In celebration of Nollywood’s First Ladies

a commercial venture in the United States.”

In Hollywood, out of 90 Best Director Oscars, only one woman has won it. men who have acted as mentors - Zeb Ejiro, Clarence Peters and IzuOjukwu. But the greatest applause must go to AmakaIgwe whose nurturing spirt has been chronicled for posterity by Tope Oshin in her award-winning documentary Amaka’s Kin.

We live in a country and a part of the world where knowledge is not codified, experience is not chronicled and journeys are not captured thus leaving a gaping lacuna of lost knowledge.

My son told me a joke recently. He said an American millionaire when asked how he became a Fortune 500 business leader will tell of how he got a 500 dollar loan, how he set up shop in his father’s garage, how he courted mom and pop shops before raising millions via and IPO. But ask a Nigerian billionaire and his short answer would be - God has been good!

This is why there is no book on production wizard Don Jazzy nor on Zeb Ejiro or AmakaIgwe or Linda Ikeji. We need to document their experiences, their successes and near misses in order to learn how they did what they did and in learning inspire the coming generation.

A simple Google search turned up 4 books on Justin Bieber, 5 on Jay-z, and 8 on Rihanna.

Any young woman who reads Niran Adedokun’s rendering of Blessing Egbe’s hard fought battle to box office relevance will learn a valuable business lesson no business school can teach. This is a book that the Lagos Business School should have on their curriculum. It is a handbook every aspiring filmmaker must have in his or her library. It is a navigational tool that will mark the difference between success and failure.