Awo Jesu: How I Took Over 15,000 Nigerian Youths Out of The Streets, Empowered Them

By Gbenga Sodeinde in Ado Ekiti

The lack of Training facilities has been described as a major setback for Theater Art Graduates in the country, A Film maker and Manager Dr. Oreofe Williams popularly known as “Awo Jesu” made this known during an interview at the Federal University Of Oye Ekiti(FUOYE) on 4th of July 2023.

Dr. Williams, an Actor, Film maker, Theatre manager and scholar holds a Doctorate degree in film studies and media communication from the Federal University Oye-Ekiti, (FUOYE), said most graduates are unable to produce good movies because there were no proper training materials to enhance their talents.

Awo Jesu who also has a Degree from Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ogun State boast of many Gospel films to his credit in over almost two decades of practice.

He has also assisted in producing other secular movies deploying his professional skills and scholarship to produce the best.

He is also the first to establish a film village in Nigeria many years after Hubert Ogunde.

Oreofe who hails from Ososa in Ogun State, the same place where late Nigerian doyen of Theatre and Drama, Chief Hubert Ogunde, came from said;
“I built the first film village many years after Ogunde built his in the 1940s.

I also took over 15,000 Nigerian youths out of the streets and empowered them with film and theatre making skills which have changed their lives for the better ever since.”

He maintained that many Graduates of various Higher Institutions come to him regularly for further professional training apart from invitations from the institutions to train their students.

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He bemoaned the lack of adequate and standard facilities in the institutions which he claimed has affected the output of Theater Arts Graduates in the country.
” A lot of them has good ideas, yes very talented but the facilities to bring out those talents are not there and it is quite unfortunate ” he lamented.

” l was the first to introduce the first the convocation film production in OOU.
The then VIce Chancellor was involved and he was impressed so also is the new VC, he is also part of the project .

” With what i have seen, Government needs to still help in equipping the universities. I go with my equipment and sometimes l borrow them in order to support them, for how long will I continue to do that? He queried.

According to him he theatre arts and mass communication departments need equipment because their course contents in most theatre departments are more on theatre than media.

“They do more of stage plays, but we really need to train those students in film studies. We need to understand that when they are out of school, most of them don’t do stage plays because they get to discover that most people don’t watch stage plays out there”

He however gave his resolve continue to revive film making now in schools as plays and skits and other media production stuffs.

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