Creator of Yoruba Movie Awards Laface, Accuses Govt. Of Killing Dreams

Creator of the Yoruba Movie Awards, Tunde Oshinibosi aka Laface's passion for the Yoruba film industry is clearly too real to be ignored.

He admits that after facilitating trips by international pop stars, such as Wyclef, Shaka Demus and Pliers, the late Lucky Dube and Naughty by Nature to Nigeria in the past, he felt an itch to give back to his roots-the Yoruba race.

But, unknown to many, including the stars present at the occasion, the glamorous ceremony almost existed only in the imagination of the initiator.

This was as a result of the near-insurmountable challenges that trailed the planning process. Reliving his experience during the build-up to the awards, Laface said his efforts were nearly marred by bureaucracy.

“The major challenge I encountered was funding. It was so alarming and heart breaking experience for me. We had to beg for sponsorship, I had to sell my property (an uncompleted building) at a give-away price of N30m to fund the awards event. We spoke to the government and it took a lot of talking back and forth. I don't know why we have to sell Yoruba content to a Yoruba speaking state.

“The Oyo State culture and tourism officials didn't even key into my vision. Yet, they are supposed to be promoting culture and tourism. We were talking to them for close to a year. But, because of their indifferent attitude, we felt that if we didn't take a stand and move on, the whole project would flop,” he says.