Nollywood actor, Seun Ajayi recently spoke about the issues facing the movie industry. He drew attention to the level of sexual harassment experienced in Nollywood.
In an Instagram video, he captioned “Sexual harassment in Nollywood! My brothers let’s do better”, Ajayi addressed his male counterparts to make Nollywood safe for the females.
“This video is addressed to my brothers in the Nollywood industry. I see this a lot and whenever I get the chance, I speak about it.
“You see, it’s very important for us to let women feel safe in their work environment, but the truth is, if we really really check out, we dey mess up. In fact, forgive my French, we dey f**k up.”
The “Ojukokoro” actor recalled one of his experiences while on set. He said:
“Many times I’ll see male colleagues harass ladies on set. There was one time I was on set and it was so bad and this guy was constantly commenting on this girl’s bum and groping her and everyone told him to stop. I told him to stop several times and he didn’t until he was officially written by the girl’s lawyer.”
Ajayi blamed his male colleagues for not speaking out against sexual harassment. He stated:
“I urge you, my brothers, that the next time you see that kind of behaviour… it’s not only rape oh, it’s not only rape. To be inappropriate with your language is harassment, it is sexual harassment.”
He added:
“The reason why these things are still sliding is because nobody has been arraigned in court for sexual harassment, nobody has lost their endorsement for sexual harassment. It’s coming and we need to be careful, my brothers, we need to be careful. We can’t continue to just act. We have to think before we do it.
“My brother we need to stop this thing. If you do it, stop it and if you see it around you, nip it in the bud. Talk to your guy.”