- Joke Silva stated that Nigeria needed patriotic screenwriters to cement bonding for the country’s growth and development.
- She noted that Nigeria had gone through a lot of history and that storytellers had a huge role to play in nation-building.
Joke Silva, a veteran Nollywood actress and producer, believes screenwriters and filmmakers must do their best to unite the country through their work at this time in Nigeria’s history.
Joke Silva made this statement on Friday at FilmHouse Cinemas in Lekki, Lagos, during his keynote speech at the closing event of the week-long 2024 Emerge Story 3.0 Conference.
Joke Silva stated that patriotic screenwriters were necessary in Nigeria to forge ties that would support the country’s progress and development during her speech on “Building a Bridge Connecting the Generations of Female Storytellers.”
The seasoned practitioner, who mentioned that she had been in the field since 1981, stated that Nigeria had experienced a great deal of history and that storytellers were extremely important to the process of nation-building.
“Unless we are living on the moon, Nigeria is in challenging moments, but what is our role as storytellers?
“Our role is to do our very best in our storytelling to unite the country. We have been staying together for over 60 years. Let us write our stories to unify.
“Music is unifying everywhere, fashion is unifying very well. Films, especially now must unify. Our stories now should be stories that interrogate issues and proffer solutions.
“It is our role to give hope to the nation that is proving difficult to cope with,” she said.
She also stated that storytellers must tell stories that address overpopulation and other challenges.
Silva emphasized on the need of industrial collaboration, stating that:
“We are in a collaborating industry to put ourselves on the map.
“Let’s chronicle to give hope, to let our people laugh and to let our people have a sense of conquerors and to give our people that sense of nationhood.”
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