Shock, disbelief …as movie star, Ernest Asuzu’s case worsens!

Nollywood has abandoned me

Everyone blames Nollywood but…

AUSTIN FAIR NWAULU

It is no longer news that one of the faces and names that was once the cynosure of all eyes during the formative years of the Nigerian movie industry, aka Nollywood, Ernest Asuzu has been down with a strange illness that seems to be defying all solutions.

The handsome and once bubbling graduate of the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu who headlined many activities in the arena with some of its haymakers, was reportedly struck by an ailment first described as spiritual when it started until he got struck by partial stroke along the line.

Since then Ernest whose dear mother and close friends had carried the burden of his maintenance and welfare as he could no longer fend for himself, now leaves a sore note wherever he steps into even as colleagues and fans wonder why and how such a misfortune should befall him and scuttle his promising career.

Also a talented singer, Ernest could equally be remembered for many of the action events that happened back in the days which he championed. At the popular Murphys outlet on Adeniran Ogunsanya Street, he was always at the forefront of many of the hot sessions there.

However, things have nose-dived from bad to worse (if not the worst) for the young man as he appears to have exhausted all the means he hitherto depended upon for survival.

Although Ernest who played many striking roles in Nollywood movies has also become a regular visitor at major celebrity hangouts apparently in search of help these days, shock and disbelief were the words to describe the recent situation when he was sighted the Shoprite mall on Adeniran Ogunsanya Street, Surulere, openly begging for alms.

According to those who witnessed the ugly development, he was said to have confided in known faces that it was the last option left for him since everybody seems to have abandoned him.

As if that was not enough, the young man who now limps, was also said to have been sighted at Oshodi in company of an escort as he tried to board a BRT bus to Lagos Island.

According to our source, Ernest was in such a terrible condition that much as he tried to accost him, he could not recognize or utter a word to him.

In the heat of the sad development, he was said to have specifically pointed accusing fingers on the current Ibinabo Fiberisma-led executive of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) of neglect and not caring a hoot about his plight despite several appeals made to receive succour from them.

Unfortunately, the AGN which has been faced with similar challenges affecting its members, some of who have either lost the battle for survival or are hopelessly down currently is said to be in deep financial crisis too.

The guild which had assisted some of its members with grants from government has remained incapacitated with the change of government and like the others sectors waiting for a new order to regain the grip.

”Everybody is blaming the AGN over one form of monetary aid or the other as if the guild is a financial institution.  But the truth is that it has no money as people think and depends on other sources to move forward, AGN will not fail to cater for its distressed members once things improve,” one of its exco members said under anonymity.