Exclusive: Special Adviser in trouble with actors, read why

Kwara state based actors are at war with their colleague Femi Adebayo who was named a special adviser to Kwara state governor Alhaji (Dr.) Abdul Fatah Ahmed on Arts, Culture and Tourism on Monday, February 22, 2016.

Femi Adebayo

The actor turned SA seems to be learning his first lesson in politics  as the actors under their umbrella body of Theatre Arts and Motion Pictures Producers’ Association of Nigeria (TAMPAN), Kwara state chapter are annoyed with him for neglecting them since his emergence as a special adviser of the state.

Their grievances:

Their grievances with the actor turned political office holder are many but the most unbearable of it they said was his neglecting the Kwara state actors in the just concluded stage play he put together to commemorate the 2016 Children’s Day on May 27. Femi was said to have invited actors from Lagos where he was practicing his art before his political appointment only offering the Kwara state actors crowd scene which they found very insulting.

Our source also said that since his emergence as an adviser to the governor, Femi never deemed it fit to meet with the state chapter of TAMPAN for once. He neither attended any of their meetings nor pay a courtesy visit to their state executives at the state secretariat even though he is a member of the Lagos state/ Oyo state chapter of the association. Funnily his father Adebayo Salami popularly known as Oga Bello is the National chairman Board of Trustees of TAMPAN.

Otunba Adebayo Salami aka Oga Bello

Our source also said that the political appointment Femi got was most times a reserve of Kwara state chapter of the actors’ body which they have been enjoying for a long time any time a new governor of the state emerges. And when Abdul Fatah named Femi Adebayo as his own SA on culture and tourism they kept their cool because Femi is from Kwara state and also an actor only that he was based outside the state. Despite being given the slot Femi they said has been ignoring them.

NAIJ.com spoke exclusively with the governor of Kwara state chapter of TAMPAN, Alhaji Dan Kazeem who is also a veteran broadcaster on the matter and he said:

“When we heard of the plan to stage a play titled Asa Wa we were not against it as it is more of celebrating Kwara state cultural heritage and we had expected that our members will be carried along.

Unfortunately, Femi did not carry us along from the planning stage to the execution. We were totally marginalized by Femi. When the posters of the stage play came out and none of us was on it, I specifically called Oga Bello on the development and he said we shouldn’t worry that he will speak to Femi about it. He later called us that Femi said he will carry us along which he never did.”

Your members were said to have protested when and why the protest?

Few days to the event our members protested their exclusion from the project and Oga Bello got angry when he heard about it. He said why should we protest that don’t we know that the person at the centre of this issue is his son and we told him that we reported this case to you earlier but you refused to do anything about it.

Femi is a SA in Kwara to help develop Kwara state and Kwarans in general not to develop other people from other states as he had done. He can bring actors from outside Kwara to join us not totally neglecting us. Femi later offered our members crowd scene in our own state sponsored project. This is not fair.

Alhaji Dan Kazeem and wife

Have you make any move to reach out to Femi after the event?

After our protest, the executives of Kwara state Arts Council appealed to us and pleaded with us to join in the project. We sent in five members of Kwara state TAMPAN who were among the crowd used in the stage play.

Alhaji Dan Kazeem told NAIJ.com that: “The Special Adviser to the governor on Political Matters Alhaji Lukman Bibire Ajepe who doubles as the grand patron of Kwara state TAMPAN called a peace meeting between us and Oga Bello and Femi but unfortunately Oga Bello and Femi couldn’t make it. We gathered they had a function to attend on the fixed date so till date we have not met.”

NAIJ.com gathered that veteran actor Yinka Quadri who is also from Kwara state was in Ilorin, the state capital to see the stage play called a peace meeting on the day the play was staged between the executives of Kwara TAMPAN and Femi Adebayo but Femi did not attend.

Since Femi is in Ilorin with you, has Femi said anything over this issue?

Femi has said nothing about this issue since then.

Way forward

I have appealed to our members to remain calm as such a thing will not repeat itself again.

NAIJ.com gathered that each actor brought in by Femi got N200,000 each. Actors that participated in the Asa Wa stage play include Yinka Quadri, Bimbo Osin, Odunlade Adekola, Muyiwa Ademola, Fathia Williams, Lateef Adedimeji, Lasun Ray, Olaniyi Afonja (Sanyeri), Flaky Ididowo, Adekola Tijani (Kamilu Kompo) among many others.