By Chris Ihidero
‘Act well your part, there all the honour lies’. – Alexander Pope.
Distinguished guests and participants, The eminent men and women being honoured at this inaugural edition of the Nigerian Entertainment Conference have shown time and again that the path of honour, as tasking and draining as it may seem, is a path worthy of a lifetime commitment. They have exhibited, in their individual capacities as practitioners in and contributors to the Nigerian entertainment sector, a glowing sense of understanding of the work at hand and the need for steadfastness in getting the job done. In spite of varying degrees of obstacles, these worthy ambassadors of our nation’s creative expressions have shown the doggedness that we are capable of expressing more than any nation on the planet when we really put our heart and minds to any endeavour. These distinguished Nigerians remind us all of what it means to be Proudly Nigerian and make that count where it matters.
We honour these men and women today because their immense contributions, through their creative expressions, have helped in galvanising an entertainment industry that is worthy of praise. By all rational means, we should not have an entertainment industry in Nigeria that continues to attract attention from all over the world. By the way we currently operate this industry, we should be wallowing in abject creative and material poverty. We should not have a music industry with stars doing collaborations with global super stars; we should not have a movie industry that is worth something around half a billion dollars and movie stars that cause traffic at international airports all over Africa; we should not have online platforms that continue to engage a populace desirous of news and information on the go and right as news breaks globally…the things we achieve in the entertainment industry in Nigeria are astounding, clearly because common sense says, with the debilitating environment we work in, we shouldn’t be achieving this much.
This is why we are honouring these ones…they braved the odds and they conquered.
To all those who have made the Honours List at this maiden edition of NEC, on behalf of the Editorial Board of Nigerian Entertainment Today, I say BRAVO!
Chris Ihidero
Chairman, Editorial Board, NET.
