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| Antar Laniyan with Beautiful actress Halima Abubakar |
For Antar Laniyan, a versatile actor and consummate director, the sizzling romance with acting started professionally 32 years ago.
Having been honored by respected art enthusiast, playwright and writer, Ben Tomoloju Iwala of the Kakaaki fame, Laniyan, who hails from Osogbo in Osun State, has remained a delight on stage, on television and in home movies, winning laurels here and there. If you have read about the strange circumstance surrounding his birth, , as he takes you through a whole lot of events that make him tick in the industry
Could you share with me some of the major events that have shaped your life in the past years? If I have to be very honest, my parents have a lot to do with my growth. My father was an educationist who believed very much that you must go to school. And my mother, who was a trader, put a lot of the dos and don’ts of religion into how she brought us up. Apart from this, I attended Christian schools where you would think they were bringing you up to be a pastor. So, all these put together shaped my life into becoming somebody that people would like to emulate or copy.
I didn’t even know that this name would be as big as it is now, though I thank God for it. So, imagine if I was a bad boy when I was young, how would I look like now that the name is like this? I have been like this all my life: hardworking and disciplined; and I try to be morally upright. Maybe that was why I was made a senior prefect in the secondary school. I have always been given responsibilities.
Even as a small boy, people believed I could handle this and that. While I was in the secondary school, I was always partaking in drama competitions and all the rest of them and I was always winning laurels. So, I think my principal put all these and my academic prowess into consideration and thought I should be the senior prefect in my final class in Lagos Baptist Secondary School. When I went back to the school some years after, the people I met said my tenure, as far back as 1979/80, had been the best.
What would you describe as the most profound lesson that your father and mother each taught you? I picked discipline and education from my father. I mean the fact that you must go to school, even if you want go into buying and selling. He was a disciplinarian to the core; he didn’t take nonsense. He was social, but was not as iron-fisted as I am.
When did he pass on? He died on February 14,1999.
In what circumstance? He was praying when he died. Actually, he was in the ruku position, as the Muslims call it, when he died. So, it was the person who was supposed to make pap for him that morning that found out he was dead. When he tried to wake my father up, he fell side way.
Was he living alone? No, he wasn’t. There were people around him and there was somebody who was supposed to take care of him, but he had gone to prepare pap for him. And by the time he returned, he met my dad with his back bent in prayer; and when he realized that he didn’t rise again, he tried to tap him, but he fell side way. That was when he knew that he had died.
How old was he? He was 84.
You must have been very close to him; so, how did you receive the news of his death? I was closer to him than I was to my mum, though we were not seeing every time because I had to run my own life. You see, he came to me on a certain Sunday and he died the following Sunday.
So, to me, it was like he had only come to say goodbye to me. He just asked me where my car was and I showed him; so, he went into the car, sat in the driver’s seat and prayed almost ceaselessly for me. Then, I took him to the motor park. He was to call me on the phone (I mean through the local phone because there was no GSM that time), but somebody just came from Osogbo and said he was dead; and he had to be buried that day.
Looking back now, what will you describe as the significance of the circumstances of his death? I see anybody who dies that way as being very close to God. I think that is the way God wanted him to die; otherwise, he would have gone in some other way. Somebody would die in holy land, Mecca, and people would thank God for that. So, I thank God for the way he died.
My father would not miss any of his five daily prayers. So, I wasn’t surprised when they said, “Ah! Daddy nki ‘run lowo ni won ku o (Daddy died while he was praying)!” I was happy, though I felt that something big left my body. Physically, I felt something getting out of me. When I was told that he died, I stood there and felt like something was running out through my entire body. I didn’t see anything, but I felt it.
Were you his favourite? Yes.
But you are not his only child? Yes; I am not. But I knew because of all that he was telling me every time. When my younger brother had a child and I asked him to come and name the baby, he said, ‘You are a fool! Why are you there? You are me; so, give that child a name and I will accept it.’ Whenever I asked him for his photograph, he would say, ‘Go and look into the mirror and you will see me.’ So, right from when I was young, he would not explain some things; rather, he would just try to paint a picture of them to you.
How do you explain the filial love between you and your father? Ha! I can’t explain it, but what I know is that when I was young, he was always taking me everywhere, including recreation clubs. If I had a quarrel with my mother, she would take the blame.
Okay, could it be due to the circumstance of your birth? I don’t think so. I think it was just love, Do you know why I am saying this now? That is the same way I feel towards my son now. My first son is my best friend. Sincerely, if you give me a job now and it falls on his school visiting day when I have to see him, you will have to shift it!
