The movie industry in Nigeria tagged; Nollywood, as many believe, is full of controversies. If one association is not in the news over election matters, it will be in the news over money collected from the government, which they must have failed to share with others.
The issue of money is a common thing in the industry, and many followers of the industry have wondered why their stars would fight over such an issue. In 2013, stakeholders in the industry went to Akwa Ibom State to receive a cheque of N50million promised the industry by the state Governor, Godswill Akpabio.
Soon after the cheque was received, news went around that some elements were planning to divert the money for selfish purposes. The matter almost resulted into a lawsuit.
No doubt, the Association of Movie Producers (AMP) is one of the vital bodies in Nollywood and its president, Zik Zulu is a major stakeholder in the industry as well. Some months ago, he was re-elected for a second term in office.
Even though not much programmes of the association are made known to the general public, unlike those of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), led by Ibinabo Fiberesima, AMP still remains a force to reckon with in Nollywood. The body is always carried along whenever any issue comes up in the industry.
But for Steve Eboh, a veteran actor, producer and director, AMP is a complete failure, as he said in a chat with Nigeriafilms.com recently.
Eboh, who contested against Ibinabo in 2012, stated that AMP is about money sharing. “AMP is not there (important), forget them. AMP is just good on paper, but when it comes to money sharing, it is not there. They have not done any tangible thing. I am a member (of the association). It is a complete failure,” Eboh said.
He stated further that, “I petitioned them when they were about organising the election, but they went ahead to do it somehow. What has AMP done since the past two years, may be Nollywood at 20 celebration, but they have not even given us account of the income and expenditure.
“Is AMP just about sharing money? How have they improved the industry and their members? AGN goes about looking for things to do for their members, but what does AMP do? Nothing, the only thing they did was to celebrate Nollywood at 20. They are failures, failure (emphasis), which is what they are. Infact, AMP is killing Nollywood, they are pushing us down.”
