The entertainment industry has joined other well-meaning Nigerians to mourn the tragic death of late Kaduna state governor, Sir. Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa.
Vice-President, Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), North West zone, Comrade Salihu Othman Isah, fondly called Hotman commiserated with the family of the late governor who died in a plane crash and the good people of Kaduna state on behalf of the sector known as Nollywood.
Hotman also advised his successor, Alhaji Mukhtar Ramalan Yero to take a cue from Yakowa by providing the necessary support for practitioners in the entertainment sector.
The AGN boss said “the entertainment sector join in mourning the late Yakowa, as he provided an enabling environment for the industry to thrive in the state as governor before he met his untimely death.”
According to him, he welcomed and encouraged practitioners, especially those who relocated out of Kano to Kaduna to escape the hardline policies and reforms by the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) leadership during the last dispensation in Kano.
Hotman also said that the late governor had paid his dues for the people of the state, the North and the country at large.
He described late Yakowa as a friend of the entertainment industry, who did his best to encourage the practitioners by providing the enabling environment for them to operate.
“Nollywood will definitely miss the late Yakowa. He was a peace-loving gentleman who never let the trappings of power to becloud his reasoning and comportment. He did his best to encourage the entertainment sector by providing the enabling environment. All I can say now is that, may God accept his soul.”
The AGN Vice-President also revealed that the sector is lucky to have someone in the person of newly sworn-in governor at the helm of affairs in Kaduna state because he has been a promoter of the movie industry.
He however hinted that more is expected of him now more than ever before, saying that Nollywood wants him to double his effort for the growth of the industry in the state and country as a whole.
“I am aware that the new governor is a lover of entertainment. He is a young man who has done his best both in his private capacity and as deputy governor to promote the sector, particularly the movie industry. He is a great lover of the entertainment sector.
“Now that he has assumed the driving seat, we expect him to consolidate on the achievements of the late boss. We also expect him to consolidate his love for the industry because we see him as one of our own.
“Gov. Yero has surely manifested great love for the industry by supporting us in the past. But like ‘Oliver Twist’, we should naturally expect more; both in fostering good policies that will create the enabling environment for us and in the provision of adequate funding”, Hotman advised.
