See excerpts of veteran
Nollywood actress Ayo Mogaji’s
recent interview with Daily
Telegraph
Younger actors seem to be
enjoying brand
endorsements from blue
chip companies when just a
fraction of the older ones
benefit from the industry
they toiled to grow. Does
this bother you at all?
It’s journalists like you that will
help us to ask them what
disqualifies us from such
lifechanging opportunities.
Maybe we don’t work hard
enough, maybe we cannot
sleep around and maybe we
cannot quite do what the
younger ones are doing or they
cannot get what they’re getting
from the younger ones from us.
At the location where I am now,
my director and I were
discussing this same matter
yesterday. What their criteria
are I don’t know, but I know if
you google my name, you
would see what I’ve done and
the rest.
It’s quite shocking that some
people still think you’ve not
done enough and that it’s only
the new faces that can sell
products and services. All well
and good, if anybody needs my
service, they will call me when
the time comes.
Some of the older artistes
we’ve interviewed lately
claim producers are
frustrating them. Does this
claim hold waters?
Well, I glorify God’s name that
I’m not from that school of
thought. I’m working, I have a
lot of projects I’m involved in,
though it’s not my doing; it’s
God’s. It’s true that the jobs are
not coming as they should be,
but I must thank God that I’m a
busy artiste. As I’m talking to
you now, I’m on a location and
I’ve been here for a month.
Has the job been more
rewarding from what it was
five years back?
Well, what I will tell you is that
in the Yoruba sector of the
industry, which I’m privy to,
rather than it to improve, it’s
deteriorating. People will just
begin to tell you that Idumota
has spoiled market for them
and all sorts of excuses. Those
who used to pay you N150,000
previously want to price you
down to N40,000. It shouldn’t
be like that.
What are the actors doing to
address this issue?
We have been coming together
for as long as I can remember.
I’ve been in this business for 35
years. We’ve come together so
many times, but at the end of
the day, you throw the knife up
and all the times it lands on the
flat side.
I’m just trying to bother about
me and my family, do my
business now and get out
because if you make a resolve
after a meeting, the next thing
you would see is some people
doing what’s different from
what you agreed to do.
There are so many factions.
Until we come together, we
won’t be able to resolve what
will benefit us all. I’m not
talking about AGN, ANTP,
NANTAP and all others. Let
everybody be under the same
umbrella, if we are, that is when
we would have one voice
because that is when we can
collectively attack whatever we
want to attack.
Forget the difference in our
dialects; we have a common
language in English. We can
form a forum and with English
language, there’s nothing I tell
Nuhu Ali now that he wouldn’t
understand. There’s nothing I
will tell Amechi Nmagu that he
wouldn’t understand. Let us all
return under the umbrella of the
National Association of Nigerian
Theatre Arts Practitioners
(NANTAP).
If we can do that, then we
would be better for it. NANTAP
was the first registered
professional body for artistes in
this country. And people are
undermining NANTAP; it was
under it that AGN broke out.
The Actors’ Guild, Directors’
Guild and Producers’ Guild are
all supposed to operate under
the NANTAP. People are so
selfish, otherwise why would
Emeka Ike think that Ibinabo,
who had assisted the guild in
recent times, deserve to be
taken to court? Nobody will be
able to do anything if we fail to
go back under one umbrella.
What have we been able to do
about piracy? Nothing!
Do you do anything aside
acting?
All I do for a living is acting. It
was just recently that I opened
a pub (what the Yoruba will call
beer parlour). I have it in
Ibadan. I just felt the area I
situated the business was
lacking entertainment, I got a
chance and I put it there. I’m
seldom there anyway.
Are you based in Ibadan at
the moment?
I’ve always been based in
Ibadan. I come to Lagos often to
work.
When setting out early in life,
was acting your first career
choice?
Nothing ever even occurred to
me, it was God who just chose
for me what to do. My mother
wanted me to be a lawyer. At a
point in time, they got me a job
in a bank, but if I had to make
my own choice, I would have
loved to work in international
relations outfit. I would love to
work somewhere I can meet
and interface between people.
Are you giving marriage
another shot?
I’m only married once and I’m
still in my marriage. My
marriage will be nine years on
December 23 and that is the
only marriage I’ve had in my
life. I’m married to Dr. Ayodele
Oduleye.
But there were reports of
broken marriage involving
you and Jibola Dabo…
Jibola was my boyfriend. We
had a baby together before I
got married. We never got
married to each other. I’m
married to a British
Psychotherapist named Dr.
Victor Ayodele Oduleye.
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