Outspoken veteran actor, Chiwetalu Agu has said the success of Nollywood, the Nigerian movie industry is incomplete without his contributions.
The revered thespian made this known in a chat with newsmen in Enugu.
According to him:
“There is no way you can talk of the history of Nollywood without me occupying a substantial part of it. I had my theatre group known as the ‘Inspirers’ in those days. I acted in many NTA programmes, like the ‘Ikoro’, produced by Joe Onyekwere; ‘Things Fall Apart’ in 1986, after which I put together a soap ‘The Advocate’ which never saw the light of the day. In 1987 I went to Lagos, where I featured in ‘The Ripples’ produced by Zeb Ejiro. I played the character of Chief Abunna, the Okemilinaezoluora 1 of Etiti and the Odezulumba of Ogbunike town.
“I conducted the first ever audition of what later became ‘Living in Bondage’ a film from the stables of Kenneth Nnebue that produced stars like; Kenneth Okonkwo, Kanayo O. Kanayo and many others. From there we moved on to the production of ‘Taboo’ , where I played the role of Ichie Ogwu and numerous productions in the 90s. So whatever is happening to our children concerns me. So having come this far, people should look at me to steer the ship of state, but because of my mild ambition, I am where I am today.” Why must we insist we must be president, governor, chairman and this and that?”
Agu also urged the individuals at loggerheads in the Actors Guild of Nigeria, (AGN) to kill their over ambition for the association to move forward, stressing that that no society can progress where there is violence.
“I want stakeholders to begin to do away with over ambition. That this post is good for me to occupy is okay, but when you struggle for it for too long and you see that it doesn’t work, you can leave it. If you ask me, I am the most qualified to run the affairs of Nollywood. I started my career in 1981 in Enugu so I had been in the scene acting 12 years before the advent of Nollywood, of which I am a pioneer.”
source: Stargist
