The National Actors Guild of Cameroon (NAGCAM) is one of the autonomous guilds amongst others that form the six arms of the Cameroon film industry (CFI). Yesterday the 26th of November 2022 in Limbe the city of friendship was the venue scheduled to hold what was supposed to be called an elective general assembly to elect a new leadership that will take the structure to another level. This comes at a time when the drastic evolution of the film industry in Cameroon has pushed producers to raise the bars of production so high that there is still limited focus about the welfare of actors generally within the CFI. Moreover, NAGCAM’s role as the biggest guild in the industry is very important in determining the progress in the way actors are being treated, how they are engaged in a project and the minimum wage they are allowed to receive before showing up for a shoot. This is why the leadership of this guild is of paramount importance not only to the actors but also to the entire industry because they constitute over 65% of the entire CFI.
Since its formation in 2004 with Vugar Samson as founding president, NAGCAM has metamorphosed to what it is today through the huge inputs of a lot of stake holders within and without. Registered as a syndicate recognized by the ministry of labor; from onset she didn’t see herself affiliating with the CFI for the simple reasons that its tentacles are nationwide and standing on a higher administrative stand than the CFI which had the status of an association at the time. This position spearheaded by the founding president in the Bamenda convention in 2007 didn’t sound well in the ears of Industry’s chief whip Agbor Gilbert Ebot, whose motion was that of the founding body of the CFI clashed severally with the founding president to dissolve NAGCAM and form a unique structure to represent the actors guild of CFI.
The CFI caretaker committee was set up in Kumba in November 2008 and Waa Nkeng Musi was commissioned to organise and set up the different guilds which make up the CFI which of course included the Actors Guild, Producers Guild, Directors Guild, Technician Guild, Writers Guild and Marketing and Distribution Guild. He was commissioned alongside zonal coordinators in various identified zones like Bamenda, Kumba, Buea and Yaounde to identify and group registered members within these guilds within a three years lapse. With NAGCAM refusing to affiliate as a guild of CFI and Musi’s administration not able to overcome this challenge, Moma Pascal Gamih founded the Cameroon Actors Guild (CAMAG) and incorporated actors willing to join into the actors Guild of CFI as part of the objective given to the Musi-led government in the Kumba convention. This later became a point of contention within the industry which split the actors into the NAGCAM/ CAMAG divide with NAGCAM still priding herself as a syndicate with legalized documents which can’t be subdued by the CFI. This is how CAMAG under the leadership of Pascal Moma Gamih created the different zonal coordination of the actor’s guild from Yaounde, Douala, Buea, Limbe, Muyuka, Kumba etc.
By March 2013, the division between the factions was so huge at some point that Moma Pascal accepted an olive leave from Vugar Samsom the founding president of NAGCAM for a possible unification to put an end to the division and vote a new president that will head the new body under the CFI. Thus on the 13th of August 2013 in a dual extraordinary general assembly/election in the town of friendship (Limbe), NAGCAM swallowed CAMAG in a unanimous agreement between parties to be the lone organ to represent the actors guild of Cameroon under CFI moments before Moma Pascal emerged victorious as the first-ever democratically elected actors guild president of CFI in the presence of board chairman Otia Vitalis, some board members including the secretary general Alasambom Nyinchou, the communications officer Tanwie Elvis, Musing Derick and Vugar Samson the founding father of NAGCAM.
This beautiful actor’s union later between parties later part ways after the premature impeachment of Moma Pascal as actors guild president with huge antagonism on his part decided to withdrew CAMAG from the union till date, leaving NAGCAM as the sole organ responsible for the identification, registration and incorporation of actors into the Actors Guild of CFI. All the above events and attributes have been the elements that have molded and build every antagonistic tendencies in form of ‘’camps’’ within the industry either directly or indirectly.
It should be noted that from my perspective, there are four serious issues that were not properly handled on the day of NAGCAM’s first ever election in Limbe and during the reign of her first leadership that is the cause of the brouhaha today.
- The general assembly requested more time to work on the constitution before the election but the electoral commission and the then NAGCAM executives forcefully push forward the motion of an election without a stable constitution to incorporate the ideas of CAMAG and NAGCAM.
- Since the last general assembly on the 12th of August 2013 in Limbe, there has never been a constitutional amendment or review as intended by the general assembly.
- The Top Members of NAGCAM Like Takum Fred, who is a legal mind and Magdelene Agbor refused to accompany Moma Pascal as vice president and secretory respectively, generally to help enforce his team and the constitutional body of the structure to be equipped intellectually to better handle issues.
- The was an element of BAD FAITH from the NAGCAM team that joined with CAMAG; they withheld the original documentations of the structure and in front of everyone after Moma Pascal had won the elections, presented colored copies of the documents which till today still stirs bitterness in the hearts of the then CAMAG patriots.
- The unplanned impeachment of the first president of the new NAGCAM under the CFI which weakened the structure and lacked consistently in leadership in coordinating the different branches.
The subsequent impeachment of MOMA PASCAL whose term of office that was supposed to last three years ended towards the end of 2014. This led to his vice president KESHA Kena to take over the leadership of NAGCAM as stipulated by the unreviewed constitution until his premature exit within the uprising of the Anglophone crisis. It was from that time that TAKUM FRED, the current president took over from his predecessors. That period till now has signified the lowest threshold of the guilds activities probably because there has been little or no GA like it used to be to improve cohesion amongst the actors and improve on membership which before now was growing at a geometric proportion.
By default, therefore, the steaks of the anticipated election of the new president of NAGCAM contained with all the setbacks enumerated in STEPHANY TUM’s distress about the irregularities in the recent elections of the 26th of November in Limbe is a culmination of all the above factors. Without clearly addressing these issues commencing with the constitutional review, it will be very complex to resolve issues like what the present unreviewed constitution of NAGCAM that disqualifies Stephany’s candidacy within a context that isn’t reflective of the voices of her members in 2013 during the August 12 GA in Limbe.
Finally as a close observer and a film industry executive, i recommend a thorough review of the just ended mono-elective presidential elections of the 26th in Limbe, the complete review of the present NAGCAM’s constitution which haven’t been reviewed as proposed by the GA resolution of the 2013 elective GA and finally and not the least, consulting the executives of the impeached pioneer president of the New NAGCAM to fix the house from its roots and clear all the grievances which is still very fresh in some of their memories to pave the way for a strong and united structure.
Compiled By Tanwie Elvis De dadies