In this interview, President of Love To The World, filmmaker and philanthropist, Josephine Abraham, talks about her career, passion and present challenge with her former employer, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd, NNPCL and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. Excerpt:

Tell us how you started off in the movie industry and some of the movies you’ve produced like “Searching”

As a child I loved movies. Loved the screen and I could almost imagine myself as one of the characters. I loved how most of the movies back then were about enlightenment, family and a better society. When I got older, I started writing and gained the ability to turn every experience into a captivating story. This then graduated to me writing impactful stage plays with powerful and intentional messages people would not necessarily be able to relate to with print media or even music. This was my introduction into the movie production scene bursting with stories I wanted to share with the world.

Searching is a very relatable story covering different stages in life. A lot of the scenes there were intentional and were designed to create an immersive experience for the viewers where they feel the emotions of the characters both in happy and sad scenes. One example is the scene where the protagonist was raped as a young girl. I wanted people to feel and understand the effect this experience has on young women so we can do better as a society to protect the girl child. Sometimes it takes empathy through entertainment to be a catalyst for change both in families and in the society at large.

The movie is packed with scenes that will make viewers go through a wide range of emotions like laughter, sadness, suspense to name a few. Scenes that even took me through the range of emotions even though I was in the driver’s seat throughout the production process. It was a thing of joy to watch people around me go through the same emotions as well. Watching them go from being angry with the antagonist, to laughter from the humorous scenes and the wholesome feeling of the conclusion.

My major motivation for making this movie was to paint a full picture of what we all go through in the Nigerian society. Make everyone understand, accommodate, and pull closer to one another. I believed it would be a catalyst for positive change someday so I persevered even on days when things got challenging.

On release, Searching was shown at 7 different cinemas nationwide and was also premiered at Odeon Cinemas in the United Kingdom.

Has the entertainment industry lived up to standard?

I would like to believe the entertainment industry has exceeded all our standards. We have come a long way from where we were when I first started. I think its even safe to say that our entertainment industry is booming! The Nollywood and Afrobeats scene are now both internationally acclaimed and has now become a major contributor to our economy. It’s helped to shape culture, tell our stories across borders and even bring a bit of positivity to the way the international community views us as Nigerians.

Nollywood especially is in high demand on streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, receiving a lot of positive reviews. I see a lot of innovation and continuous improvement and I’m definitely proud to be Nigerian and to be part of the scene at this time. I’m confident we’d soon take over the global stage and I can’t wait till we get to that point.

Your former employer NNPCL unjustly detained you in EFCC for something you knew nothing about. How has that affected your mission as a movie maker and philanthropist?

I have always been a preacher of patriotism since I was younger and it wasn’t just a campaign, it was my way of life both in my work and personal life. I went above and beyond during my time in the NNPC contributing to company wide initiatives as well as my primary assignments. I was involved in the creation and execution of most of the culture change initiatives from the moment I joined till I resigned in 2015. Most of the initiatives were reinforced through jingles, dramas and other formal and semi-formal ways to pass across the message. This is something I am proud of and everyone I worked with over the years can corroborate this. Me being a content person is why I was able to resign from a system that many would argue to have a world of benefits regardless of the system being broken.

My colleagues would also tell you about how I was a very contented and honest person. They can tell you I do not cut corners or make deals under the table no matter the pressure from some superiors and contractors.

This is why I felt so betrayed when an organisation I did my best to serve and uphold decided to unjustly detain me for a mistake they didn’t want to admit they made and for others still within the system, it was a chance to get back at me for the times I didn’t allow less than legal deals to be made in my name or my area of influence. It was even more disheartening when they went as far as withholding my pensions and creating a fictitious case in collaboration with the EFCC to detain me.

I’m sure the aim was to break my patriotic spirit and make me feel like it was a mistake to not have partaken in a broken system. What they didn’t know was that I was aware and prepared for the persecution that comes with trying to make a positive change in a system that is broken and unwilling to find a better way. All of this just spurred me to fight and stay strong to make sure that nobody else who chooses to be patriotic faces the same challenges that I have faced.

You’re also a philanthropist. Tell us why you’ve not been able to do as much as you used to.

Philanthropy has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Even before I knew what the concept of philanthropy was or meant. I made it a point of contact to always contribute to my work and personal environment from when I was younger and as I grew, so did the initiatives and that’s how Love to The World Initiative was born. We have successfully been able to carry out reorientation and empowerment programmes all over the country in collaboration with various government agencies.

As I mentioned earlier, I have long been in a legal battle with my former employer and I’m sure you can imagine how demanding it can be mentally and financially which has caused me not to be as active as I normally would be in the philanthropic scene for the last few years. This is not to say that we are gradually going to come to a halt. We are making preparations to come back even stronger starting from a campaign aimed at reforming Nigerians as a people to prepare the next generation of Nigerians for governance.

What are your plans after all this back and forth?

The starting point after the back and forth has ended is a campaign to make Nigerians accountable on a personal level. The campaign is meant to inspire change from the grass roots and climb up the ladder all the way up to the government. We recognise the fact that it’s the same Nigerians that we know and interact with every single day that will most likely be the leaders of tomorrow. So if we do not hold ourselves accountable for the seemingly harmless acts, we risk entering a cycle that could outlive us. Things like littering, beating traffic lights, bribery are things we have normalised and has long graduated to the workplace in both the private and public sector.

We are collaborating with a lot of government agencies and the campaign is set to be active till 2027 and beyond.

What is your message to the public?

My message to everyone is to make every day count. Decide to be a light and an agent of change wherever you are even if it’s as small as giving a smile or a kind word to the next person. Always aim to make your environment a little bit better than it was the day before.