Clarion Chukwurah recently expressed her disappointment over the performance of the leadership of the actors’ body, as she accused its President of using the guild to pursue her personal interest.
But reacting to the allegation in a three-page open letter which she wrote to her, Ibinabo frowned at Chukwurah’s allegation. She accused her of spreading falsehood to achieve her “inordinate ambition to become the next president of the Guild.”
The letter reads in part: “I didn’t ask Mr. President for ‘a political appointment’ as you have been mouthing. I thanked Mr. President for the few consideration he has made in appointing some practitioners into key government positions and requested for more of such appointments in line with our expressed desire to have more of our creative people in government and in politics so we can have people that will influence legislation for the betterment of the industry.
“Well it may interest you to note that the appointment was in my personal capacity and it is a part-time appointment as we are only expected to sit four times in a year, maximum. “However, It was only a coincidence that the appointment was announced days after the visit to the Villa.
But I had been intimated long before the inauguration of the board that I have been nominated to serve on the board of one of the agencies in the Federal Ministry of Culture and Tourism. If the other artistes that have been appointed on merit into part time positions have not stopped acting as it were, why should I resign? AGN is governed by a constitution and not by the words of mouth fashioned to destroy a constituted authority.
“I was away on a short vacation when my attention was drawn to two publications (one an open letter and the other an interview) credited to your very respected self, where you cast a lot of aspersions on myself and where you resorted, because of your inordinate ambition to become president of the guild, to feeding the general public with deceit and falsehood.
“Ordinarily I would not have replied you openly, because I personally do not join issues with my colleagues – whether junior or senior, on the pages of the papers or social media. Besides, as president, I should be seen to be uniting members and not causing disaffection in the guild as your unfortunate outburst set out to do.
However, it is for the purposes of correcting the falsehood and erroneous impression that your very unfortunate and jaundiced views might create in the minds of members of the guild, stakeholders, and the public, that I decided to write to you.
I gleaned from your incoherent attacks that your grouse with me was that I didn’t ask President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for support on issue of legislation that, quoting you now ‘could bring all the screen actors in Nigeria under one single body so that an enabling environment could be put in place for casting agencies for jobs for actors.’
Your other grouse was that I also asked for ‘a political appointment’ (did you say ‘a political appointment’) and a national secretariat in Abuja? You were also bellyaching because you said I led a delegation that didn’t include veterans. Thankfully, you commended me for succeeding, quoting you now, ‘in a very commendable field which is accessing an appointment to see Mr. President at a time like this when the president is engaged in all fronts.