You mean no matter the amount involved? Yes; no matter the amount involved, my brother. I don’t want anything to affect that love because he calls me his best friend and he sees me in him. He believes so much in me. He will sometime use his teacher’s phone and say he just wants to see me. Even if I tell him that they will not allow me to come into his school, he will say I should call him when I get to the gate and he will come to see me; and he will be satisfied,
How old is he now? He was 15 on June 22. So, any time he speaks or does anything like that, I always remember the way I was with my father.
Are you from a polygamous home? I will not say so, but I know that my father had another child from another woman along the line. He, however, regretted it.
Could you expatiate? Yes; he told me that.
So, what reason did he give? He said my mother had been the best thing to him. So, when I asked him why he married another woman, he said, My child, I don’t know! You should realize that it was only the child I accepted and not the mother.’ When the woman came around, my mother had no option but to accept her and the child. That was the kind of mother I had. But the woman could not cope with my mother’s open-heartedness.
But why should that be a problem to her? Fine! Where my mother was trading, she created a shop for her at the Army Barracks in Ilaro, Ogun State. But to the woman, it was so strange. She couldn’t believe that a woman she barged into her house and married her husband would still do all that. So, when she was going, she just said, ‘Mummy, omo yin ni yi (Mummy, this is your child). So, my mother took care of that child till she died.; and the child has been part of us.
So, how many are you in all now? We are four strong guys: three from my mother and one from the other woman.
So, you don’t have any female sibling? The only female child that my mother would have had died.
But do you have a female child? No; but I am dying to have one because I have two’ soldiers’ now.
It is not impossible you have one; after all, you have not ‘hung the boots’, so to say. Yes o! I am still very strong and virile! So, I want a female child ‘sharp, sharp’ (General laughter)!
You were always with your mum at the Army Barracks in Ilaro and I am wondering if you didn’t pick any bad habit there, given the life in any typical barracks. If any other person sees those things as negatives, I see them as positive. The first thing I picked from the soldiers was discipline. In fact, if not because I was convinced and confused by my school principal, I would have been a soldier today because that was what was on my mind.
I would wake up in the morning and sit by their parade ground, just to watch them. I had fallen in love with the uniform. Let’s thank God for today; probably, I would have been an army General today. All that I picked then is what I am using today in my job. When I am directing, they say I am iron-fisted or a disciplinarian.
When I go to a location, I see myself going to fight a war that I must win. When you are at my location, you don’t wine and dine; rather, you are there to work. Some will even say, ‘Antar lo ma direct, mi o se (If Antar is the director, I am not partaking in it). But those who want to learn like the Funso Adeolus, the Moji Olaiyas and the Aishat Abimbolas etc would like to work with me because they know they will pick one or two things from me.
When I was directing Super Story, some people ran away because they lacked discipline. They couldn’t cope with the way I was running the camp. With me, when you are done with your work, you go home; you don’t stay back and be messing around the camp. You can do that when you leave my camp, but you have come there to work. When I tell some girls to go and sell pepper because they don’t belong here, they see that as an insult rather than a piece of advice.
When I see those who belong, I sit them down and tell them what they should do and they fit in. Those who listened then are still there today. Aishat, Moji Olaiya and others are still there today because they listened. I have stoned Funsho( Adeolu) before and slapped Aishat so many times.
You mean it? Yes; ask him.
What did he do? Didn’t he tell you when you interviewed him?
Well, we didn’t talk about that. Well, as a young man at that time, he had to obey me as the director; he had to do it right. But today, that experience is helping him in his job. He is now an actor, producer and director. He directs very well; I can say that about him. I have seen the work he directed. He may have forgotten now, but it happened; and he is gaining it now. Aishat would tell you that me only reason she cries easily in movies today is because Antar once slapped her so that she could cry. But you see, they may not talk about that part of their stories now. I am telling you so that you know they suffered.
But you could have done something else to Funsho Adeolu, even if you needed to correct him. You have to do what you must do at the right time; and you must get it right; otherwise, you are a useless person. If you are in front of an instructor, a director or somebody that is teaching you something, you must listen. But the moment you are doing anything else or you are doing it wrongly probably a few times when you are not a baby, stoning you will make you Eay attention. So, when I did that to him, e got it right.
Didn’t he feel bad? No, he didn’t. I am even happy for him today; he is Antarisedl He does his things now on locations like Antar.
