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Nigerian Actors
Pledge Support for FOI Campaign
Lagos, Thursday, April 27, 2006: A new script on the advocacy for
the Freedom of Information Bill was written today when the members of the
Lagos Chapter of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGON) pledged to support all
of the advocacy efforts that will ensure that the Bill becomes law.
The President of the Lagos Chapter of AGON, Mr. Remmy Ohiajinanya, said
Nigerian actors were prepared to make sacrifices and contribute positively
to the campaign for the passage of the Bill into law.
Mr. Ohiajinanya spoke at a meeting held in Lagos and attended by over 200
actors and actresses. The meeting was a follow-up to a workshop for
professional associations, organizations and groups organized by Media
Rights Agenda (MRA) to broaden the constituency for support for the
Freedom of Information Bill.
Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Tive Denedo, MRA’s Director of Campaigns,
noted that actors, like most professionals, require information for the
production of epics, historical and other types of documentaries for their
large audiences.
Mr. Denedo described the acting profession as a gold mine which remains
untapped because the government has failed to respond to the huge reserve
of the human resource available in the Guild by making the funding of arts
and culture to lack public participation, openness, transparency and
accountability.
Members of the Guild expressed concern over the delay in processing the
Bill at the National Assembly but pledged their commitment to work for its
passage into law.
The members undertook to embark on a range of advocacy efforts, including
contacting their representatives in the National Assembly by telephone and
through SMS appeals; writing articles to explain and clarify the purposes
of the proposed law and incorporating issues in the Bill into their movie
or documentary productions.
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