Recent news went viral that some Nollywood Actors and Actresses, under the aegis of the Actors Guild of Nigeria, visited Goodluck Jonathan and further honoured him with a Grand Patron award. But this however did not go down well with fans of the Nollywood stars, as fans of many of the Nollywood stars have accused them of falling out.
Latest report gathered online has it that popular actor; John Okafor has decried the absence of adequate structures in Nollywood.
Also he criticised the recent visit of the Actors’ Guild of Nigeria to President Goodluck Jonathan, which did not appear to go down well with some people who queried the motive in the first place.
For these critics, the actors only went to grab a ‘piece of the national cake.’ And though the actors concerned have since defended their decision to pay the President a courtesy visit, popular Nigerian comic actor, John Okafor, popularly known as Mr. Ibu, is still not pleased.
As the actor who rose to prominence after his breakout role in the 1997 movie, Agony, where he portrayed an imbecile,said, the Federal Government has yet to set its priorities right with regard to Nollywood.
“The government should stop giving Actors’ Guild cash, because we don’t know how to handle it. Some people will go to the office, process the money and squander it and we actors never benefit from such goodwill.
“If they government can give us a structure or land, we actors can go ahead and secure funds from investors to build five-star hotels and other facilities on it, because it will be a tourist . We can bring the Nigerian Censor’s board into the same arena.
“How can we be paying N50,000 to have one movie censored and then generate N5m from over 100 movies produced in a month and yet there aren’t any structures in place for Nollywood? “With such amount of money, government should be able to cater for us. If this is done, the industry will make a giant stride.”