Peaceful coexistence, unity and evangelisation of the gospel of Christ at all times, have been identified as key attributes in members of organisations to foster growth and development of the Church and society at large. This was the position of Ambassador Ifeoma Okeke-Uzzoude, President, Catholic Artistes and Entertainers Association of Nigeria (CAEAN), Lagos Archdiocese in an interview with the Catholic Herald Weekly, held recently in Lagos. Okeke-Uzzoude who said CAEAN as well as other artistes evangelise the gospel through entertainment, listed financial impropriety and nonconformity of rules by parish chapters among challenges confronting the association.
According to her, “We have issues with the CAEAN, with the CYON in the churches. We have issues with the CYAA. We have issues with the Young Christian Workers in the church and all that. And these people are not even practitioners. I don’t see how they will ever have right to shoot or do drama without a letter from CAEAN. I don’t see how they will organise such things. “These are our challenges. We try to re-orientate these people; we have tried to tell them how to do things in the right way. Everybody wants to do things the way they like it.” She said before the current executive members came on board, the chaplain had already taken the resolution from members advice that parish CAEAN be banned. “If you want to become a CAEAN member, you have to register with us, we have our ID card, you must show your ID card that you are a CAEAN member.
No letter goes to any priest or parish without the chaplain or president’s signature”, she said. On the fate of persons who want to be members, but cannot afford the registration fees, she said, “When we started, the chaplain, Very Rev. Fr. Anthony Godonu considered those people too. And we are planning trainings, free academy for people who want to join, teach them ethics of the profession. But for registration, we will give time. People don’t have to pay immediately they start. On the bad notion people have about Nollywood, the filmmaker said every industry has their good and bad sides, adding that Nollywood gets more criticisms because the practitioners are like the mirrors of the society. According to her, “People in Nollywood are also human.
Most of the roles we play is not who we are, we are only interpreting characters which we want to use to pass a message. So, a lot of people come to judge us based on some roles we take in movies. The truth is that we have lots of good people in the industry; people who come from good homes. On complaints of sexual harassment in the industry, she said this happens in every industry, as she disclosed that as a former Chief of Staff of Actors Guild of Nigeria, they had treated cases where people offer themselves to get roles, adding that the guild treats these issues accordingly. She advised up and coming actors not be in a hurry to shine because there is plenty space to grow, as she assured that the association plans to empower them to be certified entertainers.
According to her, “We are going to create jobs, we are shooting movies, we are going to take the kids out of the street. It will reduce drug abuse. It will reduce incidents of rape. This will reduce violence everywhere. And that’s what we hope to achieve Okeke-Uzzoude is one of the founding members of CAEAN, an organisation founded by Most Rev. Emmanuel Badejo with the aim of uniting Catholic entertainers. Among other portfolios, Okeke-Uzzoude is the President/Founder Rachael Okeke-Ozzoude Foundation, an NGO that empowers the less privileged and persons living with disabilities with both soft and hard skills.
