Can We Be Miserly With The Truth Yet Honest?...... MY HONEST OPINION

Written by: Ekine Stronghold
Has it occurred to you that people genuinely feel like they can be miserly with the truth and not consider it a lie? That is the case of our dear nollywood. Shall we consider it the truth if part truth is deliberately told? Should it not be considered a lie if a vacuum is deliberately left out even if a lie is not used to replace it? Is there anything like half-truth in the first place?At the inception of the new leadership of nollywood guilds and associations there were great hopes as we saw men that have in no little way contributed to the intellectual common wealth of nollywood. That is the reason why these half truths that have been circulated are particularly painful. Overnight the guild system was politicized and with that came the birth of half truths.

The half truths started with the sidelining of the membership. Communication was deliberately cut, there were no plans put in place to reunite and reconcile the opposing sides of the electorate. Then came the presidential grant saga. The secrecy with which the meeting on working template for nollywood was conducted and the constitution of the committee, most practitioners found amazing. When the stories started making the rounds that some elder statesmen of the industry were turned back at the venue of the deliberations for nollywood, a series of half truth were told to cover mistakes and oversight rather than a sincere apology. My favorite half truth came from the AMP president in a text message. He said “the meeting is for nollywood but not by nollywood”. But think of it, a working template for the industry, and the guild heads were invited and ought to R.S.V.P. Very funny. They should be the ones sending out the invitations.

The offended parties didn’t take it lightly as practitioners of yore resurrected all of a sudden. They held an emergency meeting and press conference under the auspices of nollywood monitors and there too other half truths showed up. The real reason for the fencing, constitution of nollywood monitors and the meetings were not exact. If it was? Then the people will like to know why the monitors didn’t monitor the guilds that had not had meetings in over six months? why they did not monitor the guilds that had been monopolized by their executives and why nothing was happening in the industry until there was money to be monitored? This however should not take away the fact that the constitution of the board on the presidential grant was in error.

When Gov.Akpabio’s endowment fund landed. It was double wahala for the industry. The heads of guilds came together and fabricated another half truth. Well at this point most people will prefer I single out the president of Directors’ guild of Nigeria Mr.Andy Amanechi and president of association of movie producers Mr.Zik zulu okafor. However I will not. Reason being that when both presidents told the other guild heads the conditions on which the 50million that was given to nollywood and displayed on the front pages of national dailies would get to the industry, they could have rejected it out rightly. They did not. How they agreed to part with 15% of the money, 7.5% going to the commissioner and his boys and 7.5% going to Stephanie Okereke for her efforts at getting the money is still a wonder to me. In the first place, are these the truth, half truth or a lie? The bulk of nollywood practitioners will never know.  TO BE CONTINUED