Star actor, Akeem Rahman speaks on Nollywood and creativity

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Akeem Rahman

Celebrated Nollywood actor, Akeem Rahman is a household name who has lost count of the movie productions he had featured in. He has also featured in soap opera TV drama series, “Tinsel” and more. AKIN SOKOYA caught up with him recently and he shared his experience on why he is organizing shows, among others. Read on…

What has your role in Nnena Super Story as Uncle Wiliki fetched you?

It has made me more popular because people love it and have been commending me. My role is that production is one of the best and more are still coming.

 

Tell us more about the Comedy Clerk Show you hosted recently

It’s to showcase the upcoming talents’ impact in the creative industry, especially the standup comedians. We want the young ones to have the sense of belonging. We were not saying the old ones should go but we believe that new stars can still come out and their names can be heard, their voices can be heard and they can been seen and established.

 

What influenced this?

It’s just the initiative of people of like minds coming together to promote the younger talents, and give them the needed exposure.

 

When did you hold the Comedy Clerk Show?

It was held on Saturday 12th December 2015 at Gesture Building at Lekki, Lagos. Nollywood stars like Teco Benson, Ngozi Nwosu, others were at the event.

 

Don’t you think the creative industry has taken away some professionals who are supposed to be practicing in their unique ways?

A lot of lawyers, doctors, educationists and many more after practising their professions for a while still want to exhibit their talents. It’s an inborn thing. I was a banker for 20 years. When I left banking, I joined the acting industry because acting is a gift that God deposited in me. We are talking of the raw talents that are embedded in you. God said that you should not come back to him without exhibiting the talents He has given you in the world. Professionalism will still remain what it is because the certificate is not talent and you can’t stop talents from manifesting in your life. When I was in the banking sector, I used to act along the counter and people enjoyed it. In our days, you couldn’t tie an actor on a seat. “Checkmate” brought me into the limelight. I did a course because my father wanted it so but I now took over the destiny of my life by exhibiting my acting talent; which made people fall in love with me.

 

What other productions have you done?

“Show the Heaven”. I featured alongside Olu Jacob; Kate Henshaw and Jim Iyke. Talent can’t hold professionalism and professionalism can’t hold talent. They are two separate things.

 

You had a show in America last year, is this Comedy Clerk Show a follow-up to your American show?

The one I had in America was basically an award event. We invited stars from all over Africa to the show. People came from London and other countries. The list of stars at the award includes Kenneth Okonkwo, Chiwatalu Agu, Victor Osuagwu, Teco Benson, Andy Boyo, among others. Now, we did another show in Nigeria, not because we wanted to give award but to bring out hidden talents in this country.

 

How much support is the creative industry getting from the government?

When ex-President Jonathan was there, he gave so much support to the entertainment industry, but with the new emerging president, we are yet to see anything, we know he’s still restructuring the nation.