Film  

Light dims on ‘Nollywood industry Police’, Ayo Emmanuel

By Shaibu Husseini

02 November 2024   |   5:20 am

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Nollywood was thrown into deep shock and mourning when news broke penultimate week that an illustrious member of the acting tribe, Ayo Emmanuel, has passed on. Emmanuel’s fans and colleagues took to their social media platforms to mourn a public servant-turned-actor, who is first among equals, especially if the role demands that the actor lives…

Nollywood was thrown into deep shock and mourning when news broke penultimate week that an illustrious member of the acting tribe, Ayo Emmanuel, has passed on. Emmanuel’s fans and colleagues took to their social media platforms to mourn a public servant-turned-actor, who is first among equals, especially if the role demands that the actor lives the life of a cop in a movie.

The Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) shared the message of his passing in a short terse message that was widely circulated. “We regret to announce the passing of our beloved Uncle, brother and father Mr. Ayo Emmanuel (Nollywood Policeman). He passed this morning,” the message read. Tribute flowed freely for the Ondo State-born actor, who, a close family source revealed, lost the battle against Prostrate Cancer. “He died in a medical facility in Abuja. He has been battling Prostrate Cancer for months now,” the source said.

A graduate of Physical and Health Education from the University of Lagos, who was born and raised in Lagos, for most producers in Nollywood, there was no one good enough to play the cop if it was not Ayo Emmanuel. Indeed, Emmanuel has fitted snugly into the character of a cop that at death he was regarded as Nollywood Police Officer. Emmanuel lived the cop role so well that most of his fans even say that the footballer and model-turned actor looked and appeared even in real life as a cop.

A native of Idanre, the near six feet tall and dark-complexioned, Emmanuel never planned to engage the acting run way. Although he later got involved in modeling through Silver Models – a modeling agency ran at that time by the duo of Alex Usifo Omiagbo and Andy Amenechi, it was being a professional footballer or a coach that appealed to the old boy of St. Matthias Primary School, Lafiaji, People High School Ebute-Metta and Igbobi College, all in Lagos. But that career wish changed when he got a referral from the veteran actor Alex Usifo Omiagbo to see the late Lai Aransanmi then of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). Just a role in the long-rested detective series on NTA, Third Eye, starring Olu Jacobs, the gangling Ayo found himself doing more of acting and less of modeling and playing football.

Ayo’s debut in the movie industry was as a detective in the Yoruba language movie, Aiye Ma Le, starring Jide Kosoko and Sola Fosudo. It was on the strength of that movie that Ayo rode to become the first choice for a cop in most movies that are produced in the industry. “I must admit that it was that job that made people to realise that I could play the role of a police officer and play it well. Because after the job, I got a referral to be cast as a police officer in that great movie, Sergeant Okoro, by Opa Williams. From there, I also played a cop in Tears for Love starring Keppy Ekpeyong and Kanayo Kanayo and that was how it began for me in the movies,”’ he recalled in a previous interview with The Guardian.

Always the police officer in most films produced in Nollywood, Ayo, who said he got his big break as an actor playing a detective in the ground breaking movie by Zeb Ejiro, titled, Domitila, and who has played other roles like when he played a good friend in A Kiss from the Rose has always had difficulties explaining to fans that playing cops in movies was not by choice. He said: “Some of our marketers and producers and some directors are so lazy that they don’t want to try you in other roles so they stay with whatever roles they have seen you play in the past. Only a few of them always want to try out an actor in different roles. So it is not my fault that I am playing a cop. I did my best to establish myself as an actor and when I couldn’t win them, I tried to create joy and determination through the only means I think I can be known for and it has cost me a lot of good and bad sides.”

The good side as he explained is the many awards and recognitions that have come with his having to consistently act as a cop in movies. He said: ‘I have received several awards and have even been named twice as best Nollywood policeman. Also, there is no time that I enter force headquarters or any police station that I don’t get compliments as though I am a senior police officer. Any time they see me on the road driving, you hear them scream ‘shon sir’ and they ask me to move on and the terrible part is that I have been beaten and molested thrice in Lagos because some folks think that I was on a surveillance mission. I didn’t know that the police had just carried out a raid there. So as soon as they saw me, they pounced on me. But it has been good and bad but I keep telling people that I have never been to any police college for training. All I do is to observe and watch detective stories and basically note what detectives are supposed to do.”

But has his involvement in acting been financially rewarding? Star of acclaimed titles, like The impostor, Formidable Force, Desperate Romance, Queen of Hasso Rock, and Panti Street answered frankly: “If you use me as a case study then you won’t want to become an actor. I mean our industry is structured in a way that you don’t work all the time. Besides because you are not on some salaries, you can do a job today, get paid handsomely but before your next job comes, you are back to square one. So I won’t say that I have been well rewarded financially but in terms of grading, I think in my category as an actor it has been alright but it could be better.” But in spite of the fact that he and indeed most of his colleagues in the industry have to work more and eat little, the beloved Nollywood Police remarked that he is fulfilled and has no regret towing this path. But he later inferred in what is now his last major interview that he wished he has gone headlong into physical education.