Popular actor and former president of the Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (ANTP) Jide Kosoko, needs no introduction. The veteran actor’s versatility cuts across both the English and Yoruba sector. The Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioner (ANTP) has been facing serious leadership tussle for a while now. The tussle is between the popular actor and another practitioner Victor Ashaolu, who have been slugging it out in court. Ashaolu reportedly proclaimed himself as the ANTP boss and is seen by many as the current head of ANTP. An Ibadan court recently declared Ashaolu as the rightful President of ANTP but majority of the important people in ANTP (including Jide Kosoko) who are not satisfied with the development, have angrily left ANTP to set up another faction named Theatre Arts and Movie Practitioners Association of Nigeria (TAMPAN). Ashaolu has been accusing Jide Kosoko of refusing to hand over ANTP’s properties in his possession. Jide Kosoko told his own side of the story when journalists cornered him in Ibadan recently. MORAKINYO OLUGBIJI was there
How do you react to the many allegations against you concerning handing over of ANTP’s properties in your possession?
I have heard a lot about handing over or no handing over. It is very funny to me because when a government is leaving, you hand over a report which will be written for asset and liability, but all I have been hearing from my brother Ashaolu is “Come and hand over our properties.” What is property? When you want to take over responsibility, you will take over both asset and liability. I have never said I won’t handover. What do they have with me? Nothing special. There is nothing they have with me that is not with me. There is absolutely nothing he says the association have that I don’t have, but the unfortunate thing is that they are looking at me as a singular person; it takes two tangle. I had executives then, I was just the president. We have a secretary, PRO and all that, so automatically all these people are involved in whatever we want to do about handing over.
But we can’t hand over to him directly as a person, he must show us his executives. The truth of it is that the judgement that made him to be the president is being challenged because there is an appeal in court now. I have nothing to do; I am not rich but I am buoyant enough to sponsor the entire ANTP. ANTP has never got anything that has to do with reputation or connection with its wish. It relied on my goodwill for us to be able to attain one thing or another. When Victor Ashaolu was in crisis with the association for nine years and he had to handover, he only handed over a sheet of paper and said the little they had had been spent to execute his court case. What if I say the same? But I wouldn’t do that, because I have a name and a face; I have a reputation and I am an achiever by the standard. So we wait for the appeal, or better still if my lawyer advises me properly, I will call the entire board of trustees in their title and handover to them. In the history of ANTP, no president has ever handed over to the new president directly, it has never happened.
In one of his previous interviews he had in 2010, before the crisis sprung up, he mentioned you said there was a certain amount of cash in ANTP’s account, and that you also got an office space at 37 Simpson Street, Ebute Metta Lagos, for the association. Can you shed more light on this?
I guess Victor Ashaolu is sick to have mentioned the office in 37 Simpson Street as ANTP’s office. The apartment has been my office even before I became the president of the association. The association had never gotten any office and when I became the president, I gave them space from there to use. I want you to quote me right, the building is Prince Jide Kosoko’s office, but because I was the president, I used the opportunity to accommodate the ANTP on an agreement. With this my explanation, I think I have done enough to let the world know that it is my property that I rented for myself not for ANTP.
He said everyone registered before coming to ANTP as an individual, so you should have resigned before floating another association. What is your view on this?
There is nothing like that in the constitution of the association and everyone is entitled to say his or her opinion, in fact, multiple associations will still come up. Anyway, I am still a member of ANTP.
I am a founding member of movie producers, TMPP, a member of AGN and others, so it is matter of choice to be a member of multiple associations. I am still a member of the board of trustees of ANTP.
He also said there was a time you and few of your faction members came to him bribe him with N300, 000 and also produced a movie for him. How about that?
This is because we are a progressive set of people who believe that this man came into our midst to become a devil. Therefore, we looked for some money and jointly produced a flick for him to appease him because we are not troublemakers. We wanted him to allow us have a peaceful association, but he refused and he kept us fighting legal wars for nine years plus another four years making it a 13-year draw back for the association. When Hubert Ogunde was alive, he told us to avoid Ashaolu because he foresaw he would one day destroy the association. Is that not happening now? Quote me for everything I say. Ask Lere Paimo, Jimoh Aliu, who are his followers, if these statements are not correct? They are very correct and it’s happening.
When Ogunde told the association to avoid him, why didn’t you stick to the advise / prediction?
Everybody ran away from him. It got to a situation where people no longer talked to him. I gave him an opportunity and embraced him into the association. I am the one who created that enabling environment for him to become the secretary of the ANTP through a pressure group called Positive Thinkers where I was chairman. I did this for him to become part of us with the hope that what Baba Ogunde said about him will not happen, but unfortunately, he later destroyed the union. If he is now abusing me, then he is right because I gave him the chance. I regret doing that for him. I wept in my room when I remembered this. After I gave him the opportunity and they appointed him as the secretary, the first thing he did was for him to make Jimoh Aliu, who was then the president of the association to sign a letter that he had been elected as a full time president of the association and that was where the problem started from.
Do you believe floating a new association is the best way to create peace amongst you or would you not rather support his administration since he has won the court case?
How can you support somebody who doesn’t have a vision doesn’t know how to handle things properly? He knows nothing about the industry. He’s a unionist while I am a professional actor, even if he had gone to the university to study Theatre Arts, it doesn’t matter because I practice while he doesn’t. It is not possible for a barber to lead the association of fashion designers. I don’t hate him as a person; in fact I love his guts to confront me in this industry. This year made it my 50th year in acting and you know what it means.
