Wale Adenuga’s bombshell: There’s poverty in Nollywood, many actors lifted by sugar daddies, mummies

Entertainment entrepreneur, Wale Adenuga, has lamented what he called arbitrary practices and the current state of squalor in Nollywood, saying the picture being painted of actors and actresses in the country are mere shadows and make-believe.

Adenuga spoke during the week at the opening of the PEFTI film institute in Ibadan.

The film and TV producer, who said the centre is a training school and not a film theatre, added that the industry may witness bad days soon unless deliberate efforts were made to address the problems being created by the operators.

Adenuga said, “If things are not checked, there are disasters ahead. The cinemas that we have are too elitist in outlook and the common man cannot afford the luxury. What we need are community cinema houses where people can pay as low as N500.

“If Nollywood is well structured, there would be pension and health insurance schemes to the advantage of practitioners but that is not the case at the moment. What we have are self creations and growth of cabals.

“When there is no structure, there would be cabals. That is why there is high prevalence of abuse in the industry. PEFTI has come to Ibadan to liberate potential female actresses. As a student with PEFTI, you can feature in our films. Every production house has formed a cabal but PEFTI is a platform where budding talents can express themselves and get exposed.

“A lot is going on in Nollywood and this is encouraged by lack of structure. Nollywood is the only industry that has no united front. In Nollywood, it is an all-comers affair. Anybody can become a director. There are no ethics and no professionalism. I can say that 90 per cent of the popular artistes in the industry do not belong to any association.

“I can name actors that died without proper care. Our members are too proud whereas all is not well with Nollywood. We just grandstand and create wrong impression. It is only the men that are painting the real picture in Nollywood and it is the picture of poverty. People who are enjoying from the muddy water of the Nollywood will not want things to be reformed. Many of them lift themselves by using sugar daddies and sugar mummies.” Punch