As the controversy over the leadership of
Actors Guild of Nigeria lingers on, star
actor, Segun Arinze reveals the
background of the crisis, resolutions
reached by the waring parties and other
efforts by the actors leadership to bring
actors and actresses under a more united
guild. Excerpts:
What’s happening in AGN?
A lot of things are happening. But one thing
is that when we leave what we are
supposed to do as professionals and begin
to chase shadows, it doesn ’t augur well for
the guild. All that has happened in the guild
in recent times is constant power tussle and
crisis. That doesn ’t augur well for the guild
as well. In this business, if we don’t take
ourselves seriously, nobody will take us
seriously. Now, when we came into office,
our plans were to stablise the guild in spite
of all that had happened.
Unfortunately, people have made us a
laughing stock, and it ’s such a shame. But I
believe that this is a new dawn for the
guild. We should be thinking of how to take
the guild to the next level. Already, we have
started putting a lot of things in place to
see how we can assist our patrons. There ’s
what we call AGN Enterprise, which aims at
discovering young and talented actors by
nurturing and training them. We are also
planning to establish a film academy. Our
overall plans are to put structures in place
so that the next administration that will
come after us will strive to consolidate on
our efforts. Government is a continuum. I
don ’t believe in administrative radicalism,
rather, I believe in getting things done the
right way.
Segun Arinze
But in a situation where you have
discordant voices, how do you go about
achieving all these things that you have
enumerated?
We will continue to reach out to people. We
have an Acting President of the federation
in the absence of Mr. President who has
been sick. Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has been
reaching out to people, including the
opposition. One must ensure that he has
technocrats who identify with the cause
that one is championing.
We will continue to reach out to our
aggrieved members. There ’s nothing wrong
with anybody aspiring to occupy the
highest office in AGN. I wasn ’t born to be
the president of the guild. I aspired to
occupy the position and I succeeded. I don’t
have any problem with anybody that wants
to be president of the guild.
But what I preach is that you should
achieve such ambition properly, such that
will be devoid of chaos. Personally,
everything that has been happening in AGN
amounts to childishness, triviality and all
that. The whole world has been watching
us, especially when we chose to make our
working environment hostile. Nobody is
going to take us seriously again. We are
bound to be treated like people of low caste
(pariah).
How are you funding the guild in view of
the crisis?
We are putting things in place that will assist
us in terms of funding. But one of our pre-
occupations at the moment is trying to
ascertain the numerical strength of the
guild. We have a situation where most
people claim to be members of the guild
when they are not. They go about carrying
the guild ’s ID cards and parading
themselves as our members. We want to
flush out such impostors. Also, we are
presently embarking on re-validation of our
membership to enable us plan ahead of
time for the guild. Yes, the challenges are
quite numerous but I can ’t start to mention
them one after the other now.
Do you believe there is a serious problem
within the AGN leadership?
Yes, I agree with you. There’s a problem
with the leadership of AGN. And that has to
do with discernment. This is a guild that has
members with diverse backgrounds and
different opinions, characters of all shades.
There is bound to be argument,
disagreement and misunderstanding.
Meaning there’s a crack on the wall!
There are bound to be a crack , but if you
don ’t manage it very well, the crack will
expand. It’s natural. I’m saying that the
crack depends on how you are able to
manage it. We must agree to disagree, and
we must always learn to come together to
move the guild forward as professionals.
For me, cracks are bound to happen but it all
depends on how we are able to manage
them. That will make the difference. Even
friends are not free from having
disagreements, but their ability to handle
such disagreement maturely will stand them
out amongst other friends. What counts
here is one ’s ability to rise above
mediocrity.
There are three candidates, including
youself, who are laying claims to the AGN
presidency?
Of course, I’m aware but what we have
done so far is that we have put in place
committees that would help address the
issues affecting the smooth running of the
affairs of the guild. In the next couple of
weeks, we will be announcing the different
committees that we have set up to restore
sanity in the troubled guild.
Some of the committees include the
reconciliation committee, re-validation
committee and others. I refuse to be
distracted and my executives refuse to be
distracted too. I have learned how not to
join issues with my detractors because
when I start joining issues with them, I will
be distracted. I have reached out to a lot of
people, and everyone believes every
member of the AGN has an idea of how to
move the guild forward.
You were elected alongside some
executives during the guild ’s general
election held last year in Port-Harcourt.
How come you have a brand new exco?
