9th March, 2020
Favour Akubo, an 18-year-old Nigerian film director, is leading the conversation on the impact of drug abuse among youths with his new film, ‘Vices’.
The short film, recently endorsed by the National Orientation Agency (NOA), follows the lives of young people as they struggle with drugs.
Akubo, in an interview on Monday in Abuja, said that it was important to raise awareness on the struggles young adults between 18 and 21 go through as they try to navigate the world.
The lead character, Ikechukwu Obiora (Samuel Kazim) is torn between bowing to peer pressure and staying on the right track as he fights to save his dying mother.
Akubo said: “I basically wanted to tell true stories to a larger audience about what young people face.
“Not only do they face getting killed by these social vices, some even commit suicide because of the lack of support and nobody to check upon them.
“It is something no one is talking about, but we filmmakers would do our best. For me, it was a story that definitely needed to be told,” he said.
Akubo explained that he was committed to telling stories that would bring the much-needed support to young people, as they were often neglected in storytelling.
He said: “The game plan is to generate more real stories for the world. To preach our stories, so the world can begin to embrace every beauty it holds.
“We have a lot of attention in fact from the world, we need to drive that attention into succeeding as a whole nation.
“We are a bigger force than we imagined, so the game of film making here can get to make people see a better world through us,” Akubo said.
‘Vices’, which was co-produced by Blueink Media and Have Media, is set to premiere on March 13 in Abuja.