On March 25, 2021, Chike Igwebuike, a young screenwriter tweeted a desperate plea to Nollywood veteran filmmaker, Mildred Okwo.
Igwebuike wanted Okwo to weigh in on the constant underpayment of writers in the industry. "Dear Auntie @mealdredO, please we need your help. I mean, the writers in Nollywood need your help," Igwebuike tweeted.
"We are reporting 70% of the Producers in our industry to you because we know they'd listen to you. They cannot keep telling writers that they have 50k to give them for a script."
Nearly a year ago, another screenwriter, Cassandra Owolabi, accused top actress and producer, Funke Akindele-Bello of underpaying and treating the writers of her television series to unhealthy work conditions.
Unfortunately, Igwebuike and Owolabi's nightmarish allegations are not isolated cases in the industry. From the established names to the emerging, every Nollywood screenwriter has a story to tell about hustler producers ready to take advantage of their weak bargaining chip.
A writer who opted to share her experience anonymously described how a top producer converted a feature script she wrote to a series. "They figured it was cheaper to pay for a feature than to pay me per episode. I was offered N100,000 for my service."
"I have been offered N25,000 to rewrite a script for a popular Nollywood producer. This was in 2007," another screenwriter revealed.
Most of the victims are, of course, emerging talents eager to get their work on recognized platforms.
Banjo (not real name) gave Pulse a detailed account of his shocking experience with a Nollywood producer when he started as a screenwriter.
"In 2010, when I started out writing screenplays in Nigeria, I used to advertise on a Facebook screenwriting group (Nollywood Screenwriters & Critics). Some producer guy contacted me there and said he wanted me to write a script for him.
"Back then I didn’t know any better so I proposed a 50-50 payment plan; half to start and another half when I turned in the final draft. We signed an agreement to that effect and he sent me the half and I did my thing.
"After turning in the first draft, I awaited feedback so I could go ahead and bang out another draft and finally get paid. The dude then ghosted me for months; no feedback and no final payment.
"In retrospect, I realized I had messed up; I was so eager to get my name out there as a screenwriter that I neglected to do my due diligence and find out who this guy was. Turns out he’d done this before to several people in the group. But I also thought I had a legally binding agreement to prove my case.
"I managed to track him down a few years later to know why he ghosted me and he said he was still making adjustments to the script! This was now 2013!! He said the contract (which he wrote) wasn’t specific on how many drafts I would write and a final draft could take months if not years to finish, so I should be patient.
"Anyway, he ghosted me again for a couple of months. Then I happened to catch a movie on Africa Magic with the same storyline as what I’d written years back titled 'All The Deceived'. Names and situations were changed but it was the same story as my script titled 'Deadly Ground'. Lo and behold, he was the producer on it. Worse, it was a rerun of a movie that came out in 2010, when I wrote it!!!"
The loopholes in the industry ultimately creates room for several atrocious acts to go either noticed and silenced or unnoticed.
So how much is a Nollywood screenwriter worth?
"On the average for a writer who doesn't have credit working his or her way up, 150-200,000 minimum. If that same writer is writing a high budget film, N500,000. The max is as high as you can bargain for," award-winning screenwriter Xavier Ighorodje reveals in a brief chat with Pulse.
"I can't speak for the general house. But there are tiers to this thing. As with all industries. Also, not every movie is a heavy budget. So if I have a budget of N3 million or there about to make a low budget film I can't afford to hire an elite writer who would charge in the tune of millions."
"Ideally if we were to follow Writers Guild of America standards (and I wish the SWGN would come up with something similar), the writer's fee should be 5% of the production budget," says top screenwriter Emil B. Garuba. "In Nigeria, we don't get to know the full budget so we just negotiate on the amount of work and time involved. I would say nothing less than N500,000 for a feature script. Higher if you're an accomplished award-winning veteran etc. But on average, N350,000 for a modest budget production."
"The lowest a writer should be paid for a feature for TV films is N150,000 standard. Even though the person is a newbie. We know budget for a feature tv film is poor but it shouldn't go lower than this", adds Mobolaji Eleyele.
These figures are however farfetched from today's reality. While established screenwriters get up to N3 million per script, emerging writers struggle with N25,000 to N70,000 for short and feature films.
The fear of speaking up and getting blacklisted has created an enabling environment for this daytime robbery to thrive. Writers think that it's safe to lick their wounds in private and among their counterparts than to publicly seek redress.
With no hope of a Me Too movement in sight, the industry is consciously letting a prey versus predator environment thrive. It is a survival of the fittest with independent producers freely wielding power as they please.
What about the guilds?
Okwo's response to Igwebuike's urgent plea for help was for writers to either join the existing guilds or create organizations to secure their interests. The recognized association for screenwriters in Nollywood is the Screenwriters Guild of Nigeria (SWGN).
The Yinka Ogun led guild is tasked with protecting the interests of its members. In recent times, the guild appears to be intentional about helping emerging screenwriters with organized masterclasses.
With writers turning to other streams of income to break even, the industry is plagued with lazily written stories and recycled plots. Writers deserve their roses while they can still smell them.