By Olamide Jasanya
The Actor’s Guild of Nigeria (AGN) has reacted to the statement issued by Association of Nollywood Core Producers (ANCOP) over the former’s support for the centenary celebration billed to hold in 2014.
Speaking exclusively to NET, the PRO of the AGN, Frank Dallas, described ANCOP as an unrecognised group whose stand on matters relating to the guild are untenable, ‘ANCOP is not relevant neither is it recognised. They are just a group of charlattans who failed an election and went ahead to form a group to fool themselves’ he said while confirming the guild’s support to the Federal government’s centenary celebration.
ANCOP through its president, Alex Eyengho, had earlier issued a statement accusing AGN of conniving with the presidency through its secretary, Anyim Pius Anyim to rip off the industry. He describes the meeting as an avenue to waste money and stated ANCOP’s disinterest in the alliance.
‘Let me make it clear that neither ANCOP nor I as the President are against this interactive session with Nollywood… The session Senator Anyim had was not with Nollywood but with Kanayo O. Kanayo with those he decides to inform, hand picked and invite. Nollywood is a formal and serious industry replete with eggheads. We must be treated as such‘, Eyengho said.
3 comments
The press statement ANCOP sent to Olamide and other media organizations is quite different from what has been economically published. There was no where in the said press statement that AGN was mentioned. ANCOP is an employer association while AGN is one of the many employee guilds in Nollywood. There is no basis for comparison. This Dallas of a guy is an unknown quantity in Nollywood and a manifest failed actor. He is indeed one of the many jobbers in Nollywood, ready to do any dirty job for who ever is ready to pay him some peanut. I knew AGN was doomed the day they mistakenly made him their PRO. In any case, one basic fact the like of Frank must live with is that ANCOP is the only internationally affiliated and recognized producers association in Nigeria. ANCOP is a member of the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF). FIAPF is to film producing at global level what FIFA is to the game of football at global level. I pity Frank Dallas because he is certainly living in the past. He is a subsistence failed actor and ‘film producer’.
PRESS STATEMENT:
ANCOP cautions on FG’s parley with Nollywood over centenary celebration.
The Association of Nollywood Core Producers (ANCOP), has urged stakeholders in the Nigerian entertainment industry particularly the Nigerian movie industry otherwise known as Nollywood, to be weary of the current Federal Government’s romance with the industry as government prepares to roll out the drums to celebrate 100 years (centenary) of the country as a nation.
ANCOP made this call in a press statement issued by its President, Comrade Alex Eyengho, shortly after an interactive session between Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and former Senate President, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim and “some handpicked stakeholders in Nollywood” in Lagos on Wednesday, January 23, 2013.
According to Comrade Eyengho, “such meetings with Nollywood is becoming a rather nauseating recurring decimal, which comes only during the build up to elections either at State or Federal levels, burial ceremonies, birthday parties, house-warming parties, child dedication and other forms of wasteful social ventures of politicians, where Nigerian otherwise A-list artistes are reduced to mere clappers and dancers and servers of food and drinks to the amusement of the politicians and there special guests.”
“Let me make it clear that neither ANCOP nor I as the President are against this interactive session with Nollywood. I am aware that the SFG held similar sessions with other sectors. If and when the government wants to meet with Nigerian journalists, it goes straight through the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), for Lawyers it’s the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), for Accountants it is mainly ICAN, for Doctors it is NMA, for Advertisers it is APCON. Government even knows how to centrally reach transporters, okada riders, market women/men etc. The session Senator Anyim had was not with Nollywood but with Kanayo O. Kanayo with those he decides to inform, handpick and invite. Enough of this laughable trend of reaching Nollywood through those who are close to the corridors of power at a particular point in time. Nollwood is a formal and serious industry replete with eggheads. We must be treated as such”, Eyengho stated.
