Hijack 93 (Movie Review)

Hijack 93 is a Nollywood historical thriller that is currently streaming on Netflix and was released on the 25th of October, 2024. It is rated 13+ and has a runtime of 1 hour, 26 Minutes.

It was written by Musa Jeffery David and directed by Robert Peters and features a star-studded cast of old and new faces including Adam Garba, Allison Emmanuel, Sharon Ooja, Nancy Isime, John Dumelo and Bob Manuel among many others. It is ultimately a dramatization of the real-life hijack of Nigerian Airways on 25th October, 1993.

Premise of Hijack 93

The year is 1993. The annulment of the June 12 Presidential Election Result still hangs heavily in the Nigerian political atmosphere. We are first introduced to what looks like a training barracks, where the Teacher (Sam Dede) seems to be giving a revolutionary speech to a group of young men. At the end, he selects 4 boys for a “special” assignment.

The next scene we see is of a bustling Murtala Muhammed airport, Lagos, where an unknown flight attendant is seen with a mysterious bag and stowing it away on the plane. In the waiting lounge, we see the 4 young men from earlier, waiting alongside everyone else to board the plane that’s leaving for Abuja.

Before the flight takes off, we are also introduced to the cabin crew; Captain Ambrose (John Dumelo), Co-captain Odion (Efa Iwara) and flight attendant Ada (Sharon Ooja) and Iyabo (Nancy Isime). Odion announces to Ambrose and the rest of the crew that he and Ada are now engaged to be married, to which Ambrose responds that they will celebrate in Abuja.

Take-off is slightly delayed to accommodate the late arrival of what appears to be a VIP; A young Asian man who is guarded by several Nigerian soldiers, much to the annoyance of the passengers in the flight. Soon enough, the plane takes off.

Mid-air, the four boys nod to themselves in what appears to be a signal, and one of them gets up and heads to the bathroom, where he retrieves the bag that was stowed away by the unknown flight attendant earlier. The bag apparently contains weapons, which he discreetly distributes to the other three before heading upstairs to the Business Class cabin. He is first stopped by an air hostess, but then he points a gun at her, which in turn prompts the other three to act. They stand up and reveal their weapons, aiming it at the passengers and declaring their mission and their motives.

It is at this point that we are formally introduced to the 4 young men. Kayode [Codename: Ekuku] (Adam Garba), Omar [Codename: Skipper] (Nnamdi Agbo), Dayo [Codename: Iku] (Akinsola Oluwaseyi), and Benjamin [Codename: Owiwi] (Allison Emmanuel).

The hijackers’ demand is simple: to uphold the results of the June 12 election and reinstate MKO Abiola as the elected president of the Nigerian Republic, or they set the plane on fire with everyone in it.

“Power to the People!”

They then command the pilot to re-route the initially Abuja-bound plane to Frankfurt, Germany (a flashback shows the Teacher explaining that ‘new lives’ await them there). However, the plane obviously does not carry enough fuel to support this plan, so thus begins the desperate search across countries for an airport to give clearance for them to land. It turns out to be fruitless, as no country or airport wants to deal with such a messy situation, hence refusing their plea for landing clearance. When they arrive at Diori Hamani airspace, Niger, the story is almost the same.

“Requesting permission for an emergency landing!”
“Permission refusée”
“We don’t speak French!”

However, after extra pressure from the hijackers, they land anyway. And almost as soon as they touchdown, they are heavily surrounded by the Nigerien Air Force with the Nigerian Army flying in for assistance.

What proceeds is an intense, drama-filled, borderline chaotic 72 hours involving the hijackers, the passengers, the cabin crew, and the Military personnel of both Niger and Nigeria. The events include, but are not limited to; flashbacks to educate us on the hijackers’ pasts and motives, discourse on the obvious class and tribal differences that are prevalent in the country, a possible love story, a tragic past and future, childbirth, and also…deceitful flight attendants, discord amongst the hijackers and then finally, a compromise between the military and the hijackers and an intense military bust that leads to the possible death of a passenger and the subsequent end of the hijack.

There is also a minor plot twist regarding a double agent amongst the cabin crew.

