27th July, 2012
The Nigerian entertainment industry is currently enmeshed in a serious crisis which is threatening its corporate existence.
P.M.Entertainment findings revealed that some of the crises affecting the industry have to do with leadership, pricing and piracy.
The major associations controlling the music and movie industry, the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria(PMAN), Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), the Association of Theatre Arts Practitioners of Nigeria(ANTP) and other smaller groups are currently facing leadership crisies.
These problems, according to P.M.Entertainment findings, emanated from failed elections and internal wrangling among others.
PMAN’s crisis started over seven years ago when the then president of the association, Charles Chukwuemeka Oputa, a.k.a. Charly Boy ignored the provisions the PMAN constitution to conduct an election after the delegates, the major decision making organ of the association, had conducted an election that produced Juju musician, Admiral Dele Abiodun, as the president.
For about seven years, the major players dragged themselves from one court to other, and while this was going on, there was another problem of control of the secretariat.
When Dele Abiodun eventually took over the leadership of the association, he couldn’t perform as expected as most of his time was spent resolving internal crises. Worse still, after conducting an election that returned him to office, the crises were so much that he was forced to resign.
After his resignation, the First Vice President, Murphy McAnthony, took over in acting capacity.
Following the circumstances that led to Murphy’s assumption of the leadership of the association, some elders led by the King of World Beats, King Sunny Ade, appointed a caretaker committee to oversee the running of the association.
One year after the inauguration of the committee led by Ayo Balogun, it is yet to do any concrete thing, yet Murphy is still at the secretariat presiding as president.
In the movie sector, the Actors Guild of Nigeria is also facing leadership crisis. Its election held in April this year was marred by crisis and was eventually cancelled. Following controversy that trailed the election, the national president of the guild, Segun Arinze, resigned his appointment.
The guild’s Board of Trustees which is currently working on a date for fresh election also needs to scale the hurdle of a court injunction instituted by Emeka Ike. The actor is claiming that he is the elected president of the guild. He is praying the court to stop the election from holding.
Same is the case in the ANTP as Dele Odule and Victor Ashaolu are currently fighting for the control of the association.
The association’s crisis started in Ibadan, Oyo State, following an inconclusive election which Odule claimed to have won.
An embittered Ashaolu went to court to challenge the election.
The former president of the association, Jide Kosoko, told a gathering recently that “although the association is currently passing through a crisis, everything will be resolved soon. Meanwhile, I am still the de facto president of ANTP.”
Apart from these associations’ problems, both the Association of Music Label Owners and the Music Advertisers Association of Nigeria, MAAN, are currently trading blames over piracy and control of the prices of audio and video compact disc which is currently being dictated by Alaba marketers.
The question now is: who will save the entertainment industry from destroying itself?