27th July, 2020
41 year old Nigerian actress, producer, and director Genevieve Nnaji has come out to state that her feminism is about human rights.
The Mbaise, Imo State born super star in an interview said she’s free to do whatever she likes, whenever she wants and the same applies if she were a guy.
According to Nnaji, she is a ‘woman who has rights to her choices’. She directed and released her film Lionheart in 2018.
Here’s what fans are saying on Twitter:
So some men really have a problem with what Genevieve said? What do you really want of women, guys? Slavery? SMH pic.twitter.com/xJQmK0R0Dg
— Ibrahim Babátúndé Ibrahim (@HEEMtheWriter) July 27, 2020
Ace Actress Genevieve Nnaji Comes Out as a Feminist for the first time pic.twitter.com/B54GcAzu4M
— kacylee (@kacylee43) July 27, 2020
How dare Genevieve have rights ? How dare she do what she wants ? How dare she not obtain permission from a man to breathe ? These are the real issues we should be discussing
— ebele. (@ebelee_) July 27, 2020
Genevieve got it wrong when she said “whenever I want”
In a romantic relationship, u’re required to be loyal & considerate of ur partner.
This applies to both gendersClaiming to do “whatever u want whenever u want” is a clear disregard of the loyalty required in a relationship
— One Man Battalion (@gentle_papii) July 27, 2020
Genevieve has this thing with making sense,on occasion and today was one of such days…
The guys who took the time to misunderstand her and attack her,are the same ones who can tell you that they like Indomie,but not Noodles🙄🙄
In fact,I'll soon ask them… pic.twitter.com/oWJZqZ624E
— Maxima1🦍 (@Maxima119) July 27, 2020
In 2019, Lionheart was selected by the Nigerian Oscars Selection Committee (NOSC), as Nigeria’s submission to the Best International Feature Film Category of the 2020 Oscars, the first film ever submitted to the Oscars by Nigeria.
The oscar submission was canceled for not meeting the language criteria. The film’s dialogue track is predominantly in the English language.
On 4 November 2019, in a viral tweet, award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay, questioned the Academy’s decision on nixing Lionheart Oscar race for using its official language–English.
Genevieve, in response to Ava DuVernay’s Tweet, took to Twitter to explain that the country Nigeria as presently constituted, does boast of over 500 languages, making it so ethnically diverse that English, as the official language, can only be the language utilized to make the movie widely acceptable to the eclectic audience across the country, and even beyond the continent of Africa.