Rahamatu Ibrahim Sadau is a Kaduna state born popular kannywood actress who won Best Actress (Kannywood) at City People Award and Best African Actress at the 19th African Film Awards by the African Voice. In this interview with ENE OSANG, she discusses her passion in charity work done through her NGO – “Ray of Hope” calling for collaboration from all stakeholders to bring a lasting solution to security challenge
You recently visited the Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs Camp, in Wassa, Abuja. Was that a publicity stunt?
Not at all! It was not a publicity stunt. I am currently exploring possibilities of using my fame to pursue various causes such as girl education, women empowerment, and women’s rights, particularly on women’s issues, including safety, and gender equity.
I am passionate about humanitarian service and the fact that the number of our brothers and sister becoming refugees in their own country keep increasing is really sad. I feel I should lend a helping hand because it could happen to anyone.
What would you say are the major challenges displaced women and children face?
There are a lot of issues. Most of them have lost most of what they had where they come from and most of all their pride. They had homes and some form of livelihood where they came from but all that is gone and they are now more like beggars in their own country. It’s just so disheartening. The sanitation is bad; there is the lack of basic necessity a woman or girl needs. Many things are not just working at the IDPs camp and the bitter part is the constant reminder of uncertainty.
How do you intend to address these issues?
I think there is no one-stop solution to what can be done. My team and I are working on various possibilities on how best to address these issues but for now, we are just giving handouts just as a palliative measure pending our major intervention.
While this is on-going I decided to take a step and see for myself, so we spoke to one of our partners, who are already involved in this work, and the result is the visit to the camp.
As a northerner, how do you feel about the state of security especially as it affects women and children?
It is not about being a northerner. People have asked me these kind of questions severally and I will re-emphasize that it’s not about where am from but a humanitarian issue.
This can happen anywhere and what matters most is how we approach the situation and yes it’s not a good thing. No people anywhere want to live in constant fear, people everywhere want peace and for now we should focus on making peace happen.
So, what can be done differently to bring about lasting peace in Nigeria?
I think it’s an issue of perspective. I have said earlier that there is no one solution to these issues but with good team work, collaboration from all stakeholders we can do a lot to bring a lasting solution.
The government is working but must also do more to alleviate the sufferings of these Nigerians immediately. Ours is to render support to them. I will like to use this opportunity to ask Nigerians everywhere to make effort to support in their own little way to make it happen.
What is your experience combining the NGO and your hectic acting career?
Yes, it is tasking and this is why I decided to set up Ray of Hope Foundation. Like I said, it is in formation and when fully set up it will have the required structure to get things done. This way I don’t have to be in every place and my management team has capacity to schedule my itinerary well so you see it won’t hurt.
Tell us about your journey into the movie industry?
I Joined the Hausa movie industry also known as Kannywood in 2013 and since then there has been no slowing down as I have acted in over 20 movies.
I am the main Hausa on-screen character that talks Hindi easily. I have played a few minor roles before becoming famous in ‘Gani ga Wane’ alongside mainstream Kannywood performing artist Ali Nuhu.
Through my good acting I have been able to gather an enormous fan base in Northern Nigeria and across Hausa speaking regions of Africa. I was the first Kannywood actress to join social media and I also command a huge following, which reflects on my social media pages.
What kind of movies do prefer?
No, I don’t just take any role. Though when I started acting I wanted lots of roles, so I took as many that came but even at that I featured in good movies. I have been fortunate to play mostly lead roles in almost all the movies I featured in.
On the kind of movies you will see me in okay, well if you are talking about the future then; yes I want greater roles, more challenging roles that will build me up into a super actress. I want to be seen in super roles that will take me places, and at the same time impact positively on people. I would also emphasize that you can count me out when it comes to roles that will not promote morals like nudity etc. I want great roles that will show and teach and communicate value to the people.
Who is your role model in the Industry?
My model in the industry is Priyanka Chopra, an Indian film actress, singer, producer and philanthropist, who won the Miss World pageant in 2000.
Actually, people call me Priyanka; I’m her fan for life. But in the Nigerian Movie industry my role model is Genevieve Nnaji a super actress she is I would say, and my good friend OC Ukeje who is also very good. I will also not forget Ali Nuhu, who I call my career boss. Actually, he introduced me to the industry.
Did you study Theatre Arts in school?
No, I studied business administration at Kaduna Polytechnic but you know Knowledge is the key. I learn informally every day, I read about my career, I research on issues that concern my work and I do general studies about so many things because in our profession you need to be vast. I have begun studying about the state of women and girls and humanitarian affairs in general because of my interest in it so that I can understand the whole subject well enough to add my own quota. I will also in time to come attend some master classes in the Industry to polish my skills so as to meet with its prospects and overcome its challenges.
How would you describe the Nigeria movie industry?
The Nigeria film industry is getting better by the day because skills are being sharpened to meet with current challenges. I think we are doing very well, we are better than yesterday, so you see like a child we are growing daily and living up to expectation in fact in some quarters we have surpassed people’s expectations.
I think we are on a higher and better level. I mean don’t see us as Hollywood or Bollywood, see us like an interruption in the movie industry, see us as Nollywood that way the world will see us as special.
How would you compare Nollywood to other movie industries?
It is incomparable because we are the best. This is because what we bring to the fore is our own stories, uniquely us. We are telling the Nigerian story; I mean who else can tell your story better than you?
We are doing well I know when you say at par you are talking about many things… budget, technology etc. As I said earlier, we are growing like a child and we will grow and grow and be seen as fulfilling our dreams and expectations. You too can
attest to the fact that there has been a great progress from the “Living in Bondage” days and now… today we are being sorted after from all over the world. So, we are the best.
Finally, what is your word of hope for the northern women and children who are victims of insurgency?
From when we are born to when we will die, there are hundreds of conditions which are beyond our power, which are under the absolute control of Allah (swt), an example is getting treatment and recovering from illness; it is within our power to get treatment but being cured is not within the sphere of our activities.
So, my word to them is, never lose hope, and never think you’re alone. With or without your knowledge, you’re always being assisted by Allah (SWT), depend on Him, without His help, you can’t make a move. My team and I will do our best as humans to see that we make an impact inshallah!
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