Nollywood At 20: Top Names Missing In The List Of Awardees

What is what doing at all, a white man adages says, it’s worth doing well. But for the organisers of Nollywood at 20 awards, they have displayed that even at 20, Nollywood is yet to get it right, this is shown in the series of bullshits they reel out that they call movies.

Well, the orgnisers of the said honour, have totally displayed their high sense of unprofessionalism in doing things. Recently, the organisers draw up a list of veteran actors, actresses, producers, directors, make-up artists, etc, those who have made the industry tick for 20 years and these names are conspicuously missing or omitted, Genevieve Nnaji, Regina Askia, Alex Lopez, Chioma Chukwuka Akpotha and numerous others like Sandra Achums, Ada Ameh, Maureen Ihua, Anne Njemanze, Patience Oghre, Charles Okafor, Basorge Tariah Jr. and others.

Does this mean that these name listed above have not contributed anything to the uplift of the industry? Are they saying that the people whose names are on the list, most of which are on the same wavelength with the organisers, have done better than the omitted names? They cannot honour Dagogo Daminas without honouring Gabriel Okoye for movie make up in Nollywood!

You cannot honour Franca Brown without honouring Onyeka Owenu, who gave Nollywood movies a world class Oscar performance in "Conspiracy" by Director: Ndubuisi Okoh; also starring: Nkem Owoh, Larry Koldsweat, Charles Okafor, Salomey Okeke, Obi Madubogwu, Ijeoma Eze, Ifeanyi Ezeokeke and others. What of Toyin Adegbola of Afolabi Adesanya's "Asewo Tore Mecca" best-selling movie?

Hear what a source said, “the list looks like the organizers were just name-dropping without crosschecking from the DGN, SWGN, AMP, ANTP and ITPAN to nominate those who truly deserve awards? What criteria did the organizers use for their scale of preference in measuring achievements in Nollywood?

Those whose names made the list seemed to have compromised their professional principles in selfish pursuit of titles and showed up to collect their awards when people of integrity would have politely declined and insist on meritocracy and not mediocrity.”

Another source said, “the guilds and associations would have been able to nominate worthy people from their respective guilds who have really ACHIEVED for Nollywood!

We need to avoid contradictions and be able to give recognition to those who deserve them for what they have truly achieved in both Nollywood and Kannywood that is in fact older than Nollywood. And lest we forget, "Living in Bondage' did not launch the Nigerian home entertainment industry of Nollywood, and it is not the first best-selling home video movie in Nigeria.

Eddie Ugbomah’s movie “The Great Attempt” (1989) was also released in video and heaven knows that Late Alade Armoire who produced Ekun, Omije, Obirin Asiko, Ayo ni o, Adun, Orire and other commercially successful home videos between 1985 and 1991 is the father of Nollywood and not Ken Nnebue with his “Living in Bondage”.

“Moreover chicanery and tribal bigotry must stop in Nollywood.

Nollywood has become synonymous with the Nigerian film industry and so we must not turn it into sectional enterprise of nepotism and tribal-racism.

We must reject all lies and fraudulent practices now common in Nollywood, from hijackers of film festivals and awards to shameless liars distorting the history of the Nigerian film industry, because of their intellectual ignorance, greed and selfish opportunism,” a top movie practitioner said.