
The allegation by the Bayelsa State Chapter of All Progressive Congress that the Bayelsa State Government lavished N2billion naira to organise the 10th edition of the Africa Movie Academy Awards came to us as a rude shock.
The ridiculous allegation and attempt at deliberate mischief to cause public opprobrium and hate for the government of Bayelsa State under the leadership of Hon. Seriake Dickson and the AMAA brand is a very cheap and brainless blackmail by the Bayelsa State Chapter of APC.
The Governor of Bayelsa State through his Chief Press Secretary has responded to the APC false allegation appropriately, however, we felt the need to also issue our own rebuttal since our organisation’s name was maliciously mentioned.
It is important to set the record straight and make it unambiguously clear that at no point in the 10 years history of AMAA with Bayelsa State has the government spent such collosal sum being alleged to host AMAA.
It is also very important to say that the current Bayelsa State Governor made it clear that the government of Bayelsa will not spent a kobo of the state fund on AMAA and any other state sponsored entertainment events as long as he remains the governor of the state. That was why he hosted a sponsors’ dinner last year at Transcorp Hilton Hotel Abuja where Mr. Sayyu Dandata, Chairman of MRS Oil and other private sector leaders offered to sponsor AMAA.
For the 10th anniversary edition the governor also hosted a sponsors’ dinner in Lagos at the Civic Centre in March this year where over N200million was also raised from the private sector.
The main sponsors for this year’s AMAA were Globacom, Sterling Bank, MRS Oil, Skye Bank, Skymit Autos, CCECC, BUA Group, Atla Oranto Petroleum, Dan Etete Foundation, Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe Foundation, FCMB among others.
It is unreasonable and uncharitable for any political party who wants to be taken serious to make unsubstantiated and wild allegation without any prove all in name of playing politics.
It is on record that the hosting of AMAA by Bayelsa State since year 2005 has been a major boost to socio-economic activities in the state. The awards has being a major platform to bring international visitors, tourists to the state and also inspire confidence of local and foreign investors to look in the direction of the state.
Instead of engaging in shadow boxing the Bayelsa State chapter of APC should rather congratulate the government of Bayelsa state for partnering with AMAA to market the state to national and international consciousness.
In terms of destination branding Bayelsa State is known for AMAA globally than its oil deposits and the AMAA brand has opened the state to the development of critical tourism support infrastructure having realised the economic potentials of tourism as a major revenue earner.
It is also amusing that Bayelsa APC whose leaders are paying so much in foreign exchange to attend similar events like AMAA in other parts of the world could be raising false allegation against a home-grown initiative that is uniting Africa and promoting the motion picture industry.
It also need to be stressed that other APC controlled states in Nigeria, most especially Lagos State are supporting the creative industry and film in particular through many laudable projects. It will be better Bayelsa State APC takes cue from other forward looking APC states rather than advertising their ignorance to the public.
There should be some level of decorum in politicking and we expect APC in Bayelsa State to look for a better way to play opposition politics in Bayelsa. Looking for just anything to hold to attack Governor Dickson and his administration does not portray the managers of APC in Bayelsa as serious people. Bayelsa APC leadership with this cheap allegation just confirmed that they do not have any measure of meditative disposition.
We worked very hard to make sure companies that pledged sponsorships for AMAA redeemed their commitments.
We at AMAA will not allow any lie and false allegation from APC’s pit of hell to distract us from our avowed commitment to make the motion picture industry in Nigeria and Africa a major contributor to our social and economic development.
We will always remain eternally grateful to the government and people of Bayelsa State who have stood by us for a decade starting from Chief D.S.P Alamieyesigha, then Governor now President Goodluck Jonathan, former Governor Timi Sylva and the current Governor, Hon Dickson.
Signed
Peace Anyiam-Osigwe
Founder/AMAA