Clarion Chukwura slams awards organizers in new press statement

In a statement released today October
6th, ace Nollywood actress Clarion
Chukwurah called out award event
organizers, asking regulatory bodies to
check the proliferation of these award
events. See the statement below...

The time has come for the
Professional Guilds of Nollywood to
take a unified and decisive action to
stop the proliferation of Award
Events that exploit the industry and
do not add value to the
Practitioner/Recipient.

From Nigeria to the United
Kingdom, to the United States of
America, Nollywood Wannabes and
Smart-ass business men have
jumped on the band wagon train of
exploiting inaction of the Guilds
and the ignorant crave for publicity
of Practitioners to exploit
Nollywood for the quick buck
forming a different Cabal of Piracy.

Thirty years ago when I won the Best
Actress Award at the All African Films
Festival In Burkina Faso, it came with a
Certificate and $500. Nomination for the
Golden Globe or the Oscar comes with a
certain amount of money, transforms you
to an A-list Actor and jerk up your fees,
adding value to your career and your
professional worth.
With Nollywood, the award organizers
walk away with the money while the
Nominees and Awardees return home
with worthless plaques that make no
difference to the Executive Producers. It is
instructive to note that without the
Practitioners, there is no Show yet every
arm of the event, from the Venue, to the
Technicians, to the Event Managers and
Broadcast Networks et-al, are paid but
the established Brands who are invited as
Nominees to walk the Red Carpet to
endorse their own brands that is still in
the making and other upcoming
Nominees, who are the Show are simply
used and paraded for free.
This despite the fact that Sponsorship,
Organizer owned channel of
advertisement and Sale of the Show is
based on the Product. The disregard for
the value of the Product/Practitioner has
deteriorated to E-mail and Text Message
Nomination notifications and Invitation,
or requirement to fly at personal expense
to receive awards for which fans pay to
attend to see the STAR with no
remuneration to the Nominee and in
some cases, the same Award is sold for
$10 in a New York store.

This blatant exploitation must STOP. The
Guilds have to move into action to
streamline these Award Events down to
those bodies who are serious about
promoting the growth of the Industry and
adding meaningful value to the career of
practitioners. It has become necessary to
withhold Guilds’ endorsements for these
Award Events until stipulated
requirements are met; such as obtaining a
License from the Conference of
Nollywood Guilds for a fee, Proof of Prize
for Award Nominees and Winners, and a
verifiable document of Agreement signed
by the guild of producers, and the
association of marketers endorsing the
Award as a basis for increased value of
the recipients.
Such a process will help structure the
industry against easy exploitation,
promote focused growth and build
industry collaboration with bodies having
serious intent to promote and add value
to the industry reducing the others to
what they truly should be..

INDUSTRY
NIGHTS.. as this process will produce not
more than two or three recognized value
adding Awards annually in NOLLYWOOD.

CLARION CHUKWURAH
6th October, 2014.