Members of the Nollywood industry, have expressed dissatisfaction over alleged Federal Government bias in the appointment of Nollywood representatives in the Creative Industry Committee set up by Federal Government to advise it on the Coronavirus pandemic.
National President, Association of Music and Film Producers and Marketers of Nigeria (AMUFPMAN), Evangelist Macson Justice Nwasike stated this while reacting to the non-inclusion of elected leaders of Nollywood to represent them shortly after the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed disclosed the appointees that made up the committee.
He said the composition of the committee members was totally wrong, stressing that producers and marketers in the industry should be considered first in the appointment before any other stakeholders, THE DAILY VENDOR reports.
He called on government to look into the matter and set up a fresh composition that would involve all stakeholders and leaders of the various associations that make up Nollywood industry.
He said, “AMUFPMAN is the base of Nollywood, we are suppose to be in that appointment, I personally have to be included in that appointment as the National president of AMUFPMAN.
“The appointment is not 100 per cent correct because you have stakeholders you can not do without. We are suppose to be number one in the appointment even before you talk of guilds.
“Most of those individual appointees are actors. I saw somebody like Ali Baba in the list of the committee members, Ali Baba is a comedian and not marketer or producer.
“With the selection of those individuals to represent Nollywood by the Federal Government as members of the newly set up committee of industry stakeholders to advise it on the best way to mitigate the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic, nothing will be achieved as they will be there on individual capacity.”
Also reacting, Chairman, Board of Trustees, (BOT) AMUFPMAN, Prince Ubaoha Uzoma, described as embarrassing and appalling omission the appointment of the individuals without first consulting the leaders and members of Nollywood.
“Government ought to have involved other unions within Nollywood even if we welcome the involvement of Nollywood in the war against Covid-19, it should be our leaders that will represent us because we electedthem to represent us and not individual representation.
“AMUFPAN as a mother uunion should be there, we are talking about proper and matured representation this is not time for aguement”, he stated.
On his part, Anambra state chairman of AMUFPAN, Comrade Damian Ogudike said it would be counterproductive allowing individuals selected by Federal Government and disclosed by Lai Mohammed to be committee members to represent Nollywood, insisting that they were not experts in the industry.
“They don’t know the nitty gritty of the industry. The advice they will give Federal Government will not be for the interest of the Federal Government if it continues to work with them. They don’t know what is happening in the industry.
“The committee should be reconstituted, moreso when you consider that people involved in the committee are not enough compared with the numerical strenght of the Nollywood industry”
The Delta state Chairman of AMUFPAN, Comrade Orisemeke Melekwe advised that the committee should be all inclusive for proper representation.
He frowned at non consultation of the leaders in Nollywood prior to the appointment of the committee members and regretted that AMUFPAN
was not also in the committee.