People say you are very conservative. But why do they say so? I don’t know what they mean by that and I don’t know why they came to that conclusion. But what I know is that I don’t drink and I don’t smoke either. I don’t do some things they do. Maybe that is where the grace of God comes in and maybe that is why I am still looking like this. There are stupid things they do, but I don’t do any of them. The only thins I know how to take is water and when I Feel like taking something sweet, I ask for a coke; and when I take a bottle, it may take another two weeks for me to go near it again.
Did you say you had never smoked before? Never; and God is my witness.
And you have never taken any hard drink? Never! I told you the way I was brought up. You couldn t do that where my mother was. She would ask you, “From whom are you picking that?” When my mother was young, you couldn’t look her in the eyes. You would offend my mother in the day, but she would beat you in the middle of the night. She would say, “Ni igba ti mo mba eyan so ‘ro ni osan, mo se ju si e ti ti, amooku ro; se ofe gbo nkan ti a nso ni( When I was discussing with someone in the afternoon, I winked at you to leave our sight, but you wouldn’t bulge.
Were you trying to listen in on us?) And before anyone who heard your cry would come to intervene, she would say, ‘emi ma ti naa nkan ti mofe naa lara e; mi o mo nkan ti o si npa ni gbe o! I am through with him, but I don’t know why he is still crying). But it was when she was getting older that she would say,’ Oko mi( my husband).”
Do you know that I saw her in my dream several months after her death and she said, ‘Suuru ni won nfl lo He aye( In life, you relate to people with patience). And that was the question I had in mind. Something was bothering me and then I saw her in my dreams. Since then, if I see her, nothing really happens. Anytime I see her, I just go to a mosque and donate some items.
I know she loved donating things to mosques most of the time. So, whenever I see her, I just buy some items like kettles, mats and so on and take them to a mosque. I wish she was still alive to really enjoy and see her sons doing well, but unfortunately, she died in 2004.
Does it mean she lacked so much while you were growing up? Yes, she did.
To what extent? She wasn’t begging for food, but she didn’t have enough. I am saying this because I am a witness to so many things.
Like what? She loved her husband so much that she would leave her shop in a particular town and follow him on transfer, just because she didn’t want her husband to suffer. At a particular time, I had to tell my Dad that I wanted to stay back in Lagos and that was when my education started running straight. Even though he was working with the Ministry of Education, my father would insist that I repeat a class.
I know you are from a Muslim background. (Cuts in) Unfortunately, I didn’t leave with them. Remember I said I attended Baptist schools, so I wasn’t leaving with them. You will also recall I said that I wasn’t following my dad on transfer again; so, that was the break. The only thing my dad knew about me was acting. He supported me. One day he opened my book and saw a photograph where I acted Sango in a production in the secondary school and he wrote “Antar de Sango” at the back of it. He didn’t say it, as he was wont to do.
So, are you a Muslim or a Christian? I am both a Muslim and a Christian. I have t9 be a Muslim for my mother and a Christian for my immediate family.
Why this crisis of identity then? Ojo ni awa ti a ba eni kan so ta( we are like rain that drops on everyone)
Could it be due to any influence from your wife? She is a Christian and she even met me a Christian. I went to Baptist schools and everything about me has always been Baptist and so on. I don’t know a word in the Qu’ran; I can only I imitate. If I am acting, I learn it and say it the way the director says I should. But I have to practise what I understand. Oloun gan ni mo mi ki o to sin mi (God says you should know Him before you worship Him). If I have to be a Muslim today, I have to go through the Holy Our’an (brings out an English version 01 the Quran). When ileya comes, I kill a ram for nw mother and I celebrate Christmas and Easter for me, my wife and children.
Yes, I know you have had to talk about the strange circumstance of your birth, which could be attributed to some spiritual attack.
Apart from that, have you had to experience anything else that you may describe as a spiritual attack too’? Yes, the circumstance of my birth could be traced to some spiritual attack. I can’t really say, but I have had a situation where I wanted to go somewhere and I fell ill; so, I couldn’t go there. But the news about that place where I had wanted to go turned out to be bad.
Could you recall one? Yes; there was supposed to be an Association of Nigeria Theatre Art Practitioners (ANTP) election in Ibadan and I had prepared to go-in fact, my absence would not have augured well for me-but I just fell sick. I went to see my doctor and he said I needed to be on drip; so, I was delayed. I later learnt that a serious fight broke out that day. It was riotous and the election didn’t take place. I see myself as a God’s special child. I may not be rich and I may not have everything, but I think I am God’s special child.
Sometime, I wonder how your mother had carried you in her womb for that long. Hmm! Yes, as you must have known, I stayed 18 months in my mother’s womb and everybody around her thought she would die with the pregnancy. You know, at a time like that in the early 60s, there was no way you would not run all over the place for help. In the course of finding out what went wrong, they were told that somebody was behind it and they had to look for that person.
