Actors have done better for Nigerians than politicians, Guild replies El’Rufai

The recent TVC interview of Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, where he described the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, as a ‘Nollywood actor’ has elicited a reaction from the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN).

El-Rufai, while claiming the former Anambra State governor would not win in the forthcoming polls due to its party’s lack of national spread, had said: “Peter Obi is a Nollywood actor, and that is all he will speak about. This election is between the APC and the PDP because they have the footprints and the ‘spate’. Ethnicity and religious bigotry will not take you anywhere, and that is what the Labour Party campaign is about.”

The AGN president, Emeka Rollas, who reacted to the characterization in a statement issued by its Communications Director, Kate Henshaw, described El-Rufai’s statement as belittling and aimed at demeaning the intellectual capacity of an actor.

Read also:My support for Tinubu not driven by pecuniary gains – El-Rufai

Mr Rollas also characterised as arrogant and condescending the governor’s sarcastic comparison of actors and politicians.

The president, who argued that actors were far more intelligent and creative people than those at the helm of affairs today, charged the Kaduna State governor to withdraw his statement.

The statement read: “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.

“Once again, we firmly say, enough of the derision of this noble profession. Enough is enough.”

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