I read with dismay the address of president of the AGN, Ms Ibinabo Fiberisima on a recent visit with some notable actors and AGN officials to the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
It is alarming to discover from this address, the false claims by Ibinabo Fiberisima that the Actors Guild of Nigeria is the only umbrella body of Nigerian screen actors, that president Goodluck Jonathan has by the “constant release of funds” effected a sustained development of Nollywood since the inception of his government, that an AGN secretariat in Abuja and political appointments for actors will advance the welfare and professionally advance the cause of Nigerian screen actors.
While it is not surprising that Ibinabo Fiberisima will display such a lack of knowledge of what advances screen actors professionally in the developed world since she has not functioned consistently as an actor and has less than ten titles to her credit in a career spanning from the late eighties, it is however surprising that the established actors who do, within her entourage watched in compliance, the denigration of the integrity of Nigerian screen actors, as she read her requests literally begging for crumbs from the president’s table. In the interest of hard working, self-respecting practitioners of the Nigerian acting industry, veterans, struggling and aspiring actors, it is vital to set the record straight.
- AGN is not the sole umbrella body of Nigerian screen actors. AGN was established to be but because there were other existing associations like ANTP in existence before it, it seeks to represent the English language movie industry and has been unsuccessful in this bid ever since, as members have continued to fail to renew their membership because to date, AGN brings nothing to the table to advance her members professionally and socially.
- Since 2010, after a press conference on the possibility of unionization, myself, along with ANCORP, RATTAWU, AGN Lagos state chapter, some members of ANTP and other concerned actors began discussions on the need for legislation to empower a single representative guild for Nigerian screen actors to enable the following;
- Jobs for actors be accessible only through casting agents who are registered with this guild and are equipped to either double as or can afford to employ an acting coach within their agency.
- Creating a level playing ground for aspiring actors and struggling actors to source jobs since auditions will only pass through aggressive agents, and all an actor will need is to register with a casting agent; so that foreign casting agents will find a structure in place to access the best for their roles rather than the PR hype engines of the same faces.
- Creating an infusion of new young producers into the make-up of the Association of Movie Producers, AMP and a fresh cycle of modern Nigerian stories by young script writers.
- Creating an avenue for trained Nigerian entertainment lawyers to function as their services is indispensable in an environment where casting directors/agents are the only direct source of employment to actors.
- Provision of a national health insurance scheme to provide vital affordable health care, the subsidized cost of which is built into the actor’s annual membership dues.
- What the screen actor needs is a guild that is structured to promote his/her creativity as an artist with due material returns and that is the focus required of a collective Actor’s Guild of Nigeria.
- The said consistent release of funds has been accessed by a few who knew of it and were connected to collect it; and has in no way improved the lot of the main stream Nigerian screen actors who make their daily living from Nollywood.
- The film industry the world over is sustained by private sector investment, it is a competitive industry. What the Nigerian screen actor require is an enabling structure creating a level playing ground for all to work, empowered by legislation to have her rules legally binding on her members and associated guilds/investors thereby positioned as a structure that investors from the private sector can repose the confidence of their investment in; not political appointments to a handful.
- Nigerian screen actors are artists not politicians and do not need a national secretariat in the political capital of Nigeria. What will benefit generations of Nigerian screen actors in endowment from the presidency is a national library for the Nigerian film industry outside Abuja since there is one already situated within the Nigerian film corporation. A national library for the film industry set by itself to function specifically for education, research, motivation and borrowable footages open to students, researchers, historians, foreigners and practitioners themselves, stocking history books on the genesis and development of the industry, biographies of practitioners, students’ thesis, documentaries, etc. Will move the industry forward in the right direction intellectually and help build the dire needed tradition of record keeping necessary for youth development.
- Finally, the AGN was not established as a platform to canvass for political appointments or pursue selfish interests. Ms Onyeka Onwenu and Mr. kanayo O. Kanayo listed as examples in her address became card carrying members of PDP and pursued the realization of PDP’s political goals to obtain their appointments. Ms Ibinabo Fiberisima should resign as AGN president for her brazen use of a body created to serve the creative interests of a group, to gain political appointment while in office. I enjoin her to follow the respectable road of her named predecessors by joining the PDP and testing the real value of her self-earned popularity as an actress for political appointment.
Card carrying member of AGN from 2001 and an active frontline member of the Ejike Asiegbu tenure as AGN president.
No comments:
Post a Comment