11th December, 2015
Funsho Arogundade
Barely few hours to the 2015 edition of the Best of Nollywood Awards holding Sunday, 13 December, palpable excitement and anticipation pervade Akure, Ondo State as Nollywood’s finest and most celebrated storm the city.
Already, some of these stars are in the serene town especially those penciled to participate in a mini tourney at the 18-hole golf course with Governor Olusegun Mimiko at the mountainous Idanre town on Saturday 12 December.
Winner of the golf tourney among the celebrities will walk home with a cash prize courtesy the governor.
In its seventh edition, the indigenous awards ceremony, since inception, has been putting a golden seal of excellence on the works of those toiling and sweating to produce and star in feel-good and educative movies.
This year’s, especially, is symbolic because unlike previous editions where only industry veterans were honoured with the coveted special recognition awards, former president Goodluck Jonathan and former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio will join Chiwetalu Agu, Tade Ogidan and Patience Ozokwor.
Speaking on the choice of the Special Recognition Awardees, Seun Oloketuyi, executive producer, BON Awards said, “There is no gainsaying the fact that no other Nigerian president helped Nollywood grow as much as former President Goodluck Jonathan. We are all living witnesses to how he established a N2 billion fund aimed at improving the distribution of audio-visual content, reducing piracy, protecting intellectual property in the entertainment industry and boosting film production and distribution within and outside Nigeria.”
Oloketuyi described Akpabio, now the Senate Minority Leader, as a Nollywood aficionado with more than just a passing interest in the arts.
He added that the choice of the three veterans was arrived at after due consideration of their contributions to Nollywood over the years.
The main awards ceremony will hold Sunday night inside newly-built multi-billion naira International Conference Center, better known as The Dome.
Celebrated actress Bimbo Akintola and fast rising actor Gideon Okeke have been
announced as the hosts of this year’s Best of Nollywood, BON Awards.
Meanwhile, HipTV will run a live broadcast of the show from 8pm on Sunday.