Peter Obi: Don’t use actors as examples of unintelligent person, AGN slams el-Rufai

The Actors Guild of Nigeria has demanded an apology from Kaduna state governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, for describing the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, as a Nollywood actor.

NewsWireNGR recalls el-Rufai in a recent interview with TVC, while reacting to online polls which place Peter Obi ahead of other presidential candidates, said, “Peter Obi is a Nollywood actor, and that is all he will speak about. This election is between the APC and the PDP because they have the footprints and the ‘spate’. Ethnicity and religious bigotry will not take you anywhere, and that is what the Labour Party campaign is about”.

Condemning the statement by el-Rufai, the AGN National President, Chief Ejezie Emeka Rollas, said; “statement is not only derogatory to the acting profession but degrading to the Actors in Nollywood”.

According to the statement signed by Kate Henshaw, Director of Communication, el-Rufai’s statement “is intended to belittle and demean the intellectual capacity of an actor”.

“Using actors to make sarcastic examples of an unintelligent person is arrogant and condescending of a public office holder.

“The statement is very offensive and demeaning to the Actors Guild of Nigeria and Nollywood as a whole, as it was purely intended to deride the acting profession.

“Nollywood Actors have in no small way projected the image of our dear country positively from the negative perception the likes of El-Rufai and his cohorts have portrayed us to be,” the statement read.