The Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) has slammed Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai for referring to Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi as a “Nollywood actor.”
According to Anaedoonline.ng, El-Rufai dismissed Obi as a Nollywood actor incapable of winning elections when appearing on TVC’s Journalists’ Hangout on Thursday.
In response to different opinion polls projecting Obi’s victory, Kaduna governor stated that the majority of them were engineered to have a wide margin of error.
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However, in a statement issued on Saturday by its Director of Communication, Kate Henshaw, AGN urged that El-Rufai retract and apologize to the guild.
It claimed that the governor’s statement was not only insulting to the acting profession but also degrading to Nollywood actors, and that it demonstrated the governor’s ignorance of the crucial role of actors in the rising global creative economy after many years in government.
The statement partly read, “The National President of the Actors Guild of Nigeria, Chief Ejezie Emeka Rollas, says El Rufai’s statement is not only derogatory to the acting profession but degrading to the actors in Nollywood.
“The statement is intended to belittle and demean the intellectual capacity of an actor. Using actors to make sarcastic examples of an unintelligent person is arrogant and condescending of a public office holder.
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“The statement is very offensive and demeaning to the Actors Guild of Nigeria and Nollywood as a whole as it was purely intended to deride the acting profession.
“Nollywood Actors have in no small way projected the image of our dear country positively from the negative perception the likes of El Rufai and his cohorts have portrayed us to be.
“The Guild is utterly bewildered by this kind of statement from a sitting governor who claims to be educated and intelligent, referring to a noble profession of intelligentsia endowed with uncommon talent.
“Chief Rollas lamented that it is quite unfortunate, as it portrays the Governor’s ignorance of the pivotal role of the actor in the emerging global creative economy after many years of his checkered sojourn in government.
“Little wonder Nigeria is battling from serious economic quagmire after many years of clueless leadership who depend solely on the oil industry as they are bereft of ideas to grow and develop the country.
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“Chief Rollas asserted that actors are intelligent, educated, creative, and highly endowed with ingenious capacity to lead and develop Nigeria more than some average leaders in government houses today.
“The national president called on El-Rufai to withdraw his nescience statement and tender an unreserved apology to Nollywood Actors immediately.”
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