The Other Side of History is a biopic by popular filmmaker and writer Onyeka Nwelue. Nwabue is currently globetrotting to market the project, according to reports.
He moblised cast and crew from the United States and Canada to Ghana to tell the story of Ojukwu’s life between 1954 – 1960.
The film was shot in different countries, including in Ghana. One may ask what Ghana as to do with Ojukwu. The answer is the Ghanaian highlife musician E.T. Mensah, prestigious at the time, was brought to Enugu Nigeria by fun-seeking Ojukwu.
“Anyone who could afford to bring E.T. Mensah to Enugu in the 50s was really a rich man, and Emeka Ojukwu, founder of Biafra, invited him. So, I thought it was important to include E.T. Mensah in the narrative of Ojukwu,” Nwelue told a Ghanaian TV which wrote on its website that Ojukwu was “frolicking with different women and throwing parties for his friends.”
“Wole Soyinka shared a personal story of him and Ojukwu with me. Obasanjo told me that Ojukwu was his friend. So I thought it was important to tell my generation born into confusion, that there was life before 1960. There was a need to make Ojukwu a human being in the eyes of my generation. Kids of my generation don’t know much. They only know how to coin slangs and dance a lot.” Set for launch on October 1, 2021, Other Side of History was inspired by a 2012 Vanguard Newspaper article by Uduma Kalu: Ojukwu: Sexcapades of the Biafran leader. The article had said Ojukwu was a women charmer who wrote great romantic poetry and love letters.
Greg Ojefua plays Emeka Ojukwu, in a cast that include Nollywood veteran Chiwetalu Agu and some new faces: Juice Egah, Rachael Okonkwo, and Chika Anyanwu (playing Sir Louis Ojukwu).
Others are Makinde Adeniran (Wole Soyinka), Emeka Darlington (Chinua Achebe), Hero Daniels (Chris Okigbo), Emeka Okoye (Olusegun Obasanjo), Ugo Stevenson (Philip Effiong), Jammal Ibrahim (Yakubu Gowon), and Obodoakor (JP Clark).
More on the cast: George Onyebuchi (Chukwuemeka Ike), Fellowship Okereke (Emmanuel Ifeajuna), Mitterrand Okorie (Nnamdi Azikiwe), Eze Justice (Kaduna Nzeogwu), Acharaman (E.T. Mensah), and TerryTheVoice, (Bobby Benson).