My very good friend, Patrick Harry Doyle, called PeeDee by a lot of people and PHD by some of us, has been really busy lately. He is on set everyday directing a most expected blockbuster movie called Madam President. I had the privilege of reading the script of Madam President shortly after Patrick Doyle wrote it. Once I started reading, I could not put it down. The intrigues! It was love at first sight. There and then, I requested to be awarded Seat No. 1 at what has to be a knock out premier.
I am told that that the folks at MNET, Africa’s movie powerhouse, read the script that I read and flipped like I did. They had to commission the movie and put their money behind their ‘wow’.
Why is it that after many years PeeDee continues to be my guy? I am sure that there are people who think that we kill and divide. I do not recall that we have ever done any business together from which any of us has made a penny. Yes, we both toasted Iretiola, one of the most beautiful and talented women that the silver screen in Nigeria has ever seen. Then Ireti was a rookie but except you are a fool, you had to know that the babe was heading for the very top. Patrick Doyle won and added insult to injury by marrying the gorgeous damsel, making her Iretiola Doyle, giving her the kitchen, the living room and every other room in his life. I lost, pure and simple. That should have been a deal breaker. No, Ireti, my friend’s wife, from then became my sister. The love remained and the lust went away.
Patrick and I do not belong to the same political party or any political party at all. Forget PHD’s earlier flirtation with Fresh Democratic Party headed by our mutual friend, Chris Okotie. PeeDee was simply expressing loyalty to his pastor and friend who has stood by him. But when we get together, apart from eating a little rice, we talk politics. We are both obsessed with our love for Nigeria. We are both scandalized by the fact that a nation to whom the Almighty has given everything seems determined to give nothing but sadness to her children. Our shared desire for the Nigerian nation to take its rightful place in the world almost gives us constant heart burn.
My friend is incredibly talented. Nobody writes quite like PeeDee. He can write, he can speak, he can act, he can produce, direct and do many things that I cannot do. And he does all of these with such intellectual depth that is at variance with his exterior casual appearance. Considering that we both make our living in the entertainment industry, some persons may be surprised that when we get together, we do not watch entertainment programmes on TV. We watch the news – CNN, BBC, Fox News, Channels TV, etc.
Is it an accident or is it intuition that Patrick Harry Doyle’s Madam President is being shot a few weeks to Hilary Clinton being elected America’s first female president?
Of course, PeeDee and I are into what is going on in the United States because we know that what happens in America does not just stay in America. It affects every village in the world. Before it became obvious to almost every discerning person that Donald Trump is on his way to a historic loss in the November 8 elections in the United States, we had come to the conclusion that Donald Trump is junk and has no business near the White House. Maybe because we understand entertainment, we could figure out Donald J. Trump and that he is all bluster without any real depth.
Of course, we saw how the deep hatred of the black man in the White House by American Republicans got them to where they allowed a terribly flawed human being to hijack their party, become the champion of their cause and shot them out of the White House maybe for many years to come.
Some will say to me that the American elections have not yet held so how can I be sure that Hilary Clinton will be Madam President. I was told the same thing with respect to the Nigerian elections of 2015. Some of the people who took a bet with me over the 2015 elections have still not paid me. I am not a prophet. I just analyse the facts.
Indeed, I was engaged in this same argument with some top politicians in Nigeria in the residence of a South East governor about six months ago. I stated my certainty that Hilary Clinton will be America’s new president. All the politicians including the governor were sure that Donald Trump will beat her hands down. In eighteen days, we will know.
Let me repeat that I verily believe that on January 20, 2017, Americans will be saying ‘Madam President’ to the woman of history who will be moving back to the Whitehouse sixteen years after vacating Washington DC’s most valued real estate. It is the same way that I very believe that the movie, Madam President, by my guy, the incredibly talented Patrick Harry Doyle will be talked about for quite a while.
Put it this way, I am waiting for two Madam Presidents.
See you next week.
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