ranging from leaps to rivers, hanging of selves, taking of poisons and many more. And while very few of these suicides are caused by flimsy excuses, many were basically caused by depression.
Depression, which has been categorically defined as a state of desolation, is an hollow to a quick journey to afterlife. People get depressed due different reasons but the most cause(s) of depression is failed economy and country. When this occurs, people tend to lose their jobs, resources, money and properties all of which may have become basic sources of their livelihood and their only hopes for survival. And like the historic; Great Depression of the 19s, many resort to commit suicide when their hope is lost. This suicidal act is usually one thing which they all believe can heal their pains. Meanwhile, the oddity in it is that, while previously, depression only affected the elderly ones, currently, the younger generations are dying of depression.
In Nigeria, we’ve seen different instances of young people committing suicide on different accounts but most still connected to depression. And this is what Adeniyi Atapa pictured in Maami with the character of Mayowa. Peradventure, Atapa is trying to communicate the depth of his feelings to the world, how probably, he has internally died a million times trying to fulfill what his parents and the society expect of him while in reality, the Nigerian economy kept drawing him back.
Maami is a must watch for all young Nigerians who in one way or the other are deeply affected by the country’s epileptic economy. The economy that will ensure they struggle but never see any results from their struggles.
For me, I give Maami 100 per cent, basically for merging nonfiction with fiction to create a factionalism that mirrors every day experience of young Nigerians.
Edited by Bushra Ghazal&Jerome Kalu