Bisi Fayemi speaks on tragic ending of Okediran’s ‘Tenants of the House’

Ekiti State First Lady, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, has given a perspective on the tragic ending of a film by doctor and writer, Wale Okediran, entitled ‘Tenants of the House’.
The film, directed by Kunle Afolayan, was screened in Ado Ekiti on Wednesday night, as part of the Ekiti State Festival of Arts and Culture.
The political movie paints the picture of the power play that characterises a National House of Assembly such as Nigeria’s.
The executive producer was also a former member of the House of Representatives, thus basing the novel for which the film was made on his personal experience.
While the movie meanders from politics to romance and culture, it however refuses to end at a loe scene where many members of the audience thought it would.
Okediran and Afolayan ensure it go back to the political battle that had largely been resolved when a compromise was struck over a third term bid.
In the end, the hero, Samuel, who is the symbol of the compromise, and who has also scaled a high hurdle that tribal war and culture placed between him and the love of his life, get assassinated, causing a scream to echo through the hall.
Commenting on the film, however, Erelu Fayemi not only commended Okedian for producing the work, she also reflected on the way it ends.
According to her, politics does not always unfold the way other realities do, thus suggesting that the film-makers appear to be conscious of this.
The First Lady, wh is also a writer, said, “In politics, two plus two is not always four. That is why people should always expect sacrifices. But what the film is also telling us is that we should always remember that we are all tenants in the house. We have to be able to do the right thing.”
Interestingly, the man who played proverbial crooked wood that scatters the fire in the house, Dele Odule, was also at the screening.
He was the one who, on behalf of the producer and director, presented a plaque to Governor Fayemi, as received on his behalf by his wife.
Also at the screening were other politicians, scholars, writers and entertainers that included the Vice Chancellor, Federal University, One Ekiti, Prof. Kayode Soremekun; Yomi Fas-Lanso and the Director, Ekiti State Council of Arts and Culture, Mr. Wale Ojo-Lanre.