The man they consulted described the person behind the attack; so, they had to search for her. When they eventually found her, she started crying. She said they had to look for Anta, a Yoruba name for iguana. When they found it, they make some concoction with it, which my mother ate. And about an hour later, she went into labour and was delivered a few metres to the hospital. But it was exactly 18 months.
What did they do to the woman? Nothing!
But why did she do that? She liked my father and wanted to marry her. She begged that I should not be allowed to recognize her!
I don’t understand. Why did she say that? I don’t understand either, but that was what I was told. She may know me, but I mustn’t know her. I think she would suffer the repercussion of her action, if I know her. My mother just said, “0 ma gbodo mo( you must not know her)” when I asked her to identify the woman!
God forbid, if you have any strange occurrence, will you consult a spiritualist? I have never done a thing like that. But when you are in trouble, you will accept any solution they bring before you. Pain can make one do anything. If you are in pain and an herbalist just comes in to offer you a medicine which he claims can heal you in two minutes, you will accept it, especially if anyone can attest to its efficacy.
But you can only back it up with God’s name. Of course, the person who is giving you too must have mentioned the name of God on it; otherwise, it will not be effective. Anytning that doesn’t have God’s backing will not work, I believe that. Even the Babalawos call Eledumare; so, it is only a fool that will say there is no God or do something without backing it up with God’s name. I have written a play, OmoEkun, about somebody who believes so much in God and who likes to criticize Babalawo and all that. But I said what circumstance can make that person go to the Babalawo that he is criticizing? The only thing is pain.
Oh! That was a very interesting movie. Thanks. I remember I went to Yaba College of Technology and one of the lecturers told me that if I could get him the movie,he would pay me Nl00, 000. So,I went to Corporate Films, but he said he couldn’t find it.
How old is your second child now? He is nine.
Is it due to delay or what? My brother, you have to space it out o! There was even six years gap between my first child and the second one.
What happened? Nothing! You have to plan. My first born is in S.S.S. 2 now and I know how much I am paying for his school fee. Don’t forget lam an actor.
So, are you saying Nigerian actors are not rich? Hmm! Nigerian actors?
Okay, is it that bad? It is that bad! But it is not the case with those in the English home movie sector. Lai lai(Never)! That was before now. They don’t get money from acting* they are very close to the people in government.
So, what stops you from getting close to the people in government too? If there is anything I am going to do for them that will fetch me that closeness and money, I will do it. But an average actor in the English home movie sector earns much more than his counterpart in the Yoruba movie industry.
Name them. Okay, are you saying somebody like Genevieve does not earn more than Mercy Aigbe, for instance? Is Genevieve earning her money from acting alone? Let me tell you the life of an average Igbo actor. If you are a successful Igbo actor, your rich Ibo brother will ask you about the brand of car you are driving. If you tell him the kind of car you have, the rich Ibo man will say, ‘Come, I have a jeep, so come and take it, if you like it. And he can even give you money. But how many people can do that in our own set up? The Ibo man will help his brother, not necessarily because of what he wants to gain, but just to lift him. I doff my hat for Ibo people and I wish we could be doing that in our own sector too.
But why haven’t you gone back to the English movie sector where you started from? Yes, I started there, but there is some marginalization, which we have been fighting all the while. We keep saying that an actor is an actor, irrespective of his or her tribe or medium of expression. I want all the artistes to stay under one umbrella. Even though there will be associations, guilds and all that, there will still be an umbrella with a unique name that we will belong to.
Probably that is what they mean by Nollywood, but it is just a name. If Nollywood had a president, probably every other President of association or guild will become vice-president. Then, we can now talk to the government with one voice. Even today, we have Nollywood which we see as a Nigerian set up, yet we still have Kannyhood in Kano. But it shouldn’t be.
How did you meet your wife and what struck you most about her the first day? I really can’t tell; I really don’t have any reason now. A few times, I sat back and asked myself what it is about her that will not make me want to fight her; that will not make me say she should get out or that will make me go so soft, even when I must strike! I have not been able to answer these questions. What I know is that I just like to see her around always.
But is there any marriage that is devoid of misunderstanding, crisis and so on? No, there isn’t any marriage without its own challenges. You see, couples do separate, but I have never ever thought of it.
Where did you meet her? It was at the National Theatre when she came to watch a movie about 17 years ago. We courted for about two years. And you don’t want to tell me what struck you most about her the first time. I don’t know because if there was a particular reason, for 17 years, the reason must have left and I would have hated her. So, there was no reason.