The ANCOP leader added: “Nigeria will be 100 years next year and Nollywood was 20 last year. What has the industry gained from the government so far? Where is the 200 million United States dollars intervention fund President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan promised the Nigerian creative industry since 2010? Where is the proposed Motion Picture Practitioners Council of Nigeria (MOPPCON) that would have been our own equivalent of NBA, NUJ, NMA, APCON, ICAN, NSE etc? Where is the enabling environment created for Nollywood in the past 20 years? These are issues that should occupy the minds of my colleagues and not to merely rush enthusiastically to one dinner and interactive sessions or the other and end up fighting over ridiculous and demeaning ‘thank-you-for coming’ envelopes. Hunger in the industry should not force my colleagues to eat their own tongues. Outsiders, including government will respect us only when we first respect ourselves and industry, Nollywood.”
The ANCOP leader opined that pending when MOPPCON would become a reality in the country, anybody, group or organization including government who desire to meet with Nollywood as an industry, should do so through the regulatory agencies of the sector particularly the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) and the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), who know how to reach the recognized, registered and value-adding associations and guilds functioning in the industry.
“While waiting for MOPPCON, Nollywood as an industry can effectively be reached through NFC and NFVCB. The industry can also be reached directly through the individual associations and guilds, which are indeed the structures we talk about today. Some of these associations and guild are as old as Nollywood and even the new ones are indeed like old wine in new bottles. Once an association or guild is dully registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), it automatically becomes an identifiable structure in Nollywood because it now has registered Trustees who can be jointly or severally held responsible for any unwholesome act in the name of the association or guild. Therefore, and for the avoidance of doubt, only CAC-registered associations and guilds fit into this humble suggestion of mine. Also, it does and should not matter the location, language or ethnicity of such bodies. The important thing is that once MOPPCON comes alive, all these associations and guilds will immediately and mandatorily fall in line. There will now be one big, national producers association where all other hitherto existing producers associations in the country will come under. The same thing goes for others: distributors, directors, actors, cinematographers, editors, creative designers etc. This is why any sane mind in the industry should and must push for MOPPCON to become a reality”, Eyengho further opined.
According to Eyengho, Nollywood is too big as an industry to be left in the hands of scavengers and jobbers in the corridors of power in Abuja and various other state capitals in the country. “It is a shame that my colleagues were scrambling over the ‘thank-you-for-coming’ envelopes handed to the ‘lucky’ ones among them. Those who got fifty thousand naira cried foul in protest against those who schemed to get one hundred and fifty thousand naira. Meanwhile, the bill the contact man and jobber, KOK gave and indeed got from the Senator Anyim centenary committee was two hundred and fifty thousand per attending artiste. The hullabaloo and drama the public sharing of money to the artistes by KOK at the venue of the show was the most distasteful and demeaning story I’ve ever heard about Nollywood in the recent past. Both the senior and junior members of the industry lobbied, begged, swore and cried to get KOK attention and convince him to include their names on his sharing list. It was a manifest embarrassment to Nollywood as portrayed by all those who participated in the show of shame. Has Nollywood become so cheap? I’m still very much in shock and disbelief particularly considering some of the so called big names who partook in this sanctionable act of disrepute to our common patrimony, Nollywood”, the ANCOP President fumed.
PRESS STATEMENT
ANCOP cautions on FG’s parley with Nollywood over centenary celebration
The Association of Nollywood Core Producers (ANCOP), has urged stakeholders in the Nigerian entertainment industry particularly the Nigerian movie industry otherwise known as Nollywood, to be weary of the current Federal Government’s romance with the industry as government prepares to roll out the drums to celebrate 100 years (centenary) of the country as a nation.
ANCOP made this call in a press statement issued by its President, Comrade Alex Eyengho, shortly after an interactive session between Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and former Senate President, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim and “some handpicked stakeholders in Nollywood” in Lagos on Wednesday, January 23, 2013.
According to Comrade Eyengho, “such meetings with Nollywood is becoming a rather nauseating recurring decimal, which comes only during the build up to elections either at State or Federal levels, burial ceremonies, birthday parties, house-warming parties, child dedication and other forms of wasteful social ventures of politicians, where Nigerian otherwise A-list artistes are reduced to mere clappers and dancers and servers of food and drinks to the amusement of the politicians and there special guests.”
