Hijack ‘93 Is Everything A Historical Thriller Should Not Be

Hijack ‘93 begins in an unusual way for what is supposedly a historical drama—with a disclaimer that states that the film is a fictionalized interpretation of real events.  An attempt to ward off some of the criticism  of the film’s handling of real life events, but it wasn’t really necessary: Hijack ‘93’s many problems as a film overshadow its issues as a documentary.

Now showing on Netflix, Hijack ‘93 follows the story of four young Nigerian men who take control of a plane in a bid to force Nigeria’s military–backed Ernest Shonekan interim government to uphold Moshood Abiola as the rightful winner of the presidential election. Oh, that’s incorrect! Those are the events that led up to the real-life hijack of the Nigeria Airways flight. In Charles Okpaleke’s story, however, we are never told what exactly spurs these young men, except for vague allusions to “corrupt officials” and a call to “reinstate a democratically elected president”. There is thus an information gap so apparent to anyone unfamiliar with the actual events that a brief study of history may be required.

The film shudders from the fear of its producers to name names and detail a narrative, leaving the events of October 25, 1993 in a vacuum. Characterization thus suffers because only very shallow attempts have been made to humanize the characters. Each hijacker gets about a line of backstory—Omar/Skipper (Nnamdi Agbo) with his mother, Dayo/Iku (Oluwaseyi Akinsola) with his daughter—and/or shade of personality—Ben/Owiwi (Allison Emmanuel) is hotheaded, Kayode/Eruku (Adam Garba) is kinder and gentler. It doesn’t help that the film has only an hour and a half to flesh out its characters, but there is little promise from its creators that a longer runtime would have actually been beneficial. 

Even with the flexibility that comes with being semi-fiction, Hijack ‘93 finds itself constrained to some of the set pieces of the original story, as well as some of its own. It passes on the opportunity to allow these characters—hijackers, victims, crew—to interact in poignant and touching ways, save for a thin romantic thread between Eruku and Marie (Jessica Lorraine), a Senegalese-Nigerian passenger. Instead it is content with simply getting from one point to the next, and doesn’t mind sacrificing plausibility for it, especially as the story nears its conclusion. The conclusion to the saga itself is perfect—in that it ties up an hour of scarcely believable scenes with the most confusing one of all, throwing in a death where there really didn’t need to be, and making for an unnecessary “action-packed” finale.

It is a big shame and a bigger confusion when a film cannot get right something as basic as a story, especially in Nollywood where funds are scarce and the film is one of the few to actually have gotten sufficient funding. On Hijack ‘93 there are really no issues to be pointed out in direction and production quality, especially none that can stand next to the gaping hole where the plot should be. The military aspects are handled finely, and the plane special effects hold up decently enough to not be a noticeable distraction. One time, Bob Manuel-Udokwu delivers a line in a scene that had obviously been taped over in post production, a nun prays her rosary in the wrong order, and a doctor appears to detect a fever using a stethoscope, so more attention could have been paid to detail.

Acting in Hijack ‘93 does not hold up to a high standard. Of course it never helps to be given bad lines, but there is an accompaniment of bad delivery that further weighs down the performances of the main four, especially when they get to their more emotional scenes. Curiously, most of the acting budget has been expended on the cabin crew, where Sharon Ooja, Nancy Isime and Jemima Osunde have been recruited to share a handful of lines. Outside the plane, Hijack ‘93 tries to show glimpses of Nigerians’ reactions to the saga, but these are too disjointed, impersonal and poorly scripted to be anything other than a waste of time. 

A larger conversation needs to be held on mainstream Nollywood’s present status and its continued stagnancy (or perhaps regression) in storytelling, but this is neither the time nor place. It should suffice to say, however, that Hijack ‘93 impressively spotlights its biggest issue today: no growth in budgets, or technical design, or production quality can cover up for incompetent storytelling. Again, perhaps it’s best if Nollywood producers steer clear of reenacting important political and historical events if they are too scared to provide the political context behind them.