by Akintayo Abodunrin
The creative industry mourns presidential aide, Oronto Douglas, who died on Thursday after a protracted battle with cancer.
The creative industry has not stopped mourning since Thursday when the news of the passing of the Special Adviser to the President on Research, Documentation and Strategy, Oronto Douglas, broke.
The late presidential aide was a major supporter and believer in the creative industry as he intervened positively in Nollywood, literature and visual arts amongst others.
He was one of the drivers behind President Goodluck Jonathan’s ‘Bring Back the Book’ project, an initiative aimed at promoting reading among the youth and regenerating publishing in the country. That the initiative appeared to have been stagnating in the last two years, sources said, was due to Douglas’ ill health. At an informal meeting with culture editors last year, he had disclosed that the project was not dead but that efforts were on to properly institutionalize it. He had also disclosed that the initiative had been building and equipping libraries around the country but had not gone to press with it.
That the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) had what it called a ‘salvaged convention’ in Ibadan, Oyo State last December was due to the late environmentalist’s intervention. Two chapters of ANA had withdrawn their hosting of the meeting because of money issues and the national executive was facing the possibility of not having any convention at all when Douglas intervened and got his principal to give the writers some money.
The Bayelsa state born lawyer and writer also played a crucial role in getting President Jonathan’s buy-in into the eight-city celebration of the 50th anniversary of the late Professor Chinua Achebe’s ‘Arrow of God’ last year.
Aside literature, Douglas, called OND by close friends, strongly supported Nollywood and visual artists as no official function he organized for his principal was complete without an exhibition of works by Nigerian artists.
He arranged meetings with players in Nollywood to know their needs and reported back to his principal. His reports were instrumental in the various interventionist projects of the Goodluck Jonathan administration for Nollywood.
He was a patron of the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) and had charged filmmakers at last year’s event in Calabar, Cross River State to promote “irresistible images of our societies on the screen, to show that our stories are also important, and also valid. We need more biopics on the heroes whose exploits have impacted on our societies. We need more films focusing on pivotal episodes in our history. We need more period dramas that examine the past, and more speculative films about the future. We need greater cross-pollination between the art forms.”
OND was also a strong backer of the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), a fact acknowledged by founder, Peace Anyiam-Osigwe in a tribute. “AMAA as an award organisation has a long history with Mr. Oronto Douglas from his days as the Commissioner of Information in Bayelsa State. He actually midwifed AMAA when the then Governor Depriye Alameyesiegha told him to work on our proposal.
“For about 11 years now we have maintained our relationship with this worthy son of Nigeria and environmentalist. The birth of AMAA also marked the beginning of his association with Nollywood, the Nigerian film Industry which Mr. Douglas has partnered and worked with till date.
“AMAA and Nollywood will sorely miss him and President Goodluck Jonathan will also miss one of his trusted aides. We wish his family, friends and close associates the fortitude and grace to bear this irreparable loss.”
Filmmaker, Mike Nliam, spoke in the same vein. “Nollywood has lost a great friend and supporter. Though I didn’t know him personally, my colleagues spoke highly of him before I had the opportunity of attending two meetings he had with filmmakers on how to improve our industry. He was a good man; may God keep his family,” he said.
Former President of ANA, Dr Wale Okediran said, “I have known Oronto for over 15 years because our paths crossed when he was an environmentalist. When he and Nnimmo Bassey formed Environmental Rights Action, I was one of their supporters. He was a very good friend of artists. There is this saying that a friend in government is a friend lost but that did not apply to him; in and out of government, he remained very close with his friends. He didn’t allow the aura of office to overcome him. He maintained his circle of friends even when you share different political views.
“He assisted us in ANA when I was President and I can’t forget my last personal encounter with him last year when he broke protocols to allow me meet President Jonathan at the villa. We were organizing the Arrow of God celebration then and were in dire need of money. He just set up that impromptu meeting with the President who then assisted us. That we had the celebrations at all was due to Oronto’s intervention and the President’s magnanimity. We were aware of his illness and were praying God will still grant him life. This is a very sad moment for us. Our prayers are with his wife and children. We will, in our own little way, see how to immortalize him. May his soul rest in peace.”
Editor of The Guardian, Martins Oloja, also had kind words to say about the late presidential aide who built bridges across different sectors of the society. He posted on facebook: “Only very few good men have been around President Goodluck Jonathan and Oronto Douglas has been one of them. And I dare say he has been the best that would have made some difference even in the March 28 presidential election that GEJ lost! …Unlike some others, he was always in touch in and out of season.”
Still too distraught over his demise, Douglas’ assistant, Molara Wood, tweeted “My boss Oronto Douglas was a soldier. A warrior’s heart resided within him. He was fearless, courageous and brave. May he rest in peace.”
The late Oronto Douglas was born in 1966. He was a former Commissioner for Information, Culture, Tourism and Strategy in Bayelsa State. He received degrees in Law from the University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt and De Montfort, Leicester, England.
This article first appeared in Nigerian Tribune.
