1st August, 2011
The national body of the Actors’ Guild of Nigeria (AGN), has intensified determination to instil discipline among members, particularly the supposed A-list ones among them, who are mostly fond of noncompliance with the union’s directives.
NollywoodReel gathered that many A-list actors are not card-carrying members of the guild and the Segun Arinze-led national body noted that the situation, among other things, is gradually becoming a thing of the past.
Speaking with NollywoodReel, the Secretary General of the guild, Emeka Rollas, said although the current administration has done well by providing identity cards for members, more still need to be done to enlighten the popular actors.
“We are looking for ways to reposition our A-list actors and actresses to understand that every star has a beginning. Whoever refuses to comply is doing so at his or her own peril because now that we are affiliated to the Federation of International Actors, there is need to get a data of all our members. If one is not a card-carrying member of AGN, that means he or she will not be involved and that will make it impossible for such to work anywhere abroad henceforth.
“There is a difference between stardom and membership of AGN. It is different for you to be a star but you are not a member of AGN. In such case, if anything happens to you, the guild does not owe you any obligation,†Rollas said further.
He, however, described the MoU the guild signed with its counterpart in Ghana as a welcome development, noting that will benefit both sectors as the Ghanaians are also members of the Federation of International Actors.
The protracted battle for supremacy between Nigeria’s movie industry, Nollywood and its counterpart in Ghana, seems to have come to a halt after representatives of the motion picture industries met and signed a memorandum of understanding in Accra, Ghana, about two weeks ago.
For almost two years, the leadership of Ghanaian movie industry had announced that any Nigerian actor or filmmaker coming to their country to work would pay a mandatory fee, while their Nigerian counterparts who saw the development as an insult, also slammed a bigger fee on Ghanaians working in Nigeria.
Although a couple of Nigerian artistes who had a good relationship with their Ghanaian counterparts and vice versa, seem not to be affected with the order.
For instance, actress Uche Jombo told NollywoodReel that she was not aware of any law restraining Nollywood actors from working freely in Ghana “because I have been shooting movies there and nobody has requested any fee from me. Some of them have also worked on my location here in Nigeria without paying any fee to anybody.â€
National President of the AGN, Segun Arinze and some members of the executive council were in Ghana last week and it was gathered that a MoU has been signed by both hitherto warring parties.
According to the spokesperson of AGN, Abubakar, who was with Arinze in Ghana, “every issue involving Nollywood and Ghollywood has been resolved, so there is no more problem.â€
Some of the points in the 22-paragraph MoU was that members should obtain Production Information Form (PIF) before working in either countries and must be identified with the identification cards of their respective guilds.
The host country must also protect and cater for the welfare of the visiting member, while it was also agreed that joint trainings, seminars and productions should be done and that there should be no more collection of money from visiting actors.
Meanwhile, as the Segun Arinze-led AGN executives prepare for a change of baton in November, an electoral committee has been instituted.
The duo of Sunny McDon and Theodore Anyanji are chairman and secretary respectively, while members include Bimbo Akintola, Ali Nuhu, Ernest Obi and Ben Nwosu.