Weeks after some members of the Actors Guild of Nigeria,AGN, led by its president, Miss Ibinabo Fiberesima paid a courtesy visit to President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja, veteran actress, Clarion Chukwura has expressed her dissatisfaction with the move.
She described the visit as uncalled for, adding that it was not in the best interest of the industry.
According to Chukwura, AGN is not the guild that represents the English movie actors, the Association of Nigerian Theartre Arts Practitioners ANTAP, and Kannywood.
In a statement she made available to HVP, Chukwura said, “I read with dismay the address of president of AGN, Miss Ibinabo Fiberisima on a recent visit with some notable actors and AGN officials to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
It is alarming to discover from this address, the false claims by Ibinabo that the Actors Guild of Nigeria is the only umbrella body of Nigerian screen actors; that President Goodluck Jonathan has by the “constant release of funds” effected a sustained development of the Nigerian movie industry since the inception of his administration; that an AGN Secretariat located in Abuja and political appointments for actors would advance the welfare of the Nigerian screen actors. While it is not surprising that Ibinabo would display such a lack of knowledge of what advances screen actors professionally in the developed world since she has not functioned consistently as an actor and has less than ten titles to her credit in a career spanning from the late eighties.”
Chukwura, however, blamed established actors who were in her entourage. “They watched in compliance, the denigration of the integrity of Nigerian screen actors, as she read her requests literally begging for crumbs from the president’s table,” she said.
For her, AGN was not established as a platform to canvass for political appointments or pursue selfish interests.She, therefore, called for Ibinabo’s resignation as AGN president.”For her brazen use of a Guild created to serve the creative interests of a group to gain political appointment while in office, I enjoin her to follow the respectable road of her predecessors by joining the PDP and testing the real value of her self-earned popularity as an actress for political appointment…”
