Despite being one of the entertainers that was inducted to the campaign team of former president, Goodluck Jonathan, actor Emeka Ike has shockingly declared his support for President Muhammadu Buhari, but not many knows the reason behind the move.
During Jonathan’s campaigns and rallies, Emeka Ike was one of those who passionately criticised Buhari, a major reason why he is currently attacked for eating his vomit.
In a recent statement, the factional president of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) congratulated Nigerians for electing President Buhari and for choosing who they want to lead them, adding that he is ready to cooperate and work with the northerner.
Sources close to Emeka insisted that he is now drumming support for Buhari so that he can be confirmed the president of AGN, following a court order restraining Ibinabo Fiberesima from parading herself for the position.
“The truth is that Emeka is also scared that the roles he played in the anti-Buhari campaigns can make a lot of things work against him in the quest to become a successful AGN president. That is why he is retracing his steps. But many of us are not happy with it. He has betrayed Jonathan,” an impeccable source told Naij.
Read the controversial Emeka Ike’s long statement, which was made available to a Naij.com reporter below:
I want to congratulate Nigerians for electing President Buhari and for choosing who they want to lead them. And I want to on behalf of Actors Guild of Nigeria congratulate the president for taking up the most difficult job of steering the ship.
And let me also appreciate the initiators of this project for having the foresight to propagate those values that have defined the man Buhari and have endeared him to the world. Sincerely, the last election was about Nigeria and Nigerians having the opportunity to decide their affairs.
It was about understanding that peace and political stability are preconditions for social economic development of our nation.
And now that the elections are over, I encourage everybody to be loyal to Nigeria and loyal to each other in other to move society forward.
It doesn’t matter which side of the divide you where during the election. That I have said especially to members of the Nollywood community. It must be noted that whoever becomes president requires the support of all. The task of building Nigeria should not be left to the President alone, all hands must always be desk to make inputs on how our society is governed.
There is actually no rule about how people should behave per time, although there is what the expected role performance should be. What is important is that wherever anybody finds himself as a citizen of this country, he should endeavour to act within the confines of the rule of law and of good conscience.
By the way, let me mention that our administration has a lot in common with the President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime. We are a product of five years of a democratic process and the rule of law.
We stood up the due process and awaited the outcome patiently because we believe that if want our nation to move forward, we must apply best global practices as the president always insist on.
Court gave judgment in our favour on March 16, 2015. Just two weeks before ‘His Excellency’ was elected.
We believe that this is a new beginning for our industry. With President Muhammadu Buhari, we believe our industry will be sanitized and the benefit will be enormous for our society.
First we must acknowledge that we have an industry that have made a name for itself. Although there are challenges, but they are not insurmountable.
But the fundamental thing is to develop the appropriate institutional framework that is unique to our environment, that will encourage a huge leap, guarantee quality, improved patronage, subdue piracy of all kinds, encourage private investment and guarantee return on investment.
It is not just important to pump in money, the appropriate utilization is what will guarantee benefit. And benefit here may be described as the greatest good for the greatest number of persons.
Not a situation where a few number of popular faces who have access to government hijacks whatever that is meant for the industry, while the greatest number of persons who are critical stakeholders are sidelined, either because they are not popular or because they don’t know people in government.
Investment and support for the industry should be geared towards ensuring self sustainability, by creating the enabling environment that allows for best performances in terms of skills, hard work investment and managerial ingenuity. Government must ensure that rules of engagement across the industry are maintained; because as they say, a society governed by law is better than a society governed by men.
Government exist because Nollywood and other industries alike exists. Nollywood needs government support as much as government needs ours. Policies of government and its regulatory agencies affect the way business is done in Nollywood.
At the same time the purpose of government is to provide enabling environment for component units of society like Nollywood to create jobs, nurture its members, provide access for members to contribute to nation building, while fulfilling their personal ambition.
Therefore, it will be right to say that Nollywood needs government support to exist and at the same time, it will be right to say that government needs Nollywood to exist. This is because government exist for the people and not the people for government.
There are many ways this industry have been partnering with government, but there can be an improvement going forward. First is to restrategize existing frameworks and pursuing the implementation of policies when they are made.
Government must understand that the whole essence of members of Nollywood getting involved in politics is the welfare of their members and how they are able to contribute effectively to national development. Although some of them are overtly pursuing their personal agenda, the truth is that the industry needs government attention.
With that in mind, the areas of partnership with government should include; policy formulation, getting members to advise government on what kinds of policies that will be most appropriate for the industry, borrowing from the wide experiential knowledge of members of the industry and others alike.
Then, there is also the need for continuous capacity building. It is obvious that the quality of contribution that actors and actresses can make in nation building will be based on their capacity. We must recognize that the investment we make in people constitutes the strongest building block for securing the future of the industry.
The industry is nothing but an artificial entity; its efficacy depends on human beings who are valuable. Hence, the need for critical manpower development.
But beyond policy formulations, capacity building and the rest, government should continue to subsidize the industry through grants that are targeted at developing industry wide institutional framework that ensures standardization, quality productions and products, and effective distribution networks that is diverse and decentralized, precisely to engender dynamism.
Grants, when they are given by government is an investment from which there must be expectations for the highest return on investment; it is not supposed to be a settlement for popular faces in the industry who have access to government.
Contrary to the view that government investment is for a few faces in the industry and that profit should never be the motive, I contend that the public investment must attract expectations of high profit that is higher than those set in the private businesses.
The difference should be that profit of a government grant investment unlike that of a private business should not be measured merely by cash but in the quality of improvement in the standard of the industry and its abilities to offer more jobs, absorb unemployed youths and improve living standards of actors and practitioners who are owners of the industry and government.
Therefore, profits of government grants should be systematically and continually reinvested into the society to expand possibilities of common good and ensure sustainability that benefits future generations.
There is also the need to encourage actors and institutions in the industry to remain realistically focused on their goals and the entertainment in order to make Nollywood irreplaceable. Although the industry does not dictate behaviour and preference of activities, but it serves the interest of all, if practitioners are encouraged to remain focused.
But while doing that, we must as well deliberately engineer diversity and decentralization in order to be dynamic. Indeed there are many areas of partnership that will be mutually beneficial and improve Nollywood’s contribution to national GDP.
But government must ensure that rules of engagement remain sacrosanct. Practitioners must be people of their word. When they engage in business dealings with ourselves or between us and outsiders, trust should be evident.
We also need to improve the standard of living of people in the industry. Practitioners must be able not only be able to pay their pay bills, they must also be assured that when they retire, there is something to fall back on.
I will also like to improve distribution, boost local and international consumption of Nollywood contents, reduce piracy, encourage diversity and improve the image and value of practitioners and their working condition.