The Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) has reiterated it’s commitment to the welfare of members to address incessant deaths among Nigerian artists.

The Guild’s President, Emeka Rollas, make the remarks during the end of year get-together organised for members in Lagos on Friday.

Rollas said the association would begin this life-saving measure by organising in-house health workshops across all chapters of AGN.

He said that the measure became necessary as the increase in deaths of major practitioners, arising from sudden ailments, was alarming.

The health workshop, he said would be organised in collaboration with Elyon Synergy and would begin in the first quarter of 2021.

The workshop would be centred on the prevention of hypertension, diabetes, stress and sudden deaths.

He expressed the guilds heartfelt sorrow on the loss of some their prominent veterans, among whom were late Chico Ejiro and Frank Dallas and others.

“The news of the death of Chico Ejiro came to us as a rude shock, which many of us are yet to recover from.

“We are also yet to come to terms with the reality of his death while the demise of our National Public Relations Officer, Late Frank Dallas, is still very fresh in our minds.

“We, therefore, cannot continue to watch this trend continue unabated.

“The Guild is taking a proactive move in organising an in-house health workshop for members,’’ he said.

Rollas lamented that year 2020 had been tough and most challenging, particularly amidst the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic and all the crisis passed through both at the national and state chapters.

The AGN boss noted that his administration was passionate about initiating and executing programmes that would enhance the welfare of members and uplift the status and dignity of the profession.

In order to address the issues of royalties and residuals for actors, he said that a committee had been set up, to be headed by veteran actor, Emeka Ike.

“We are working hard to ensure life gets better for all members in the face of the current global economic doldrums, especially by creating an enabling environment to enhance our remunerations.

“Within the scope of the global lockdown and health crisis of COVID-19, we recorded some achievements from March 2020 when we held inauguration lecture and awards night in Abuja.’’

He also listed distribution of palliatives to some indigent members during the lockdown.

“The Health Management Scheme, where our members have access to over 600 hundred hospitals across the nation at a very affordable rate annually was launched in August,’’ he said.

As part of the effort to create job opportunities, he said that the guild approached some corporate organisations AGN that is doing one form of advocacy or another to engage AGN members for such campaigns among other welfare programmes.

Rollas hinted that the review of revalidation fee from Jan. 15, 2021, was in line with the AGN’s commitment to the National Films and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) registration.

He also said that henceforth, unviable state chapters that cannot revalidate and verify at least 50 members shall be merged.

NAN