Jonathan’s National Honours List: Nollywood divided over choice of Genevieve, KOK, others

Perennially troubled Nollywood is currently divided over President Goodluck Jonathan’s choice of hand picking few stars for this year’s national honours award.
While some are hailing Mr. President for deeming it fit to honour their colleagues, several others are angry and accusing Jonathan of being biased and too selective in his choice of awardees.
The listed names from Nollywood are: Olu Jacobs, Genevieve Nnaji, Stephanie Okereke, Osita Iheme and Kanayo O Kanayo, all penciled down for the MFR award on November 14, in Abuja.
The angry stakeholders who spoke with us on the condition of anonymity berated Mr. President for selecting only a few names that campaigned vigorously for him during the last presidential election.
“With the exception of Olu Jacobs and Pawpaw, the other awardees were part of the campaign team of Mr. President during the last presidential election. We feel he’s using this opportunity to pay them back through their state governor. KOK, Genevieve, Stephanie and even Pawpaw are all from Imo State, are they the only stars in Nollywood. Nollywood is made of stars from all states of the federation and not just one state. By doing this, Mr. President is further fanning the embers of war in Nollywood and causing more trouble for the already crisis-prone industry. We are not against National Honours, but all we are saying is that it should be done judiciously and on merit, not through the back doors. What criteria did he use in choosing most of these people, if not for the fact that they were part of his campaign team? He keeps preaching about due process, which he failed to use in selecting the right people for this honour.”
Another angry top practitioner from the Yoruba movie industry also accused Mr. President of being tribalistic and insensitive in his choice of awardees.
“The Yoruba film industry has done a lot for Nigeria, yet Mr. President keeps treating us like third class citizens, despite all our contributions to the growth of this industry and nation. Look at the list of the awardees; we have only one Yoruba man on it. Why can’t Mr. President balance his list as a father figure and true Nigerian? This was exactly what he did during his campaign; he deliberately abandoned us and campaigned with only those from his part of the country. Instead of integrating, he keeps on disintegrating us. We just hope that he will change this ugly trend in 2012.”
Meanwhile, all the recipients are happy and looking forward to the D-Day in Abuja, despite the mounting criticisms about the choice of some of them.