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DGN: Amenechi out, Amata in

By Editor

17 April 2016   |   3:28 am

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We have run a race and set the pace. It is now time for someone else to take up our place to continue and improve our modest milestones’’. It was with those words that notable movie director Andy Amenechi signed off officially...

New DGN president Fred Amata (in cap), and delegates jubilating shortly after Amata was declared winner of the presidential election in Asaba

We have run a race and set the pace. It is now time for someone else to take up our place to continue and improve our modest milestones’’. It was with those words that notable movie director Andy Amenechi signed off officially and handed over the reign of the Directors Guild of Nigeria (DGN) to the guild’s new President Fred Amata.

That part of Amenechi’s valedictory speech, which he delivered at a hand over ceremony held at Ojez Restaurant Surulere, Lagos last Tuesday signaled the end of his two-term tenure as President of the DGN. Like every valedictory address, Amenechi chronicled the achievements of his administration, which according to him include the establishment of an effective banking system, creation of members’ database and capacity building initiatives. The motion picture director of vast credit however challenged the Fred Amata led executive council to brace up to the challenges of new times, saying; ‘’please be informed that DGN can never be the same again. There is just too much awareness and accountability is the new mantra. Members will ask you questions and you must have plausible and progressive answers. Finally you must work towards the unity of members”
And a visibly elated Amata showed that he got the meat of Amenechi’s admonition when shortly after he took the oath of office administered by Hon. Babatunde Ogala, a Lagos lawyer and former Chairman, House Committee on Justice, Lagos State House of Assembly, he said ‘’ “On Friday, February 26, 2016, in Asaba, DGN did not only elect a new president, DGN initiated a new clarion call, which is that ‘DGN Is One,’” Continuing, Amata said ‘’ we have been energized, encouraged to have a new president in an election lauded as the freest and fairest election this guild has ever witnessed and where no winner, no vanquished was declared. This momentum of unity was further manifested when the newly voted executives sat together in their first ever meeting that produced the mantra of this administration. That mantra is ‘Together We Can’. The ‘Together We Can’ mantra is like the famous words of John F Kennedy ‘Ask not what your guild can do for you but ask what you can do for your guild. So it’s a challenge to all of us. It is a challenge to you and I to collectively determine our future. I will like to thank the outgoing president and his sterling executives for raising the bar and establishing standards that have taken DGN forward’’.

However, Amata who urged the DGN Electoral Committee, headed by Fidelis Duker to, as a matter of urgency, conduct elections into the two vacant offices of Director of Finance and Provost, was not the only official of the DGN who took the oath of office at the ceremony that was witnessed by Board of Trustee members such as Alhaji Sadiq Balewa and Chief Eddie Ugboma and prominent practitioners such as ANTP president, Pa. Ashaolu, TAMPAN president, Dele Odule, AMP President, Ralph Nwadike, Charles Novia, Dj Tee and Famous Otakponmwen. Other national officers that were sworn in include Mike Ogundu as Vice President; Ugezu Ugezu as National Secretary; Uchenna Agbo as Assistant Secretary, Oduala Taiwo as P.R.O and Daniel Chukwueze as Welfare Officer.

The journey here for the long-standing actor and director Fred Amata started at Tourist Hotel and Resort, Asaba, Delta State in March 2016. Amata who had made three previous attempts at becoming President of the DGN polled 48 votes to emerge President of the 18-year-old guild. Amata defeated fellow contenders-Kingsley Omoefe, Dickson Ireogbu and Lancelot Imasuen at the election that was witnessed by more than 150 delegates and stakeholders including member of the DGN Board of Trustees, association and guild heads and journalist.

Imaseun, who turned out one of the strongest contenders at the election, polled 43 votes out of the total vote case while Kingsley Omoefe and Dickson Ireogbu polled 7 and 3 votes respectively.