As the city that never sleeps, Lagos was recently abuzz with excitement as The Atuma Brothers International Company (TABIC) latest movie, Imported Wives, premiered in Victoria Island, Lagos amid calls for due diligence by the Diasporans before returning home to get married and move their wives abroad.
 
The movie tells the story of a successful Nigerian man based in Canada who returns to Nigeria to pick one of the most eligible women who ticks all the ‘wife-material boxes’ for a bride and returns to Canada with her. Upon reaching Canada, trouble began with their conflict about values and expectations.
 
Executive produced by Joy Madubuike, the movie which stars Patience Ozokwor Mama Gee), Nancy Isime, Omoni Oboli, Joseph Benjamin, Linda Osifo, Ngozi Nwosu, Saheed Mohammed (Funky Mallam) and Pascal Atuma among others, exposes how the ‘Japa’ syndrome, a Yoruba word meaning, “flee,” negatively impacts marriages and highlights the themes of love, betrayal, and devastation.
  
Speaking on the inspiration behind the movie, the movie director and co-producer, Pascal Atuma, said it revolves around migration-focused marriage, where people are married for relocation reasons, which later develops into problematic affairs, where the women will call on police to lock their husbands up, to the point the UK police warned Nigerian women to stop reporting their husbands for domestic issues.
  
He said, “This movie is very family-oriented, and the message is powerful because anything that brings the death of human beings should be acted upon and exposed. So that is why we made the movie, Imported Wives.”
  
“Most parents’ daughters have an excellent relationship here in Nigeria, but when they see someone from the UK, US or Canada, they break that relationship and have these young girls marry a stranger. Then, when they get over there, they realise all that glitters is not gold.” Atuma added.
  
According to him, the film is not only entertainment but also a reflection of many real-life experiences in Canada’s African immigrant population. He noted that Japa, has become synonymous with the exodus of Nigerians seeking better opportunities abroad.
  
“Imported Wives aim is to address the marital abnormality that African families abroad face. It’s an epidemic. If you look at the American and Canadian marriages, Africans have an 80 per cent divorce rate.”
  
On steps being taken to ensure that new film do not share the same storyline as earlier productions, the Director-General of National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), Dr Shaibu Husseini, said the Board only has the authority to ensure films that do not replicate exact storylines, not to regulate those with similar plots.