Were you in any relationship then? No, I was married to acting. Ask anybody, they called me kanjurol Some people even thought I couldn’t ‘do’, until I had my first child and then second child.
So, are you saying she was your first love? You know, as a secondary school student, you are likely to have a female friend and all that-1 mean all you share is friendship. But when you talk of a serious affair or when you can say you have found your missing ribs and all that, it was her. Immediately I saw her, I made up my mind, which had never happened before. In those days, they used to say I was married only to acting.
Was that why they were saying you couldn’t perform? No, that was the saying among some girls. Girls would always be girls! When you don’t talk to them, they will say all sorts of things. Even when I was in Super Story, they still said it.
Okay, are you a romantic person? My wife says I am. Not necessarily in bed, but there are things a man does for a lady and people will say he is romantic. Outside my job, yes; but when I am working, no. I don’t even remember who you are, even if you are my wife, when I am working until we get it right.
Have you suffered any bad press? I have never done anything negative, so the press will not write anything bad about me. If you know yourself, you try to run away from scandals.
But there was a time you were reported to be gay. How did you feel that time?I heard it too. But how would I have felt when I know that I am not? It was because they were not seeing me with women. Even if they gave me a mini suite on locations, it would be me and my boys alone. When I read that report, I stopped taking boys to locations. I said, “Guys, when we are on location, go home when it is time to sleep and come back the next day.” When I read it, I felt bad, but it didn’t shake me because I knew they said it because they were not seeing me with women. Why was I doing that too? I should be seen with women, but they were not seeing me with any woman. Wasn’t that bad enough? But you see, when I look at a woman, I see my wife.
Are you a car freak? I like cars. If I have money, I will drive the best of cars.
What brand of cars do like? I like jeeps, but I don’t drive it now because I don’t have money!
When did you buy your first car then? It was in l997.
Unbelievable, especially when one imagines that you started acting professionally in 1980. Yes, it was a regular Mercedes Benz called my ‘father is rich’. You know, majorly, I started with the stage and we were not being paid so much as actors. Home movies weren’t in vogue then. If you were given N4,000 then, you were the est. If you didn’t have N200, 000 then, you couldn’t buy a car. So, how would I have been able to save N200, 000 to buy a car when I had my house rent to pay?
But you live in your own house now. I don’t have a house o! If you say I have, there will be no people to help me. I don’t have. But, of course, I am on it.
But how many people will believe this? That is why we find it difficult to get people to help us. They think we are rich. Our wives are richer than most of us. I don’t want to name names, but I know a lot of actors whose wives are richer than they are. Most of the actors drive their wives’ cars.
Ha! Yes; that is the truth. Even the area boys don’t believe you don’t have money. They think you are the one making the money, but they don’t realize we are just actors who find happiness in acting.
Is it not time you stopped this idea of I-help-you-you-help-me that is common in the Yoruba movie sector? I mean is it not time you tried to be business-like when it comes to your engagement fees? If you don’t do it, somebody else will do it. If someone calls you to take N20, 000 and you don’t come, somebody else will take N5, 000! Again, the people out there believe in what they see; so, if they don’t see you often, you are gone! So, you have to keep going.
Some of us don’t like what is happening, but we can’t help the situation and you have to pay bills. This issue that you have just talked about makes people cry, but they can’t help it. They know they are good actors, but they have to collect the ridiculous fees. This is because if they don’t collect it, they will stop using them. Therefore, you have to keep helping so that by the time you want to do your own, those people too will now come and you pay them that same peanut.
Are there Yoruba actors who earn as much as N250, 000 or N300, 000 per role today? Yes, but I won’t mention names. Don’t let them lie to you; some people earn it as much as that.
You should be among those few? No!
So, what do they have that you don’t have? It is because they are in vogue!
You really need to sanitize the industry. We want good leaders now. Well, they are trying to solve the problem. When it goes out of court and we now officers in place, maybe then we will start the sanitization process.
You don’t seem to be directing the Super Story productions any more, do you? The only thing that is happening now is that I begged that I would want to go out there anado some other things. But I said if there is anything unique, I can be invited. However, when I was called upon, I was very busy; so, Andy had to be invited.
Many think you had a disagreement with Wale Adenuga. Never! Uncle Wale is a nice man, don’t you know? As far as I am concerned, he is the best person around. He doesn’t owe anybody. So far, he is the best; I won’t lie to you. When I told him I wanted to go back to acting, as people were pressuring me, he said, Okay, my director’. But I said if there is any new or big thing, he should invite me and he said, ‘okay.
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