Cast and Performances

First of all, I would like to declare that I love the casting of this movie. It does a fine job of blending both old and new faces of Nollywood. Aside from the characters and their corresponding cast above, we also have star studded performances such as;

– Bob Manuel as Kenneth Dokunbo (Lieutenant of the Nigerian Army)
– Jessica Loraine as Marie (A Senegalese Nigerian passenger who serves as the unwilling interpreter between the hijackers and the French-speaking Nigerien military, and also Kayode’s potential love interest)
– Akash Khati as Lee Zhang (Son of the Chinese ambassador to Nigeria and also a VIP)
– Jemima Osunde as Temitope (Flight Attendant)
– Idia Aisien as Ese (Flight Attendant)
– Pasha Bay as Gana (Captain of the Nigerien Air Force)

Kalu Ikeagwu, another legendary face in Nollywood, plays a cameo role as Benjamin (Owiwi)’s father.

Regarding their performances, I believe each cast member absolutely nailed their role and did their best with the script they were given. Allison Emmanuel does a fantastic job of playing Owiwi, an insecure, impulsive, young man who is often aggressive and acts on an incredibly short fuse.

However, it is clear that each character was given a specific archetype that may come off to some as cliché. For example, Kayode, who is arguably the main character of the movie, is given a “prince charming” sort of vibe, complete with the damsel-in-distress love interest (Marie) that makes him question his conscience and ‘humanizes’ him.

Dayo (Iku), whom I dub ‘the strong silent type’, is exactly that; deep voice, rarely talks, calm, mysterious, dark tragic past. Also, Nnamdi Agbo who plays Omar (Skipper), the supposed leader of the mission, does not exactly exude the authority that comes with such a role. Whether that was intentional or not remains unclear to me.

I must also applaud Bob Manuel and Pasha Bay for their performances as rigid military leaders who put duty above personal emotions, as all soldiers are commanded to do. The few snippets of dialogue between them provide for a very interesting contrast between the two countries and their military style. I wish the writers had done more with that.

What I liked about Hijack 93

The dialogue. Simple as that. The conversations amongst the characters were fun and intriguing to listen to. From deep debates about the political atmosphere and the class differences amongst the Nigerian population (There is this scene where a reputable judge attempts to bribe one of the hijackers into setting him free, but he vehemently rejects it as it goes against the group’s moral code and his own convictions) to emotional monologues about each hijacker and their motivations (Iku’s daughter, that’s all I’m going to say) to tribalist-charged arguments, and not to mention Sam Dede’s incredibly radicalizing speeches about revolution as Mallam Jerry (The Teacher).

There is a lot to explore in the tones and niches of the dialogue alone. And also, a special kudos to the French speaking characters. Despite not being an avid francophone myself, I still found the French dialogue fluid and natural.

What I didn’t like

Hijack 93 is based off a real life event, which was already dramatic and significant enough at the time of its occurrence. And while I understand that it is impossible to stay 100% accurate to the source material, I couldn’t help but feel like the various diversions made to the real story sort of trivialized it.

What I’m saying is…there were too many side stories.

Especially when you consider the messages that the movie was trying to pass across; Class differences, political differences, the impact of activism and how drastic one’s actions need to be to get their point across.

This could’ve easily been a thrilling, revolutionary eye opener to the importance of class consciousness and drastic measures or even a philosophical complex that forces the audience into their own debates on morality and the concept of action versus motive (whether they side with the hijackers or not), and not to mention the political repercussions (in the real hijack, the Asian VIP was the actual Vice President of China, which would justify the urgency with which the Nigerian Government responded to the situation as it would’ve posed serious threats to our relations with the country if anything happened to him on Nigerian soil). However, the dramatizations and diversions make it difficult to take those points seriously (a love story? Really?). It was simultaneously overwhelming and lacking.

I also didn’t like the lack of proper backstory. We are instead given very brief, vague flashbacks of each hijacker; specifically, their first contact with the Teacher and/or the loss of a loved one that has little to do with their actual personal reasons to go on this life changing mission. I heard that the producers had interviews with the real life hijackers (who are not only still alive, but have finished serving their sentences and currently living in Nigeria), so this wouldn’t have been impossible to do.

The only character who had proper justice done to his backstory in my opinion was Iku; He lost his daughter in the midst of gang violence, and due to his poor socio-economic status, he never truly got justice for her as both her life and him were seen as insignificant.

Sounds like a pretty good reason to me.

Final Thoughts

Do I think this was a good movie? Not really. But it was certainly enlightening. As a “Gen Z baddie”, I didn’t even know that there was once a 9-11 style airplane hijack in Nigeria less than 10 years before I was born, and the concept of this movie has prompted me to do more research on it. However, I feel like the writers certainly could’ve done more with the story.