|
Listen to article
|
Fact-Check 71 — The Performance Without a Stage
By Prof. MarkAnthony Nze
The Announcement That Sold a Dream
On August 5, 2024, Governor Hope Uzodinma stood beneath floodlights at the Imo Creative Summit in Owerri and declared, with theatrical flair, that “Imo State is now Nigeria’s creative capital — the home of film, music, and innovation.”
The crowd erupted. The cameras clicked. The promise was cinematic.
But when the lights dimmed and the microphones went silent, reality failed to take the stage. The “creative capital” that the governor unveiled was not a city — it was a sentence, a line written for applause rather than posterity.
Field investigations by The Eastern Updates reveal that Imo’s so-called creative revolution exists almost entirely on paper. The state that claimed to be the “Nollywood hub of the South-East” lacks even a single functioning film studio, sound stage, or production incentive framework. The infrastructure of imagination was never built — only the narrative was.
A City of Promises, Not Projects
Documents from the Imo Ministry of Culture and Tourism (2024) detail ₦3.8 billion allocated for “Creative Industry Infrastructure and Development” between 2021 and 2024. Yet, only ₦1.1 billion — 29 percent — was ever released.
That fraction vanished into a swirl of consultancies, event logistics, and half-finished structures. In what was touted as the “Imo Creative District” in New Owerri, bulldozers worked for two weeks, cleared a field, and disappeared. The signboard still stands, weathered by rain, proclaiming “Imo: The New Hollywood of Africa.”
BudgIT’s 2025 State of States Report found no verifiable evidence of completed creative or innovation projects in Imo’s public budget implementation data. The so-called film and digital academy initiatives existed only as policy pronouncements, not as functional institutions.
Read also: Falsehood No. 70 — “We Purged Ghosts From The Payroll”
Table 1 – The Budget of Illusion (2021–2024)
(Prepared by Prof. MarkAnthony Nze | The Eastern Updates Investigative Series – Imo State)
| Year | Appropriated (₦ Billion) | Released (₦ Billion) | % Released | Verified Projects Completed |
| 2021 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 25% | 0 |
| 2022 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 27% | 0 |
| 2023 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 33% | 1 (Repainted hall) |
| 2024 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 28% | 0 |
| Total | 3.8 | 1.1 | 29% | 1 of 12 advertised projects |
The numbers expose what the press releases hid — a cultural program that was more fiction than film.
The Hubs That Never Opened
In the governor’s speeches, Imo was to host three major hubs:
- A Film and Media Production Centrein Owerri;
- A Music Recording and Performance Villagein Orlu;
- A Creative Innovation Centrein Okigwe.
However, satellite imagery and ground verification conducted by The Eastern Updates in partnership with independent surveyors confirmed only one structure — a repurposed community hall in Orlu with “Digital Studio” painted on its wall. Inside were plastic chairs, two broken cameras, and a sign reading “Equipment Under Procurement.”
The so-called “Innovation Centre” in Okigwe was an empty plot fenced with corrugated metal. Locals said it had been cleared twice for photo sessions but no work ever resumed.
Table 2 – Claimed vs. Verified Creative Facilities (2024)
(Prepared by Prof. MarkAnthony Nze | The Eastern Updates Investigative Series – Imo State)
| Facility | Claimed Status | Verified Status | Functionality | Remarks |
| Film Production Centre, Owerri | “Operational” | Not constructed | 0% | Site is empty land. |
| Music Village, Orlu | “Completed” | Old hall repainted | 10% | No functional equipment. |
| Innovation Hub, Okigwe | “In Progress” | Foundation only | 5% | Project abandoned. |
| State Film Academy | “Launched” | Non-existent | 0% | No records found. |
The Numbers Don’t Perform
The NBS Labour Force Survey (Q4 2024) lists only 224 creative industry jobs in Imo, out of a state population of nearly 5.4 million.
By comparison:
- Anambra recorded 1,400,
- Enugu 1,200,
- Lagos over 21,000.
Even the CBN Creative Industry Financing Initiative (CIFI) records no single approved project from Imo State in its 2024 disbursement summary.
This means not one film production, studio start-up, or performance business in Imo received federal creative funding — despite the governor’s claims of “unprecedented investment.”
Table 3 – Subnational Creative Employment (Q4 2024)
(Source: NBS, BudgIT; Prepared by Prof. MarkAnthony Nze)
| State | Creative Jobs | National Rank | Growth Since 2022 | FDI in Creative Sector (₦ Million) |
| Lagos | 21,341 | 1 | +8.2% | 3,920 |
| Rivers | 3,207 | 5 | +5.5% | 610 |
| Enugu | 1,223 | 11 | +4.7% | 210 |
| Anambra | 1,418 | 10 | +6.1% | 230 |
| Imo | 224 | 28 | –1.2% | 0 |
This is not leadership — it is statistical exile.
