Ghana Actors Guild in serious crisis

The Ghana Actors Guild seems to have been hit with a bang as there are three vacancies at the executive level.

The guild lost its president, Eddie Coffie in October 2015 and Welfare Officer, Solomon Sampah in January 2016 but is yet to hold elections. Although their constitution states that the vice president should act as president in his absence, Vivian Achor who holds the position of vice president has been out of the country for more than a year.

According to Abeiku Sagoe who spoke to KMJ on Hitz FM’s Daybreak Hitz on Monday, Vivian Achor did not officially inform the guild of her departure.

“Vivian Achor travelled early part of last year to US. From indications, she did not officially inform her colleague executives and has since not got in touch with anybody,” the member of the guild noted.

He mentioned that their constitution did not make provision for such occurrences as those who drafted it at the time of its establishment never envisioned a situation of that nature.

“Unfortunately at the time we were forming the guild and drafting the constitution, we were all young so we never envisaged such a situation. We did not make rule for those eventualities. But that will probably advise us on what to do with the constitution,” he noted.

Although Abeiku Sagoe admitted that the guild was not as vibrant as it is supposed to be, he disagreed with assertions that, such was the reason Madam Achor left without any notification.

“If we were talking about any other person, I would agree to that but she was the vice president. If the vice president cannot make the union active, who can? Honestly, it has not been very active. The young ones have all deserted the guild for one reason or the other. But some held on,” he said.

“There are many who want to return but some are on conditions, which I don’t agree. You can’t fight an organisation from outside. I’m sure the guild has lots of prospects and everybody should come on board,” he added.

Abeiku Sagoe believes the development calls for an amendment of the guild’s constitution.

“There is no president. Ziggy Netteyson is the general secretary so in the absence of the president and vice, even though it is not stated in the constitution, he being the senior most executive will be acting as president. I think immediately, we should take a look at the constitution. The most important thing now is to have a new president, vice and welfare officer,” he intimated.