Organisers of the Best of Nollywood Awards, Friday evening, debunked a report that Governor Amaechi of Rivers State made insulting remarks about Nollywood artistes at the just concluded BON Awards 2014.

The report had said that Amaechi, during his speech, after he gave veteran actress Liz Benson a Lifetime Achievement Award, stated that people in Nollywood were products of circumstances and that they were in Nollywood because they couldn’t find other jobs; that the actors studied sciences, law, medicine etc, but because they couldn’t find jobs, they embraced the Nigerian movie industry.

The said report added: “Governor Rotimi also put two veteran actresses on blast. He told the crowd that he gives Joke Silva and Kate Henshaw bags of money whenever they come to Rivers state. And then claimed he was the one who encouraged Kate Henshaw to go into politics.”

Dismissing the publication, BON Awards organizers described it as pure falsehoold and malicious content.

Below is the full response:

“Our attention has been drawn to a report on the Linda Ikeji Blog wherein she purported that Governor Rotimi Amaechi insulted Nollywood practitioners to their faces and called them products of circumstances at the Best of Nollywood Awards which held inside the banquet hall of the Government House, Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Thursday, October 16th 2014.

“While we consider the report malicious, mediocre and outright falsehood on which the blogger thrives, it is expedient to however set the record straight.

“At no point did Governor Amaechi insult Nollywood practitioners. Instead, he commended them for growing the industry into a multi billion naira industry without any form of institutional or government support.

“Nollywood, he says, now employs hundreds of thousands of Nigerian youths who, despite their qualifications, may have remained jobless because of the unemployment challenge in Nigeria, which has led to a situation whereby graduates of medicine, law and other such disciplines end up in Nollywood.

“At that point, popular entertainer, Okey Bakassi, interrupted the governor, saying he is an agricultural engineering graduate of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, which threw the whole hall into laughter.

“The Governor then recalled that at the 40th birthday party of Kate Henshaw a while back, Basorge Tariah Jnr reminded her how they used to slap the streets in search of jobs and that it was Nollywood that rescued them.

“Governor Amaechi also cited the example of the banking industry which has become a dumping ground of sort for graduates of different disciplines that are not even remotely related to the banking profession.

“It does not beggar rational understanding, except that the blogger may not be so conditioned, therefore, that this allusion is a thumbs up for the pioneers of Nollywood, not an insult as she inanely interpreted it.

“More so, at no point did the Governor say he gives Kate Henshaw money. He did, however, say that the state has contracted Mrs Joke Jacobs to turn Chinua Achebe’s political satire, ‘A Man of the People’, into a movie because of its inherent, timeless social message.

“After his speech, an excited Patience Ozokwor re-invited the Governor to the stage to co-present the Movie of The Year award.

“We wonder if the practitioners did indeed feel insulted, the Governor would still receive a standing ovation for stating that after his term in office expires, he would devote the next couple of years to reading and research and that one of the research topics he has chosen is the dynamism and evolution of Nollywood.

“The video of his full speech would be on social media platforms in a few hours.

“It is noteworthy to mention that despite starting behind schedule, Governor Amaechi sat through the awards which lasted over three hours.

“We therefore want discerning Nigerians to discountenance this ill-intentioned report as it is not only the product of warped reasoning and deliberate misinterpretation, it is most uncharitable to Governor Amaechi and demeaning to the Nollywood stars and stakeholders that were at the event”.