By Felix Khanoba
A short-animated film on corruption from the children’s book -‘Emeka’s Money’ has premiered on YouTube as a Nollywood movie.
The book authored by anti-corruption expert, Onyinye Ough, was turned into film through a partnership with a Lagos-based animation studio, Basement Animation, and the not for profit organisation Step Up for Social Development and Empowerment in Nigeria (Step Up Nigeria) with the support of the MacArthur Foundation.
A statement made available to The AUTHORITY in Abuja said the film takes on the issue of corruption that many Nigerians experience in their everyday lives.
“It grapples with the dilemmas experienced by those in positions of public office, with pressure from friends and family for jobs, contracts and other favours.
“The film shows often-overlooked consequences of nepotism, bribery and corruption to broader society. It teaches that change begins with us all and encourages everyone to show leadership in the fight against corruption,” the statement said.
According to the author, the book was written in 2018 to tackle the problem of corrupt practices that were becoming culturally acceptable and sought to put together a book for children to help educate them on the impact of corruption.
“Fighting corruption needs to start with what we teach our children. We need to go beyond the obvious like prosecutions and convictions or even making systems tougher through technology. If we are going to reduce corruption in Nigeria we need to go deeper and change how our society treats corruption,” Onyinye said.
