Nigeria / 2012 / 30mins / Documentary / English, Pidgin, Yoruba and Hausa

The oil subsidy placed on petroleum products in 2012 by the Nigerian government was meant to provide a much-needed relief on the cost of living for its citizens. However it was revealed that about seven billion dollars was stolen from the Nigerian people in one year from the same program that was meant to provide relief for them. It is quite possibly one of the most daring frauds in history. Fuelling Poverty is a documentary that expresses and articulates this fraud. With music from Femi Kuti and Asa, Fuelling Poverty is another collaboration between the award-winning team of writer/ director, Ishaya Bako and producer, Oliver Aleogena; a joint production between The Allied Film Company and Amateur Heads Media.

Ishaya Bako

Ishaya Bako, born December 1986, is a Nigerian film director and screenwriter. He was born in Kaduna, where he lived all his life and later moved to London, where he studied at the London Film School. After attending the London Film School, Bako went on to script and direct the African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA)-winning Braids on a Bald Head. He won the Best Short Film Awards at the 8th African Movie Academy Awards. He is an emerging voice of his generation and a member of a select few Global Shapers, a collection of enterprising youths initiated by the World Economic Forum. His film Fuelling Poverty (2012), a documentary on poverty and fuel subsidy in Nigeria, is narrated by Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka. Ishaya Bako lives in Abuja, Nigeria. His film The Royal Hibiscus Hotel was screened at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. He also was one of the writers for the movie Lionheart (2018). Learn More