Mary Daniels, 26, is a final year student of Kaduna State University; she is from Zango Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State and speaks Hausa partially.
In her 26 years of existence, she visited almost all parts of Nigeria because her father is a serving military officer.
Daniels is a real Black, African Queen with a massive backside, tall, friendly, very intelligent, homely and does not have enemies according to her, even though her beauty and shape sometimes causes commotion on streets by onlookers.
For some time now, Mary Daniels is always in the University’s National Library, resort centres, historical places, Arewa house or meeting Kannywood stakeholders because of her project in film production which she is working on.
The film will focus on the Hausa culture, girl child education, sex education, inter-ethnic marriage, the good, bad and ugly side of life in the north and how it is educationally backward.
She is currently working on a script that will be shot in English and Hausa with artists to be drawn from Nollywood, Kannywood, the civil society, universities, and the association of orphans and widows.
Although she is still working on the budget for the upcoming Hausa film, she has already contacted some individuals, corporate organisations and banks to sponsor the film which will run into millions of naira. She’s considering the idea of approaching some state government officials for their contributions to aid the advertisement of their achievements in the film which in her words, “will not only hit record sales but will compete favourably with any film produced in a developed environment”.
Neptune Prime’s correspondent, Saleh Inuwa, met Daniels recently in Kaduna and had an interview with her.
NP: Are you one of the passengers that will travel to Kano in this car?
MD: It’s my pleasure meeting you, I do read your materials and I can say that it is well packaged. I would like to be linked with one of your reporters. I am a student of Kaduna state university, currently working on a script. I want to be a Hausa film producer and partner with people like Kabir Musa Janmmage in future. I have watched some of the films he produced in English with most of the actors drawn from Kannywood.
NP: Is it possible to actualise this dream? knowing that you don’t speak Hausa fluently.
MD: I am not only a final year student studying business administration at Kaduna State University; I am from Zangon Kataf Local Government in Southern Kaduna. We reside in Edo State because my father who is a serving military officer is based there.
I don’t speak Hausa fluently but whether I like it or not, I am a northerner. I also see Nollywood and Kannywood films, and they say charity begins at home. Let me use my connection, beauty, talent to develop Kannywood, then I can partner with stakeholders locally and internationally.
NP: What areas will you want to focus on in your film?
MD: I have noticed over the years that some of our youths and housewives can spend hours watching Hausa films but cannot develop themselves in terms of acquiring western education. My film which I will want to shoot in Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Abuja and Zaria will try to educate our youths on sex education, rape, girl child education, inter-ethnic marriage, adult education for married women and old men and also, expose the real Hausa culture to the outside world.
NP: Won’t the way you dress cause problems for you in Kano state and other Muslim homes and societies?
MD: I told you I am a multi-dimensional person who has visited almost all parts of this country. Kaduna is a liberal state, the same as Abuja where I dress the way I want and feel at home unchallenged.
Since you asked this question, let me share my experience with you. The first time I went to Kano with the intention of seeing some film actors, right from the motor park where I alighted, I noticed people were starring at me so curiously and making some comments which were not loud enough for me to hear, but when I reach the main city, honestly, my waist, I mean my backside nearly put me in trouble.
I was dressed in a tight attire that exposed every corner of my body, even ‘Keke Napep’ riders were hitting each other because I took their attention. I did not feel embarrassed, but I made up my mind that next time, I will be in a proper wrapper so that instead of developing the northern culture, people will not see me as destroying northern culture.
NP: Tell us a bit about your life?
MD: I like travelling a lot; I like swimming, hunting, reading sexy novels; I like falling in love to have real hot romance, after all I am only 26 and will be a graduate next year so let me enjoy myself to the fullest.
NP: Finally, are you in any serious relationship?
MD: Every day I go out, I get dozens of admirers, even within the university community, guys are falling over themselves to have my number, so no matter how I try to stick with one boyfriend, I do meet some aggressive ones that will say if I did not give them my heart, they will jump into any deep available well, so they are all over me.
