The TV special profiles first-time voters, as they navigate and participate in the momentous 2023 national and state elections, while also featuring an extensive roll call of storytellers, candidates and political players from across the country including exclusive interviews with two of the top four presidential candidates, and the nation’s leading political journalists.

“Nigeria’s Gen Z is geared up to really participate in the electoral process for the first time this year, and the excitement across the country – even the region – is palpable,” said Chude Jideonwo who is executive producer and director. “With a third-force movement building momentum for the first time in 50 years, and more first-time voters registering than any time in recent history, this one may just be the election that wakes up generations that are jaded and the Gen Z set that had given up hope.

“Weaving their lifestyles and narratives as the central character of this film, and speaking to its leading lights including influencer Enioluwa Adeoluwa and YouTuber Korty EO, we take a deep dive into how elections actually work in Nigeria, and Gen Z coming of change in a time of hope and despair.”

Shot across 8 states of the country, interviewees include Wole Soyinka, Matthew Kukah, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Peter Obi, Sowore Omoyele, Nasir el-Rufai, Rochas Okorocha, Kadaria Ahmed, Dele Momodu, Samson Itodo, Hamzat Lawal, Yemi Adamolekun, Banky W, Ismail Ahmed, Udo Jude Ilo, Akin Alabi, Enioluwa Adeoluwa, Eniola Olanrewaju (Korty eo), Gbolahan ‘Gaffy’ Gafar, the editorial team at Stears Nigeria amongst others.

The TV special will air on Channels TV and ARISE NEWS on February 18th, 2023 and on African Independent Television and Wazobia TV on February 19th, 2023.

For more on the film, see here.

“I was criticised because of the colour of my skin”, Idia Aisien shares about her role as Nneka on #WithChude

TV Host and Actor, Idia Aisien sits with Chude Jideonwo to discuss her debut in acting, relocating to Nigeria and the loss of her dad.

Idia shares her experience playing Nneka in Nneka the pretty serpent – her debut in acting. She shared, “it was an amazing experience. I think it turned me inside out. It felt like I started over in my life, in my thinking and in what I could do as a person.”

She also shared the mixed reactions she got after the release of the film. “When it first came out in the cinemas, I was a little bit heartbroken by some of the comments that people were leaving. Comments about me not being light-skinned or Ibo, about me destroying what meant something to a lot of Nigerians. Nigerians loved their veteran actors; they love their Nollywood classics. So, it was something that I just wished people could see how much passion went into it at the time. But, with the international market, and the kind of feedback we are getting, I am getting messages from the Philippines, French Guiana, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica, and Los Angeles. I was hurt at first, because Nneka is a fictional character and anyone could bring something different to the character but I don’t think that tribe and skin colour should matter. I mean, Black Panther was Americans pretending like they are in Africa. A lot of people who criticized it (the film- Nneka the pretty serpent), criticized because of the choice of Nneka, which broke my heart.”

“When Nneka came out, some were like, ‘we heard Idia killed it o’. This very famous female said, ‘abeg, I am sure she paid for that job’. She saw me recently and was nice to me. She said she finally watched it, and it was great, but you know when you hear stuff, it’s like, ‘do I take the one I heard you say’. or ‘do I take how you feel now that you have watched it’. This is why it is important to give people a chance”, she said.

On relocating, she shared that she doesn’t think moving to Nigeria was a good choice, ‘I am not doing what I came to Nigeria to do. When I came to Nigeria, I was working for a private equity firm in New York. I came here because they were investing in banks across Africa, and at that time they were working with Union Bank. It was a great job, and a great opportunity for me, everything was going well for me in New York. And I came to Nigeria and destiny takes me.” She proceeded to share that the difference in earning power, the stereotypes and labels in Nigeria, and putting her life in the public eye, are her regrets about moving to Nigeria.

On the loss of her dad, she said, “the business show on Arise was my dream job. But something quite terrible happened to me in life and I just wanted a fresh start. I lost my dad, and I just didn’t want to do anything I was currently doing ever again. My dad raised me. The stuff that people say about their mum, that was my dad to me. My dad was my hero. He had a car accident and he died.”

Watch the excerpts from the interview here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CojS9bEKRu8/?hl=en

Nigerian Music Producer and Artiste, Rexxie sits with Chude Jideonwo to discuss his creative process, his evolution from being a producer to a recording artiste.  

On his journey to music production, he shared, “It was the point when my mum wasn’t feeling too well, and that period I wasn’t getting much cash from home and I had to do extra, and music was the only thing sorting the bill. My mum had tuberculosis at that time, and no attention was on my side. Although, it (my music production journey) had started from YABATECH, when I came to Lagos. I saw the way everyone was into the music thing, and I felt that I had it in me too.  My mum is more of the handwork kind of person. She was a seamstress; she makes clothes. And she understood the importance of what that was going to help with in the next generation, because you can’t compare handwork and going to school. She saw me doing that and she was like, ‘what can I do to help you?’. She saw that passion and I told her I wanted a sound card and she bought it for me”. 