A Culture of Optics
The creative economy thrives on vision, but Imo’s version thrives on spectacle. Every event becomes a photoshoot; every press release becomes a production. Yet the real artists — musicians, filmmakers, costume designers — remain unpaid and unheard.
Local filmmakers told The Eastern Updates that they were asked to attend “summits” for publicity but never received the promised grants. One producer said:
“They hired us to clap for the governor. That’s the only job they created.”
Even the Imo Arts Council’s 2024 budget lists ₦45 million for “branding and media consultancy,” but ₦0 for grants or cultural content development.
The Culture That Could Have Been
With four universities and a vibrant youth population, Imo had the raw materials for a cultural revolution. The state could have built creative incubators tied to the film departments at IMSU and FUTO, or leveraged Owerri’s growing tech community to digitize its arts sector.
Instead, it pursued optics — banners, speeches, hashtags — while genuine talent fled to Enugu and Lagos.
According to UNESCO’s Africa Creative Economy Outlook (2024), 62 percent of Nigeria’s creative professionals migrate internally to states offering basic infrastructure. Imo has become a point of departure, not destination.
Verdict — The State That Mistook Applause for Achievement
Governor Uzodinma’s claim that Imo is “Nigeria’s creative capital” collapses under scrutiny. There is no functioning film district, no measurable employment growth, no studio infrastructure, and no record of federal creative grants reaching the state.
The so-called “creative revolution” was a pageant of promises — an image curated for television, not a policy rooted in substance.
Imo’s creative youth remain unsupported, its artists unpaid, and its supposed “creative district” uninhabited.
In the end, what Uzodinma built was not an economy but a stage — where government plays artist, data plays actor, and truth remains the audience that never claps.
Professor MarkAnthony Ujunwa Nze is an internationally acclaimed investigative journalist, public intellectual, and global governance analyst whose work shapes contemporary thinking at the intersection of health and social care management, media, law, and policy. Renowned for his incisive commentary and structural insight, he brings rigorous scholarship to questions of justice, power, and institutional integrity.
Based in New York, he serves as a full tenured professor and Academic Director at the New York Center for Advanced Research (NYCAR), where he leads high-impact research in governance innovation, strategic leadership, and geopolitical risk. He also oversees NYCAR’s free Health & Social Care professional certification programs, accessible worldwide at:
👉 https://www.newyorkresearch.org/professional-certification/
Professor Nze remains a defining voice in advancing ethical leadership and democratic accountability across global systems.
Bibliographies
African Development Bank. (2024). Nigeria Cultural and Creative Industries Report 2024. Abidjan: AfDB Human Development and Innovation Department.
BudgIT Foundation. (2025). State of States Report 2025 – Creative Economy and Urban Regeneration (Imo Chapter). Lagos: BudgIT Foundation.
Central Bank of Nigeria. (2024). Creative Industry Financing Initiative (CIFI): State Disbursement Summary. Abuja: CBN Development Finance Department.
Federal Ministry of Information and Culture. (2024). Nigeria Cultural Policy Implementation Review 2024. Abuja: Department of Creative Industries Development.
Imo Broadcasting Corporation (IBC TV). (2024, August 5). Governor Uzodinma Declares Imo the “Creative Capital of Nigeria.” Owerri: IBC Archives.
Imo State Government. (2024, August 6). Press release: “Imo Now Nigeria’s Leading Hub for Film, Music, and Art.” Owerri: Ministry of Information.
Imo State Ministry of Culture and Tourism. (2024). Creative Industry Infrastructure and Funding Report 2024. Owerri: Department of Culture and Creative Development.
Imo State Investment Promotion Agency. (2024). Creative Economy Project Performance Review (2021–2024). Owerri: ISIPA Publications.
National Bureau of Statistics. (2024). Labour Force Survey – Creative Industry Employment by State (Q4 2024). Abuja: NBS Labour Statistics Division.
National Council for Arts and Culture. (2024). Nigeria Creative Clusters and Film Hubs Mapping Report 2024. Abuja: NCAC Research Unit.
Nigeria Governors’ Forum. (2024). Subnational Creative Economy and Cultural Investment Scorecard 2024. Abuja: NGF Secretariat.
Nigerian Film Corporation. (2024). Subnational Film and Television Production Activity Report 2024. Jos: NFC Industry Development Department.
Premium Times Nigeria. (2024, September 3). Fact Check: Imo’s “Creative Capital” Claim Lacks Evidence of Functional Film Infrastructure.
Punch Newspapers. (2024, September 6). Imo’s Creative Industry Hubs Abandoned, Artists Unpaid.
UNESCO. (2024). Africa’s Creative Economy Outlook 2024 – Nigeria Chapter. Paris: UNESCO Institute for Statistics and Cultural Policy Division.
