Iconic actor Oludotun Baiyewun Jacobs who is popular as Olu Jacobs was yesterday in Lagos presented with an Icon Award by the leadership of the Audio-Visual Rights Society of Nigeria (AVRS), the sole government licensed collective management organization for audio-visual content.
Chairman of the AVRS Mahmood Ali-Balogun who presented the award at a brief presentation ceremony held at the Glover Memorial Hall said the Octogenarian actor deserved the award for his meritorious contribution to the development and growth of the audio-visual industry in Nigeria and for fostering the finest ideals of the acting profession. ‘Uncle Olu Jacobs is a well- established performer who has contributed to improving the image of the acting profession and has had a long history of active involvement both on stage and screen. Indeed his contributions to the growth of the audio-visual industry cannot be quantified. It is just appropriate for the AVRS which is the sole government licensed collective management organization for audio-visual content to honour this Icon of the profession who should rightly be a leading member of the AVRS because of his body of works’’ Ali-Balogun said. While highlighting the inadequate remuneration challenges in the audio-visual sector as evident in the plight of some its notable players in the past and presently, the AVRS Chairman used the opportunity of the presentation to appeal to users of audio-visual content to meet their licensing obligations as AVRS is the only opportunity for a vast majority of audio-visual creative to be pensionable’’.
The highpoint of the presentation ceremony was the presentation of a check of the sum of Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand naira and a membership certificate to the actor octogenarian actor who clocked 80 this July. The actress and wife of the actor Ajoke Silva Jacobs was also presented with a membership certificate. ‘With this presentation, both Uncle Olu and the amiable wife Ajoke Jacobs are now members of the AVRS and they qualify to receive royalties anytime it is shared to members. That is the chief reason AVRS is in existence. To collect royalties from right users for distribution to right owners’’ Ali-Balogun said
Responding, a visibly elated Olu Jacobs thanked the AVRS leadership for the honour done him and the membership extended to him and his ‘lovely wife’. He said ‘the only thank you that is big enough to appreciate the AVRS for this honour done me is to say a louder thank you. Thank you AVRS’’. On her part, Ajoke thanked the AVRS for the honour and the membership extended to her and Olu Jacobs who she intermittently called ‘Sir J’. Like Olu Jacobs, the actress promised to be a strong advocate for the AVRS. ‘’I know of the journey we have gone through and if AVRS had been standing, the journey wouldn’t have been this hard. We thank God that AVRS is here now and it is incredible the quality of people you have on the board. We are members now, so count on our support’ she said.
Representative of the Director General of the Nigerian Copyright Commission MDA Ojo, AVRS Board Members including the actress Monalisa Chinda, ace marketer and distributor Otunba Aina Kushoro, accomplished actor Agba Akin Yemi Solade, Veteran actor Ejike Asiegbu, and Elder Tunji Ojetola as well as the General Manager of AVRS Olubukola Adeyemi were the other personalities who were present at the ceremony.
