“I’m Not Defrauding The Public In Adebayo Faleti’s Name’’– Nollywood’s Saidi Balogun Cries Out

Contrary to social media reports that has already painted him black, Nollywood actor and The President Of The Movie Ambassadors (TMA), Saidi Balogun has shed light on his recent visit to nonagenarian thespian cum playwright, Pa Adebayo Faleti in his Ibadan, Oyo State home, and has denied seeking funds on behalf of Pa Faleti who was reportedly dying.

See excerpts from the Encomium Magazine interview below:

It was reported that you, alongside other members of your association, The Movie Ambassadors (TMA), visited Pa Adebayo Faleti on his sick bed in Ibadan, Oyo State recently. What actually happened there because a lot of things have been reported about the visit?

Truly, we visited Baba but not in the hospital. It was his house.

But we learnt you paid his hospital bill?

That’s not true. We didn’t pay any bill, and we never told anybody anything like that. It was a fabricated. In our blueprint as movie ambassadors, it’s made clear that we would be visiting all our elders, sharing experience with them. We want to eradicate the era of a 30 year-old man playing the role or interpreting the character of a 70 year-old man. Let’s make our elders relevant, let’s give them their deserved respect. I have paid similar visits to Ajimajasan, Papilolo, Tafa Oloyede, Ogunjimi, Mama Gbonge. We’re not saying they are suffering, we just want them to know that they still have their boys on ground. So, we didn’t pay his hospital bill and we didn’t tell any press man that Baba needs anybody’s help.

But it was also reported that you’re soliciting financial support for him?

That’s not true. And one point of correction, we didn’t go to Baba with any journalist. We went alone. Maybe some people only gave Baba wrong information. Two, we didn’t go to any media house to canvass for any financial support on his behalf. And if anybody claims he or she is doing that on our behalf, let the public report such a person to us or report the person to Baba. I am using this medium to appeal to the public to please expose anybody that may want to defraud people using Baba Faleti’s name.

But what’s on the lips of many now is that you’re defrauding the public.

That’s funny. We all laughed when we heard. Did we go to any media house or anybody soliciting for financial help on behalf of Baba? We have more than 10 soft-sell magazines and newspapers that if we want to do that, people will find it credible to donate. There are some places you will go, and they won’t even donate anything. But we movie ambassadors will not do that. And let me correct one thing, we’re not Yoruba association, we’re ambassadors. We represent the industry as a whole including Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Nigeria Theatre Art Practitioners (ANTP), Theatre and Movie Practitioners Association of Nigeria (TAMPAN) and others. Anybody we notice is doing well in his or her association is welcomed. We would like to share ideas with such a person. Our main aim is to rebrand the industry. We all want to move forward. One of our goals is to create health insurance scheme for ourselves and our movies so that we won’t go beg for money.

Once again, we movie ambassadors didn’t solicit money from anybody on behalf of Baba. He is our leader. We love him so much. He is a great man we’re looking up to. Baba himself understands the whole thing. It’s just some people that are trying to make an issue out of it, they’re just blowing things out of proportion. Baba himself has even cleared the air in his response in one of the dailies and he didn’t even mention our name or the name of our association. We can never embark on such a thing. It’s the devil that wants to bring himself in and we have told him to go back to where he was coming from.