An Associate Professor of Theatre and Drama at the Alvan Ikoku College of Education, Owerri, as well as Imo State University, Owerri, Imo State, ABC Duruaku has stated that the book, Trends in Nollywood, written by Dr. Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma, the Executive Secretary of National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), who is also a Visiting Associate Professor to Nasarawa State University, Keffi, is relevant to all sectors and therefore recommended the book to practitioners, government, scholars, students and the general public.

Duruaku, who made the recommendation while speaking as Book Reviewer at the public presentation of the book at the Banquet Hall, Government House, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, said Ayakoroma’s book is a compendium that would offer more than a passing interest to all readers.

Represented by Dr. Akpos Adesi of the Niger Delta University (NDU), Amassoma, Bayelsa State, Professor Duruaku stressed that Trends in Nollywood is an engaging book because it reads well; it is clearly arranged; it demands attention; and it is thought-provoking and forward looking.

His words: “The book style is elegant, attractive and pictorial. It is also smartly finished and in excellent typography. The preliminary discourses and blurb comments are by relevant and knowledgeable professionals. Yet, the book has Ayakoroma’s personal style – conversational, relaxed and factual.”

Further describing the book as a mainline book that is not only worthy but prestigious and confers evident scholarship, Duruaku regretted that with the era of squint existence and education cost, undergraduates will find it hard to acquire in spite of interest.

The University Don therefore called for donor intervention for students saying, “Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), for instance, should invest in and donate the book to students of theatre, drama, and film. The film industry should also take notice that a work like this stimulates further work and the corpus will advance the industry.”

According to him, the position Nollywood occupies today is built on the sheer number of productions, and not on fiscal returns or quality, pointing out that Ayakoroma’s work essentially recommends an increase of the discipline windows in our schools; and called on other scholars and practitioners to join the debate, which Ayakoroma has fired a shot at, to see how government and institutional structures can tap into it in order to move the industry to a natural next level.

It will be recalled that the public presentation of Trends in Nollywood took place first at the Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja-FCT, on Monday, 10th November, 2014, where Professor Emeka Nwabueze of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, did the book review; and at the National Arts Theatre, Iganmu-Lagos, on Tuesday, 2nd December, 2014, where Professor Emmanuel Dandaura performed that function.

Caleb Nor

Corporate Affairs Unit

NICO, Abuja