This morning, we woke up on The Film Blog (TFB) to find out that Oreka Godis, one of our favorite radio presenters (even though she of course won’t believe it, because in this country, even supposedly intelligent people cannot stomach praise if you add just one piece of criticism to it), had begun to attack us.

Waste of time.

She was attacking for this particular post, which was up in error before its final edit. The sub-editor ultimately decided not to put up the post (in his words”: “the reader must be tired of hearing about this issue by now”), but since Oreka has set up a rather juvenile ruckus, we suppose we can be here for all that.

 

Yes, Oreka, the movie When Love Happens Again was awful, and we were terribly disappointed by your acting in it (and noooooo, it’s fine to keep talking about it, because we were, yes, so hopeful for its success), especially so because on radio, you’re such a talent. Such a talent on Urban 96.5FM’s The Breakfast Show.

Also we love Urban FM, so maybe that.

But, of all the many, many, many, many issues wrong (and we went off on a justified rant about all of that here) with that film, our most grating issue was the acting by Weruche Opia, and Oreka. How determined they were to position accent over acting. How completely disconnected from the plot (such as there was) they were.

The point we were making in the original post: the one thing that makes Oreka special is that, despite her IJGB calling card, she actually is an excellent TV and radio host – because she is real, because she connects, because she looks like she just gets up and does it.

All of that, which cost sadly lost, in that train wreck of the film.

And, please don’t be ignorant. It’s not YNaija.com ‘attacking you’. The Film Blog of YNaija is different from the main site of YNaija.com, and we were in fact unaware of that post – because the main site does film reviews every week. We are two writers here at The Film Blog. It’s here for our opinion. A newspaper of almost 20 staff cannot come together to attack one actress. That’s not how reality works.

Newspapers have various sections that work independently of each other. You went to good schools. Surely you must know that.

We get that you’re angry at the review. To be honest, we would be angry too if someone tore our creative work apart.

But the only way for you to get better is if you get the truth from people who are outside your bubble, and won’t hold back just because it hurts you. That’s why journalism is important. That’s why criticism is crucial.

“You think back to her interview with Ebuka Obi-Uchendu on Rubbin’ Minds where she reeled off her qualifications from Kings College, London and her one true passion for healthcare policy,” we said in the original post. “You think back to all of her random deep quotes and posts on Instagram; the kind of random things that put a person up on your “the more intelligent Nigerians” list. You even think of Eku from Gidi Up, a role she played so well that it got you to follow her work across every platform.

“Now you wonder as you listen to her speak. Why did she act this film? Why?”

Take the honest feedback we gave you – and channel all that anger into your next performance. If it’s great we’ll be here to praise you – effusively, in fact.

That’s all.