It was pomp and pageantry at Brooklyn Hotels, Port Harcourt on Sunday, as the recently elected executive members of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Rivers State Chapter took a bow after a successful inauguration. The august event came less than two months after an successful election which brought the Chief Ken Osunwa led executive, with actors, actresses as well as film directors, producers and script writers in attendance.
Performed by the National President of the guild, Chief Ejezie Emeka Rollas, the ceremony also had in attendance, a ‘grandfather’ of the Nigerian movie industry, Professor Innocent Ohiri of Willie Willie fame and other veterans like the Head of Department of Film Studies, University of Port Harcourt, Prof Friday Nwafor, Chief Ovunda Ihunwo, Seperibo Gilbert, Chief Uche Lawrence, Ras OAU, Engr. Gold Dappa , Prophet Oscar and popular human rights lawyer, Barrister Higher Kings.
Also present at the event was Dr. Samuel Ogubiyi of DGN as well as members from Rivers AGN satellite chapters of Oyigbo, Eleme, Etche, Ahoada, Omoku, Ikwerre and Bonny.
The Vice President (South South) of Directors Guild of Nigeria (DGN),
Performing the inauguration, AGN National President, Rollas said the emergence of Chief Osunwa as Rivers Chairman of AGN is most welcome as the chapter had been in comatose and needed someone with the right capacity to steer the ship.
Rollas, while acknowledging his deep emotional attachment to the Rivers chapter, said he is filled with excitement following the peaceful resolution of the crisis that engulfed the chapter.
“What most people do not know is that Rivers chapter has the highest number of actors from the best theater arts school in Nigeria.
It’s not like Asaba where you have a set of half-baked people who just came from village and hit Asaba and began to be used by producers.
“You went to UNIPORT, you bagged a certificate or degree. Believe in yourselves and in due course, God will elevate you”, Rollas said, declaring that all those who validated their membership during the crisis period, must be issued with the guild’s identity cards and that the card’s validity should read from year 2022.
For those who did not identify with the body during its trying period, the AGN National President directed that they should pay for their identity card which also becomes effective from year 2022.
He charged every member to give maximum support to the new executive, adding that his phone lines are also open to them for any engagement that would move the chapter forward.
In the inaugural speech presented by the Rivers chapter Chairman, Chief Ken Osunwa, he praised the National President of AGN, Rollas for honouring the event in person, despite the short notice given to him.
Osunwa assured the AGN leader that he would follow his footstep which has helped the Guild grow in leaps and bounds, assuring that he would do his best to add value to AGN not only in Rivers but to the national at large.
“We understand that the AGN in Rivers State has suffered a huge setback following years of legal dispute, and we understand the huge expectations from our comrades, but let us not fall into the temptation of being so much in a hurry to recover from the losses of yester years and thereby losing the indispensable virtues of patience, tolerance, integrity and thoroughness”, he said, adding that although the tasks ahead are numerous, they are not insurmountable.
The Rivers AGN used the occasion to reel off his vision blueprint which include visibility, professionalism and ethical best practices; actors’ welfare and remuneration; conducive environment and what he called, venturesome.
“I am not a man of much speech, but action. While we meditate on the good future that is set before us, let the words of William Shakespeare keep ringing in our minds, “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads onto fortune, but omit and all the voyage of life will lie in miseries”, he declared.
The Chairman of the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria (PMAN) in the state, Lady IB Green and the cultural troupe from the Rivers State Council of Arts and Culture were also on hand to spice the event, with the cutting of the 24th Anniversary cake as highlight of the occasion.
