Mateen Badru
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the play
staged at the Landmark Event Centre, Lagos, portrays how businesses in
“Easiland”, likened to Nigeria, are sabotaged and ways to do things right.
Dr Jumoke Oduwole, Special Adviser to the President on Ease
Of Doing Business, said that the play was also part of activities to mark the
fifth anniversary of PEBEC.
According to her, PEBEC is a council that works on
bureaucratic bottlenecks and legislative interventions for small and medium
sized enterprises.
“As you saw from the play, those are realities that we have
captured over the time. These are the realities that the team worked with.
“From the play, you saw some of the reforms that we have
implemented. Sometimes, some errant officers will try to sabotage the reforms
and we urge people to also lodge complaints.
“We have received a lot of compliments and we have also
received a lot of complaints concerning the saboteurs within the system,” she
said.
Oduwole said the play was initially staged in Abuja during
the Independence Day weekend after which people requested that the play be
brought to Lagos.
“We had to squeeze it into the budget so we could bring the
play to Lagos over New Year’s day just to celebrate the season and also to give
hope and inspiration to Nigerian entrepreneurs.
“This is to enlighten them, as a lot of them don’t know
about the reforms. You saw the reforms at the Corporate Affairs Commission
(CAC) and the Customs. A lot of things are going on that people don’t know
about,” she said.
Oduwole said that the play was adopted as a form of
enlightenment having realised that Nigerians love comedy and drama, adding that
it was the perfect way to deliver the message.
She further encouraged the people to use report.gov.ng to
lodge complaints if the reforms did not work, as feedbacks would be necessary
to address bureaucratic bottlenecks.
According to her, the Ease of Doing Business is something
that is here to stay and there is no need to know anyone in government to get
the required services.
“People don’t need to know Ministers or someone at the
presidency. There is need to have an enabling environment where the legislative
and regulatory bottlenecks are removed.
“Government parastatals’ websites are working. You can use
the technology to do your processes, your permits, nobody will tell you happy
weekend or anything just to extort you.
“That is the message that we’re preaching. And we want it to
be entrenched in people’s hearts. We want them to demand it as a right and we
want government to deliver it as our responsibility, so that’s what we’re doing
here today,” she said.
Oduwole said that some other states were also requesting
that the play be brought to their people just as there are deliberations on
further ways to take the movie closer to the people.
The Project Manager, Mr Ayokunu Ojeniyi, said the idea about
the play is to first of all celebrate the new year and to communicate to
Nigerians that the country belongs to everyone.
“Government and citizens have their roles and together we
can make Nigeria a place that we desire. So as I said, “Easiland” represents
our collective will as a nation.
“It is a land on a journey itself and there are quite a lot
of similarities between Easiland and Nigeria. As the play depicts, if everybody
does their own path, you will see that the country that we want comes to
fruition,” he said.
Ojeniyi added that the idea of a staged play was chosen as
there was no better way to communicate with people while they have fun and also
see themselves as the characters.
“These are the kind of experience that you are not able to
get if you are just watching TV or listening to radio.
“However, by watching it and seeing the characters playing a
replay of your own experience as a way of resonating with individuals, that way
the message can be delivered.
“Just like Nigeria is known for Nollywood, it’s because
stories can be told through movies and stage plays. It is just a way of staying
with the audience,” he said. (NAN)