Actually, we held an election in Port-
Harcourt last year. But when we came back
to Lagos after the election, the atmosphere
was volatile and hostile. I have never in all
my career experienced what I passed
through during that period.
It was the height of campaign of calumny,
back-bitting, mouth-wagging … All sorts of
negative things were said about me on the
pages of newspapers, magazines and
television stations. I mean, I have gone
through series of problems before now but
I didn ’t expect the massive negative
reactions.
Being the kind of person that I am, I
thought of the way out of the logjam, and
concluded to bring all parties concerned to
the negotiating table.
There and then, we decided to meet with
the Board of Trustees of the guild and I told
them the way I feel about the whole thing.
Though, peace was not achieved easily, it
took us more than a month and two weeks
to get to where we are today.
We had arguments, disagreements and late
hour meetings. For me, if I had wanted to
join issues with anybody, I would have
gone to court. But whose time, energy and
resources are we going to waste? While the
crisis lasted, I had people who were calling
me on phone to pray for me. My mother
who doesn ’t know anything about the
industry had to ask me to sue for peace.
I had my friends in South Africa, Germany,
London and America advising me to sue for
peace. But after all these, we unanimously
agreed to form a government of National
Unity. We managed to assemble about
seven of our state chairmen in Lagos to
chart the way forward for the guild. Among
those that attended the meeting were
Emeka Ike, Kanaya O. Kanayo, Emeka Rollas
and the five members of the BOT. As we
started discussing, there was this poser,
whether anybody was interested in
forming government of national unity. And
I replied in the affirmative. Every other
person in attendance didn ’t object to the
formation of government of national unity.
And the next question was who would lead
the administration? It was there and then
that Emeka Rollas suggested that if there
were any two people that would be chosen
for the position, it would be either myself or
Kanayo.O.Kanayo. This is because Segun
Arinze won the election in Port-Harcourt, as
well as KOK who headed the interim
government for six months. But given the
situation, KOK was not interested in the
position. And I happened to be the one who
was bringing his mandate on board.
Emeka Rollas moved to nominate me and I
said I should be the one to lead the
administration no matter the odds. This was
a meeting that took place around 2.30 am.
At the end of the whole thing, the BOT came
up with a resolution where I was directed
to pilot the affairs of the guild for the next
two years, after which a fresh election
would be conducted to usher in a new
administration. In the same vein, Emeka
Rollas was appointed the Secretary General,
while Emeka Ike was made the vice-
president(South-East). I had a lot of
arguments and disagreements with them.
I wanted an all inclusive government to
move the guild forward. We didn ’t betray
anybody here. Rather, I was allowed to
choose my three vice-presidents as well as
retain my PRO, Chief Whip and ex-official
members. We had to move on after the
logjam. I could have gone to court if I had
wanted to, but I chose to thread the path of
peace. I assembled my former executives to
intimate them about the development. As a
matter of fact, my former Secretary General,
Mr. Chuma Onwudiwe, throughout that trial
period, avoided meeting with me. I tried to
reach him to avail.
Today, I have come to realise that there is
no way I can do the wish of everybody.
Sometimes, we need to take some radical
decisions, and learn to damn the
consequence. If you were in my shoes, my
brother, what would you have done? Would
you have joined issues that would not lead
us anywhere? Sometimes, when we do
things, we do them out of wisdom. Two
years is not too far from here. If there ’s
anybody that has an ambition to become
the president of the guild, that person
should wait for the next two years. For
now, the post of AGN president is not
vacant.
Looking at the whole scenario, what have
you lost as the crisis lasted?
My privacy and my business. I lost a lot of
things but I don ’t care because I have a
mandate and terms of reference to restore
AGN to its lost glory. One of my terms of
reference is to expand the Board of
Trustees of AGN within the ambit of the
constitution. Also, I want to put structures in
place that will help our up and coming
actors to find their footing.
What’s your advice to your members out
there?
Every aggrieved member of AG should learn
to sheathe his sword and embrace the new
dawn. There is need for all hands to be on
deck to move AGN forward. Let ’s work
together to take the guild to the next level.
Let the past be buried forever. I want to
believe that there ’s a new dawn for the
guild, and I’m looking forward to working
with everybody, including Emeka Ike. I
know he has a great idea concerning how
we can move the guild forward. Let him
come out and work with us. Two heads,
they say, are better than one. I believe that
we are not politicians but professionals in
our rights. We have no business playing
politics with the guild. Let the professionals,
which we are, come together to move the
guild forward. It will be better for all of us.
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