Rexxie also shares on the process that helps him create genius sounds, “My production starts from the scratch. I am not the kind of person that gives the artiste beat to start freestyling to, the words the artiste is saying inspires what I am pressing. Although there is a team thing- following plans and everything on the side, but the decision comes from following instinct. And that instinct is helping some, it’s affecting some. I look at the space and I look at how people like Blaqbonez, Portable, are still striking the market. They are following their instincts and now everyone is seeing it as a promotional strategy now, but those guys were really just doing the thing. You might see more people doing like them but that doesn’t mean they are being like that”.  

He also shared the experience on his transition from just music production, to recording his own songs, “It blessed me. Imagine the hierarchy between the producer and the artiste. You see producers crying everywhere, saying they have not been paid, but when you own your song, the difference is clear. I am on a different line with other producers. Everyone was saying it was hard. Yes, it is hard, but solution was what I looked for and role models like DJ Khalid. He’s just that guy that does it that way, but on a bigger spectrum.” 

“I am at the point where I am trying to develop myself for the next phase. Because when you unlock one door, you see why you should unlock another door. From being a producer to being an artiste, and now I’m feeling like I want to perform my song, I want to be able to find a way to be that person. I am learning DJ-ing, building confidence to be able to hype and face the crowd. I am at that stage where I am trying to evolve to be the life of the party guy”, he added. 

Watch the excerpts from the interview here:    

www.instagram.com/p/CoMH0HTtWug/?hl=en  

Host of #WithChude, Chude Jideonwo discusses the making of his new documentary, Awaiting Trial and the need for a continued fight against injustice with Dika Ofoma.

In the interview, Chude Jideonwo shared his choice to tell the stories despite the sea of different materials on police brutality in Nigeria and managing the subject’s sensitivity even while telling the different sides of the story.

Awaiting Trial is a documentary that follows the lives of 3 people caught by the injustice of the Nigerian Police and is held by the unfair structures of both the police and the faulty legal system. The film was held in a 5-day online screening in 2022. The film is the debut from Chude Jideonwo Presents, a factual film studio  Africa’s leading independent producer of factual and non-fiction content, both scripted and unscripted – film, series, podcast and TV.

Read the full interview here: https://dikaofoma.substack.com/p/chude-jideonwo-on-making-awaiting

For more information: studio.withchude.com

On Thursday,10th of November, 2022, Chude Jideonwo’s debut film, Awaiting Trial, screened at Africa International Film Festival, an annual week-long film festival hosted in Lagos, Nigeria. The movie screened at the Landmark Center and hosted guests for the festival who were all excited about the film.

Awaiting Trial is a documentary that explores both the #EndSARS protests and the ‘deeper illness’ they point to – the phenomenon in Nigeria’s communal justice system called ‘awaiting trial’ where people are arrested and detained indefinitely without charge.  The film follows the lives of 3 families – Iloanya, Onyemelue, and Yellowe caught by the injustice of the Nigerian Police and down held by its criminal justice system and features actors Falz, Mr Macaroni; activist Rinu Oduala; and Olumide Akpata,  former president of the Nigerian Bar Association.

Melody, an audience member at the screening, expressed her deep appreciation for the film. “It was very emotional and touching. I wish the government would do something about people still in prison for doing nothing. I also think that on our part, we have a role to play,” she said.

She added, “Just like Chude is doing; it is not a one-person thing. When you see something is wrong going on around, you should be able to stand up for the person instead of working by.”

Other viewers also lauded Chude Jideonwo for his thoughtfulness and boldness in airing these families’ stories and providing insight into the scourge of unwarranted arrests by the Nigerian Police Force, and the oppressive system that is Awaiting Trial. Otobong said, “Chude’s work is phenomenal, it’s investigative journalism, and beyond that, the things he’s talking about – the topic he’s addressing – are things that Nigerians see, and we need to escalate to the relevant authorities with the hope that change will happen.”

Present at the screening were lawyers at the Headfort foundation, a non-profit organization focused on providing free and easy access to justice to indigent and wrongly incarcerated inmates (who were also cast in the documentary) to answer questions from the audience on the subjects raised in the film.

Watch the theme song here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJYixVkVPn0&t=1s

More information on the studio ‘Chude Jideonwo Presents’ is on studio.withchude.com

Open Country Mag, the pan-African magazine, recently published a review of Chude Jideonwo’s debut film, Awaiting Trial.

In the article, an in-depth analysis of both the subtle and loud but salient details in the documentary, the writer opined, “Jideonwo’s narration does well to provide cultural context for the pending justice for End SARS victims, including the Nigerian legal limbo called “awaiting trial,” from where the documentary took its name. That culture—of being arrested, sometimes for the flimsiest reasons, and spending months and years in jail without getting a hearing—is fed, he explains, by a long chain of subcultures: many Nigerians have a stigma of being arrested, which leads to their eagerness to bribe the police to avoid it, which leads to the police getting greedier, becoming emboldened to impunity, which leads right back to the police making random, baseless arrests.

“Awaiting Trial is a documentation of defiance.”

To read the full review, see here