There is an artist in Lagos who believes Nollywood’s greatest ailment is its neglect of process. For Donald Tombia, the celebrated writer behind projects such as Slum King, Shanty Town, and Masquerades of Aniedo, the journey of creating a story is as critical as the story itself. In an industry he critiques for often rewarding effort over excellence and pandering to trends over artistic rigor, Tombia has built his reputation on a foundation of meticulous craft.
Now, with his directorial debut, the short film “Òdè! There Is No Bus Stop On This Trip,” he is putting that philosophy to its ultimate test. The film is more than a narrative; it is a manifesto, a statement of intent from a creator reintroducing himself to the industry as an art-driven auteur.
Tombia describes “Òdè!” as “a love letter to absurdity and survival, and, in a play of words, the absurdity of survival.” It is a sentiment that captures the surreal and unyielding nature of life for many young Nigerians.
The film confines us to the world of Ejikeme and Akumjeli, a couple whose cramped room becomes a pressure cooker for their anxieties about debt, work, and a birthday that offers little to celebrate. Tombia’s vision is to immerse the audience in their psychological landscape. “I want the audience to see themselves in the two characters,” he explains, painting Ejikeme as the dreamer taking outrageous risks, and Akumjeli as someone “so subservient to the system that she can’t tell her boss off for calling her to work on the weekend.”
Through their story, he aims to take the viewer on a “rollercoaster reminiscent of what it’s like to live in a poor economy with a failed government,” employing surreal and psychedelic visuals to externalize their internal chaos.
This stylistic choice, to emphasize mood, texture, and psychological immersion over a traditional message-driven narrative, is a deliberate evolution for a writer known for complex TV plots. It reflects what he calls the “SCATH” principle guiding his production company, Rocks & Badgers. “SCATH” stands for stories that are Simple, Cultural, Artsy, Tension-filled, and Heartfelt.
For Tombia, “storytelling is more important than the story.” The “how” of the film, its atmosphere and immersive quality, is the vessel that carries its themes of “poverty and systemic degradation.” His goal is not to preach but to create an empathetic experience where the audience lives the characters’ reality. This approach is informed by his years as a head writer, where he learned that “the most personal story is the most creative.”
Directing “Òdè!” was an exercise in extending that empathy from the page to the screen, ensuring every directorial choice served the characters’ lived experience.
The weight of this debut is significant. Despite a formidable filmography spanning gritty crime, epic family drama, and intimate telenovelas, Tombia points to “Òdè!” as the project that will “go down in history as my directorial debut.” It represents a pivotal step from being the “pen behind” Nollywood’s biggest series to becoming the visionary in front of the camera, orchestrating the final product.
This transition was not taken lightly. Tombia spent a full year developing the film, a testament to his belief that a commitment to process is what will make Nigerian cinema globally competitive. His ambition was clear from the outset: to create a short film capable of competing on international platforms, such as the Academy Awards.
That rigorous process involved seven drafts of the script and a deeply intentional study of global cinema. To shape the film’s psychedelic and emotional tone, he immersed himself in works like Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things and HBO’s Euphoria, not to copy but to absorb their sensibilities. He even adopted the East-Asian narrative structure of Kishōtenketsu, a bold choice for a Nigerian audience accustomed to Hollywood-style storytelling, in service of his auteur vision.
Every decision, from the casting of Chukwu Martin and Doris Okorie to the subtle cinematography and sound design was meant to build tension and was evaluated through a single question: “What would the audience feel in this moment?”
“Òdè!” finds its first audience as part of the shorts competition at the 5th S16 Film Festival, a platform for emerging voices. For Tombia, the selection is an honor, but his hope for the audience is characteristically focused on engagement and conversation. “My first point of call is to entertain,” he states. “I hope the audience holds conversations about every element of the film. The story, the storytelling, the characters… every single thing,” he adds.
He hopes viewers see fragments of themselves in the characters’ desperate coping mechanisms, whether cursing the system or turning to religion, validating the film as a true creative endeavor.
Early critical reception, such as a review from the S16 festival, suggests the film is indeed a provocative, if divisive, artistic statement. One review notes it “heightens the economic struggles of Nigeria’s youth to a psychedelic drug-induced trip,” praising its attempt to break from “the formality of new Nollywood” with surrealism.
However, it also cautions that the film can be “heavy on visual provocation but light on any real commentary,” at times layering on dream-state visuals that are more concerned with approach than with a cohesive story. This tension, between ambitious artistic intent and narrative clarity, is perhaps the inevitable territory of a filmmaker so passionately obsessed with process and reinvention.
Ultimately, “Òdè! There Is No Bus Stop On This Trip” is a bold declaration from Donald Tombia. It is the work of a craftsman who left a lucrative career in cybersecurity to pursue storytelling, achieved master status in Nigerian television writing in just five years, and now refuses to rest on those laurels.
The film is his argument against what he sees as the industry’s “anyhowness,” its lack of cinematic apprenticeship, and its dearth of documented craft. By dedicating a year to a short film, studying the masters, and prioritizing empathetic, artsy storytelling, Tombia is not just making a movie.
He is attempting to build a blueprint for what Nollywood could be when the process is worshipped as fervently as the result. Whether the audience finds a bus stop or is left on a continuous, absurd journey, Tombia has ensured the ride is one they won’t soon forget.