The 2016 AMAA nomination list was announced yesterday,May 16th at Protea Hotel by the AMAA jury President, Hussein Shaibu. The list of the nominee was also released on their website.
Before I went through the list, I knew Genevieve Nnaji's movie 'Road to Yesterday' would never ever make the AMAA list. To prove myself wrong, I had to check and lo and behold, Ms Nnaji's name was missing on the list. With AMAA it's either Genevieve is not on the list or gets nominated to be ridiculed as she would never win even if all norminees in her category were amateurs.
This wasn't always the case as Ms Nnaji was the 1st AMAA best actress winner and she hosted an edition of the award with Jim Iyke. The resentment towards Ms Nnaji by AMAA is as a result of a personal beef between Genevieve Nnaji and AMAA founder, Ms Peace Anyiam Osigwe which I think has lingered for too long.
The beef which dates back to 2010 was triggered by an helicopter request . Apparently Genevieve was invited for the Academy awards and she made a ridiculous request for an helicopter to come pick her up. It was perceived as a joke by Ms Peace but it seems Ms Nnaji was serious,as she wasn't at the event.
Genevieve Nnaji was a bit arrogant with her request for reasons best known to her but for MsPeace Osigwe to have dragged it on for 6 years is quite petty to say the least.
I believe the reason Ms Peace created AMAA was to recognize African movie practitioners for their contribution to the growth and continuous improvement of the movie industry. This should be done without favoritism of any kind and it is such a shame that one is being sidelined because of a personal beef with the founder of such noble academy.
'Road to yesterday' is a good movie and deserve to be norminated in at least one category. Ms Peace knows Ms Nnaji stands a chance hence the reason her movie was conspicuously missing from all categories.
Ms Peace shouldn't run an African Academy Award like a domestic affair. She should be professional and follow due process. If she continues to be the judge and jury of the African Movies Academy Awards (AMAA) just because she created it, in less than 5 years African Movies Viewers Choice Award (AMVCA) would totally take over from AMAA.
A word is enough for the wise!
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