Twenty five years after Africa’s most consistent filmmaker, Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen, popularly known as D’Guvnor, made Issakaba, the movie remains an architectural masterpiece about the unresolved security challenges in Nigeria.
It is an unusual chapter in the journey of a filmmaker who has remained remarkably consistent in telling Nigerian stories around culture, society, politics, security and the realities of everyday life.
When Lancelot was described as one of Nollywood’s most consistent filmmakers, perhaps nobody imagined that a quarter of a century later, Issakaba will still remain a focal point to the internal security challenges bedeveling the Nation.
Then, for a filmmaker to revisit his own work after 25 years is no ordinary creative undertaking. D’Guvnor, the masquerade behind Issakaba has grown with changes without abandoning the instinct that has defined his career: telling stories that speak to Nigeria.
His return to Issakaba therefore feels less like an attempt to relive the past and more like the work of a filmmaker confident enough to confront his own history and give it another interpretation.
What makes the journey even more striking is that the concerns that informed the original film have refused to disappear.
Loosely inspired by real events surrounding the Bakassi Boys and the alleged activities of Eddy Nawgu in Anambra State, Issakaba dealt with insecurity, courage, community consciousness and the place of local solutions in protecting communities.
Twenty five years on, Nigeria is still having serious conversations about insecurity, community policing, vigilante groups, local intelligence and state police. The circumstances may have changed, but many of the concerns around the security of ordinary Nigerians remain.
In that sense, the continued relevance of Issakaba is also a reflection of the filmmaker’s instinct in 2001 and the society he continues to observe today.
This is where D’Guvnor’s consistency becomes more than a description of longevity. His career has been built around an ability to remain engaged with the Nigerian experience, even as the country and the film industry continue to evolve.
The return of Issakaba offers another glimpse into that enduring commitment, because it brings together two versions of the same filmmaker: the Lancelot who first told the story 25 years ago and the D’Guvnor who now returns with a quarter of a century of experience behind him.
That makes the remake as much a statement about his journey as it is about the story itself.
That is why the return of Issakaba deserves to be seen first as another chapter in the remarkable career of D’Guvnor.
Whatever the final reception of the remake may be, Lancelot has already accomplished something few filmmakers will ever attempt: he has returned to a story he told a quarter of a century ago and found enough relevance in it to tell it again.
In an industry where consistency is difficult and longevity even harder, that is a statement in itself.
Perhaps that is the most fitting tribute to D’Guvnor: 25 years after Issakaba, he is still creating, still taking risks and still telling Nigerian stories.
