He has been regarded as a rebel in different quarters for his supposed anti-progressive stand on the Actors’ Guild of Nigeria ((AGN), yet Emeka Ike still stands his ground for what he believes as the truth and best way to save ‘dying Nollywood’
At the second edition of City People’s Political Award held in Maryland, Lagos, Nigeriafilms.com had an extensive interview with the Imo State born Nollywood lover boy where he declared his plans to go into politics to become a lawmaker.
He also revealed that AGN office has turned into Sodom and Gomorrah centre.
What is really going on with AGN?
There are five people who have taken the law of Nigerian movie industry into their hands. They are Emma Ogugua, Murphy Stephen, Sunny McDon, Okey Bakassi and Ifeanyi Dikeh. These five people registered Actors Guild of Nigeria as their personal business. No other individual can come in.
Can’t the rest of you do anything about it?
The idea is money rules the world. Money is the main reason they are there. There are some people who rejoice whenever Nigeria is losing in a football match. Some other people make more money when Nigeria loses match in an international stadium. Some people just sit and wait for things to go wrong in Nigeria, that’s when they make huge money.
These people you can’t do anything to them. They are the enemies of the nation. They are in every sector; banking, oil and gas and even the entertainment industry is not left out. They make things not to work, but they are as individuals are going forward. But we have to try to get these kinds of people off our back to be able to move forward.
We have had AGN for long, but I can’t remember the last time we had actors’ congress, where all actors bare their minds on issues bothering the industry. The last congress was when Vivian Ejike was still here, Kate Henshaw too was still very much in the business.
How do you rule a set of people that do not see or know themselves? All the money you are collecting, how do you account for them? You the press are the ones that should investigate more on this and tell the whole world the truth than not dramatize Emeka Ike for being too outspoken.
Cant the rest of you all come together and do something?
We have to sub-peddled all that and first of all arrange our house. My first concern is to clean up Nollywood, clean up AGN. Every Nigerian youth want to act movies now, what future are we living for them. Where are they going to write their names? The two bedroom in Surulere where they would ask you to come and grace their beds before they give you roles? Where they would make you join a gay group or lesbians group before they talk to you?
The people at the helm of affairs are the ones killing Nollywood. Some of us the well-known actors don’t even know their rights. I dare say it again, they don’t. Nobody can come out to challenge me. Clarion Chukwurah who is one of the intelligent people we have in the industry has come out to air her views, Charles Okafor would say the same thing, so with John Okafor.
Don’t you think that at this point, you should play the ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ game?
That saying is definitely not for everybody. People who bring about change don’t join in a complex situation.
You always look so aggressive when addressing this issue, why?
Because we built this industry with pain. Those who are the helm of affairs now, people don’t even know them in the movies. They just came in and messed everything up.
Can you remember what I said sometime go? I had once said very soon Nollywood will die. Painfully Nollywood is dead now.
There is no more Idumota, Lagos, there is no more Pound Road, Aba or Edidi Lane. When last did you hear these places mentioned in adverts, all you hear and see is Alaba International Market and that is where pirates dwell. Very soon, we are going to storm there and close it down. All the big producers and marketers have been chased out of the business.
How many people are making movies now? Desmond Eliot? Yes, he is my boy! And like a brother to me but his movies are not enough to cover for the whole industry.
Uche Jumbo too is into movies, but her movies too can’t sustain the whole industry. We used to make over 100 of movies in a month, good quantity but not quality. You know why, because we were trying to use the quantity to build a market where we can later sell quality.
Now that they have shut down the quantity, yet the quality they are releasing is sparingly visible. Nollywood that we used to know has been suppressed down by African Magic.
Are there no written or formal guideless for Nollywood practitioners?
They are constitutions, but who are those people checking who is following them or not? They said degree holders and upwards can hold the post of a president, but Segun Arinze is not a degree holder, yet he was a president. Have you tried to investigate those who are educated or not in Nollywood? No, you have not! Have you people (the press) ever reported that Segun Arinze didn’t go to the university? These people always look for uneducated people that they can always use and squeeze around to their taste.
Then comes Ibinabo, you all know her case and status in Nigeria. With that is she fit to hold a post? No is the answer. Did she complete her serving term in prison?
Honestly speaking, I am blaming the press for all the hidden atrocities going on in AGN. You people have refused to do good research but relying on the information the opposition party is feeding you with. God bless the types of Ray Ekpo and Dele Giwa of this world. They always say the truth.
Nollywood has gotten so bad that you must either strip and grace their beds or join the gay or lesbian group to belong.
That wasn’t the industry I founded. My daughter will not to go into that industry tomorrow and they would say she must sleep with one of them to get a role. Neither would my son be a part of Nollywood that is full of immoralities.
I know some people would say I am saying all these because I am not getting part of the money. Excuse me? Do I look hungry to you? I am going into politics very soon. You would see me in my convoy then you would know what I am talking about. I am only doing this for the up and coming ones. We are still in court trying to fight to get it right.
You are going into House of Representative of your state, Imo State, how are you going to monitor the upcoming election of AGN?
That election would not hold. The court has ordered that none of the fractions should have elections. Ibinabo has been acting as the president of AGN for years now, but with her case as an ex-convict, do you have any moral justification to recognize her as the president? The court case is still on and the war continues.
Away from AGN crisis, you haven’t been acting much movies lately, what else have you been doing?
I stopped acting for a while now because the industry has lost its salt. The actors were putting some acts that were annoying me. I act in Nigerian movies with a Nigerian accent, but other countries shouldn’t come here and try to change our accent. When I see my colleagues forming fake accents, I would be like, ‘Uh, what’s wrong with this one’? If you are an Indian, you do it like the Indians, like wise other countries. I must tell you, I am too busy for that. So I got myself busy with other better things to do than fake Nollywood lives.
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