Enugu gets Nollywood village soon
As part of activities to mark the celebration of the centenary of Enugu , the state government has announced plans to build a Nollywood village and thereby make the state centre of movie production in the country.
Speaking on the 100 years of Enugu , Chairman of the Centenary Committee and former Minister of Information and Culture, Chief Nnia Nwado said the committee was fully committed towards using the celebration to renew Enugu City .
Said he; “We don't just want to have a week of celebration and dancing, we want to use it as a renewal of Enugu and repositioning of Enugu and to announce to the world what the new Enugu is.
“We want Enugu to be known not just for coal; we want Enugu to be known as the centre of Nollywood. We are going to start a Nollywood village from the proceeds that we get from the Centenary celebrations so that the film production in Nigeria will take its firm root in Enugu . We want Enugu to be known as a holiday resort because of its cleanliness and its good roads.
We want Enugu to be known for the friendliness of its people, their hospitability; we want it to be the melting point of the South East and the South-South; the place that gave birth to all the states around here and still prepared to give homes to them. “And the government in its land policy will be allocating land to non Enugu indigenes so that Enugu continues to retain its character as the cosmopolitan headquarters of Eastern Nigeria .
“We are going to have a Mmanwu festival which we usually have it here every year but this one is going to be different; and we are going to compartmentalize Enugu into Ogui, Ogbette, Asata, New Haven, and each area would come with its best Mmanwu and all the senatorial zones in Enugu State be encouraged to also bring their own so that we will have really something of pictorial significance.
“We hope to have a beauty contest in which we will have Miss Enugu in the course of the carnival. And like I said, all these will enable us to promote the home coming of our people in Diaspora.