FilmOne, Phebian Films, Huahua Media Empire, Entertainment Media present Blossom Chukwujekwu (Inspector Hassan), Elozonam Ogbolu (Inspector Stanley), Nse Ikpe-Etim (Madam Suzie), Belinda Effah (Ekaette), Saeed Mohammed (Funky Mallam), Chris Okagbue (Jonah), Oga Bello (Oga Bello), Adebayo Salami (Baba Risi), Chucks Chyke (Chukwudi), Imoikor Joseph (Papa Cletus), Chukwuemeka Okorofor, Rosemary Abazi (Nkechi) Kunle Fawole (Ajala), Chris Okagbue, Adebayo Salami, Mariam Booth (Munirat), Charles Inojie (Masi Okeke) Elvina Ibru (Contractor), Tobi Bakari (Dead Guy), Director, Seyi Babatope; Writers, Seyi Babatope, Temitope Bolade Akinbode, Diche Enunwa; Assoc. Producers, Matilda Ogunleye, Tosin Arise; Executive Producer, Moses Babatope, Seyi Babatope, Debbie McCrum. © 2021.
It’s good that Film One brings these new African governments’ mandates to film. In new-age Africa, there are mandated hours and certain days when movements are restricted to cleaning up the streets, alleys, yards, and public spaces in all towns and cities. Young ministers and presidents’ wives participate in such exercises. You see them grabbing onto the photo ops in news magazines for political expediencies. Unfortunately, these exercises sooner or later fizzle out and the streets are once again filled with filth.
Sanitation Day has a metaphoric title; one of those stories that runs in the vein of Gold Statue (2019). They both dug tunnels to the loot but then they parted ways. Sanitation Day could be crowned as a communal heist, involving too many characters but safely pulling off the heist and everyone getting paid with no glitches, no fuss, and no fight. “They stick to the plan.” “Sanitation” here means not cleaning streets, alleyways, and yards, but toiling for a whole year, digging a “well” to get to 10 million dollars in someone’s file cabinets. Hail to the brainchild of one Inspector Hassan (Blossom Chukwujekwu)! On this last day, the Appellate Court abolished Sanitation Day.
Even as not said, I can hear Inspector Hassan intoning his grievance like the characters in Secret of The Night (2004): The common man gets tired of his God-given resources being siphoned by government officers and they are out and about to get shares of the loot, hook, or crook. In Sanitation Day, it must be on the day when everything is quiet as mandated by the government: no movement, no traffic; like the food seller hurrying off the street before officers run her off.
The magic or can I call it beauty without glorifying the crime committed on Sanitation Day, is in foolproof planning––a communal project, or stealing, and therefore the common man and woman are involved. Sanitation Day is wholly the brainchild of Hassan. A lot of people are going to be involved in the heist because the magnitude of the job demands lots of people and will take almost a year to accomplish. “Such is the return. You’ll never have to work a day in your life.” One culprit assured. Beautiful.
A man has been murdered in the neighborhood close to the target of robbery––a decoy/fake. In essence, a ploy, or you may call it a decoy throwing off the prying eyes and the authorities, and precipitating lots of confusion. It’s all good. Hassan has fixed himself a water-tight gang of thieves, and as long as “they stick to the plan” they need not worry about anything.
Not to worry about anyone, even the inquisitive and subordinate, Inspector Stanley (Elozonam Ogbolu). His relentless questioning of the suspects at the scene and even his logical wry proposals to his boss, Hassan were frequently rebuffed.
The scene at Baba Risi’s compound where the dead body is found is a scene one is never supposed to miss if you want to make use of your bucks to see this movie. In this scene, Baba Risi accuses the only Hausa among the tenants in his compound of the crime of killing the unknown stranger. Mazi Okeke backs him up on that:
Mazi Okeke, “You don’t know these Hausa people? They just carry their daggers everywhere and go around stabbing people.”
Inspector Hassan, “I beg your pardon, I’m a Hausa man and I do not go about killing people.”
Mazi Okeke, “Heh, (in Igbo), Please, please, please, sorry, a slip of the tongue.”
Amidst the raucous in Baba Risi’s compound, the young Officer Stanley shoots a warning that stares the living hell out of Inspector Hassan. “What’s that for?” He asks Stanley. Well sir, I only shoot my gun so we can have a semblance of sanity. Well, now we have your attention…what exactly is the problem?”
Then you see all the tenants’ fingers pointing at each other.
Stanley, “… ever since we got here, it’s been one chaos after another. I suggest we take these suspects down to the station for proper interrogation.” Inspector Hassan, “We can’t take the suspects to the station for interrogation without a dead body, now. Can we?” Inspector Hassan chose to bring young Officer Stanley with him as a foolproof character in his exploitation of the crime. Since Stanley doesn’t know what’s going on; he is too busy playing the honest cop. “When I got the call, I knew exactly who’d come with me. He’s usually very forward and can be quite restless, which means, he won’t be able to piece the puzzle together quickly.”
I must be straight with you, Mr. Writer of Sanitation Day. A marvelous project indeed. And you must forgive me for the flak. Sanitation Day is a fluke that falls flat on its face. It has a gruesome structural fallacy, and I don’t want to buy wholesale into the premise of the movie. To be honest, I missed the confrontation that would make such a movie a hit; well to the literary mind. When a character says, “You know at some point, someone is going to talk or act out of character.” To the literary mind, that statement is a dramatic point in the story. And another questioned, “Men are to be digging tunnels for months without asking a question? I would, but Writer, Seyi Babtope et al disregard our concern. As Smart as Hassan is, such a heist cannot go on without a glitch, or hiccup. Maybe the Writers slept at the oars.
Inspector Hassan and the Writers conspired against us, seemingly to have their cake and eat it; not bothering us the audience wanting to be entertained; sitting at the edge of our seats, biting our fingers, expecting the heist to go wrong. Then at another point, siding with the poor neighborhood criminals wishing to share the loot, well-placed people in Lagos made use of their tax nairas. This is a drama of a high-stakes heist, my friend. It shouldn’t be a cakewalk; a fait accompli. I don’t care if I become a doomsayer for once––wishing for them to be caught––I wanted to see an accident in which the 10 million-dollar heist could be in kilter. We need opposition, we need confrontation; a snitch that will go for a few nairas, to buy beer and put the entire enterprise into an unspeakable dilemma. We wanted to see that. But not here in Sanitation Day. Maybe it is in The Million (2019). Ramsey Nouah, Ali Nuhu, Nancy Iseme, Broda Shagi, Ayo Makum, and Blossom Chukwujekwu all deserve every penny of the million-dollar loot––the risk is breathtaking.
Of course, you may have people in the audience who may laugh at the jokes Writer threw in for Mazi Okeke (Charles Inojie). Ma-a-zi, as he pronounced his name to the officers was a funny scene. And when he catches his daughter Nkechi (Rosemary Abazi), in Jonah’s (Chris Okagbue) room, the way he goes off on him cracks me up. The character played by Madam Susie (Nse Ikpe-Etem) is sure to get anyone who has seen and followed Nse in other serious productions and now playing here a ghetto beer and pepper-soup bar outfit owner in the neighborhood and spices her pidgin street parlance, so naturally that could amaze you. Looking into her face; seeing the fear of authorities in her eyes could let you know she’s in character and with an excellent performance.