“Let me make it clear that neither ANCOP nor I as the President are against this interactive session with Nollywood. I am aware that the SFG held similar sessions with other sectors. If and when the government wants to meet with Nigerian journalists, it goes straight through the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), for Lawyers it’s the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), for Accountants it is mainly ICAN, for Doctors it is NMA, for Advertisers it is APCON. Government even knows how to centrally reach transporters, okada riders, market women/men etc. The session Senator Anyim had was not with Nollywood but with Kanayo O. Kanayo with those he decides to inform, handpick and invite. Enough of this laughable trend of reaching Nollywood through those who are close to the corridors of power at a particular point in time. Nollwood is a formal and serious industry replete with eggheads. We must be treated as such”, Eyengho stated.
The ANCOP leader added: “Nigeria will be 100 years next year and Nollywood was 20 last year. What has the industry gained from the government so far? Where is the 200 million United States dollars intervention fund President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan promised the Nigerian creative industry since 2010? Where is the proposed Motion Picture Practitioners Council of Nigeria (MOPPCON) that would have been our own equivalent of NBA, NUJ, NMA, APCON, ICAN, NSE etc? Where is the enabling environment created for Nollywood in the past 20 years? These are issues that should occupy the minds of my colleagues and not to merely rush enthusiastically to one dinner and interactive sessions or the other and end up fighting over ridiculous and demeaning ‘thank-you-for coming’ envelopes. Hunger in the industry should not force my colleagues to eat their own tongues. Outsiders, including government will respect us only when we first respect ourselves and industry, Nollywood.”
The ANCOP leader opined that pending when MOPPCON would become a reality in the country, anybody, group or organization including government who desire to meet with Nollywood as an industry, should do so through the regulatory agencies of the sector particularly the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) and the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), who know how to reach the recognized, registered and value-adding associations and guilds functioning in the industry.
“While waiting for MOPPCON, Nollywood as an industry can effectively be reached through NFC and NFVCB. The industry can also be reached directly through the individual associations and guilds, which are indeed the structures we talk about today. Some of these associations and guild are as old as Nollywood and even the new ones are indeed like old wine in new bottles. Once an association or guild is dully registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), it automatically becomes an identifiable structure in Nollywood because it now has registered Trustees who can be jointly or severally held responsible for any unwholesome act in the name of the association or guild. Therefore, and for the avoidance of doubt, only CAC-registered associations and guilds fit into this humble suggestion of mine. Also, it does and should not matter the location, language or ethnicity of such bodies. The important thing is that once MOPPCON comes alive, all these associations and guilds will immediately and mandatorily fall in line. There will now be one big, national producers association where all other hitherto existing producers associations in the country will come under. The same thing goes for others: distributors, directors, actors, cinematographers, editors, creative designers etc. This is why any sane mind in the industry should and must push for MOPPCON to become a reality”, Eyengho further opined.
According to Eyengho, Nollywood is too big as an industry to be left in the hands of scavengers and jobbers in the corridors of power in Abuja and various other state capitals in the country. “It is a shame that my colleagues were scrambling over the ‘thank-you-for-coming’ envelopes handed to the ‘lucky’ ones among them. Those who got fifty thousand naira cried foul in protest against those who schemed to get one hundred and fifty thousand naira. Meanwhile, the bill the contact man and jobber, KOK gave and indeed got from the Senator Anyim centenary committee was two hundred and fifty thousand per attending artiste. The hullabaloo and drama the public sharing of money to the artistes by KOK at the venue of the show was the most distasteful and demeaning story I’ve ever heard about Nollywood in the recent past. Both the senior and junior members of the industry lobbied, begged, swore and cried to get KOK attention and convince him to include their names on his sharing list. It was a manifest embarrassment to Nollywood as portrayed by all those who participated in the show of shame. Has Nollywood become so cheap? I’m still very much in shock and disbelief particularly considering some of the so called big names who partook in this sanctionable act of disrepute to our common patrimony, Nollywood”, the ANCOP President fumed.