Last week she sent a write-up to Potpourri titled “A Wake up Call to
Nollywood” to express her distaste at the way awards organisers are
exploiting entertainers to their own selfish end.
Her words: The time has come for the Professional Guilds of Nollywood to
take a unified and decisive action to stop the proliferation of award
events that exploit the industry and do not add value to the
practitioner/recipients” she wrote.
“From Nigeria to the United Kingdom, to the United States of America,
Nollywood wannabes and smart-ass business men have jumped on the
bandwagon train of exploiting inaction of the Guilds and the ignorant
crave for publicity of practitioners to exploit Nollywood for the quick
buck forming a different cabal of piracy.
Thirty years ago when I won the Best Actress Award at the All African
Films Festival in Burkina Faso, it came with a certificate and $500.
Nomination for the Golden Globe or the Oscar comes with a certain amount
of money, that transforms you to an A-list actor and jerk up your fees,
adding value to your career and your professional worth.
With Nollywood, the award organizers walk away with the money while the
nominees and awardees return home with worthless plaques that make no
difference to the executive producers.
It is instructive to note that without the practitioners, there is no
show, yet every arm of the event, from the venue, to the technicians, to
the event managers and broadcast networks et-al, are paid but the
established brands who are invited as nominees to walk the red carpet to
endorse their own brands that are still in the making and other
upcoming nominees, who are the show are simply used and paraded for
free.
This, despite the fact that sponsorship, organisers’ owned channel of
advertisement and sale of the show is based on the product. The
disregard for the value of the product/practitioner has deteriorated to
e-mail and text message nomination notifications and invitation, or
requirement to fly at personal expense to receive awards for which fans
pay to attend to see the stars with no remuneration to the nominee and
in some cases, the same award is sold for $10 in a New York store.
This blatant exploitation must stop.
This blatant exploitation must stop.
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Guilds have to move into action to streamline these award events down
to those bodies who are serious about promoting the growth of the
Industry and adding meaningful value to the career of practitioners.
It has become necessary to withhold guilds’ endorsements for these award
events until stipulated requirements are met; such as obtaining a
license from the conference of Nollywood guilds for a fee, proof of
prize for award nominees and winners, and a verifiable document of
agreement signed by the Guild of Producers, and the association of
marketers endorsing the award.
Such a process will help structure the industry against easy
exploitation, promote focused growth and build industry collaboration
with bodies having serious intent to promote and add value to the
industry.
