The Boat Driver Junior Pope Trusted With His Safety Isn’t Certified – NSIB

The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) has come out to release its preliminary report on the boat mishap that claimed the lives of Nollywood actor, Junior Pope and four others in Anam River.

The report was recently presented by its director, Cpt. Alex Baden, and fans have been reacting.

According to him, the agency was not officially notified of the accident but got to know about it through social media, and then investigators from the Enugu Regional Office of NSIB were immediately dispatched to the accident site on 12 April 2024.

He added that their investigation showed that the driver of the ill-fated boat was not certified.

It read, “There was only one person on the wooden fishing canoe. This rowdiness in the boat distracted the driver and he was not looking out as required. The boat was on high speed and the crossing canoe was moving at a much slower speed.

The only occupant of the canoe, on sighting the fast approaching boat jumped into the river and escaped; The boat collided with the canoe at a high speed which resulted in the boat capsizing and all persons onboard were flung into Anam River.

Only one passenger on the outboard engine fibre boat was wearing a life jacket. The only passenger wearing a life jacket came with it and was not provided by the operator. The passenger wearing the life jacket was one of the survivors. The boat was fitted with an outboard engine. There was no manifest of passengers and persons onboard the boat. The rescue operation was not timely and there were no trained divers around to assist in the operation.”

WOW.

Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in The New York Times. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there is no clear or agreed-upon definition for the term, which has made it a subject to several controversies.

The origin of the term “Nollywood” remains unclear; Jonathan Haynes traced the earliest usage of the word to a 2002 article by Matt Steinglass in the New York Times, where it was used to describe Nigerian cinema.

Charles Igwe noted that Norimitsu Onishi also used the name in a September 2002 article he wrote for the New York Times. The term continues to be used in the media to refer to the Nigerian film industry, with its definition later assumed to be a portmanteau of the words “Nigeria” and “Hollywood”, the American major film hub.

Film-making in Nigeria is divided largely along regional, and marginally ethnic and religious lines. Thus, there are distinct film industries – each seeking to portray the concern of the particular section and ethnicity it represents. However, there is the English-language film industry which is a melting pot for filmmaking and filmmakers from most of the regional industries.