{"id":273511,"date":"2011-01-11T12:57:56","date_gmt":"2011-01-11T12:57:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/?p=46329"},"modified":"2011-01-11T12:57:56","modified_gmt":"2011-01-11T12:57:56","slug":"why-i-abandoned-priesthood-for-for-acting-mbaka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/01\/11\/why-i-abandoned-priesthood-for-for-acting-mbaka\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I abandoned priesthood for for acting \u2013 Mbaka"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
Ofiafuluagu Mbaka <\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nBy Benjamin NJOKU
\nOfiafuluagu Mbaka is the chairman, Actors Guild of Nigeria(AGN), Enugu State chapter. He is one
\nof the few actors that doesn\u2019t disappoint the fans. Yet, he\u2019s also one of the most\u00a0 uncelebrated in Nollywood today.
\nUnknown to many,\u00a0 Mbaka was destined to be a Catholic priest. He started out from the seminary and bowed out, midway\u00a0 pitching his tent in the acting profession.
\nIn this encounter, the bulky actor who recently got married to his girl friend, from Benin, relays his experience, while sojourning in the seminary, the problems confronting Nollywood and why he takes to acting as a career.
\nHear him\u2026
\nYou have come a long way in the industry, what has been your strength?
\nActually, I have come a long way as far as Nollywood is concerned. But it has not been easy with me. God has been my strength.
\nEnugu used to be the home of movie making in the recent past.\u00a0 Is the city the same thing today?
\nLet me correct one impression here. The issue of kidnapping never happened in Enugu. I\u2019m not making this claim because I reside there. The fact that movie production moved away from Enugu to Asaba and Lagos, does not suggest it was because of the prevailing cases of kidnapping in that city.
\nEnugu State Government has shown serious commitment in creating enable environment for movie production in the state. Presently, you will start and finish your production in Enugu without any problem.
\nThe city\u00a0 has bounced back to what it used to be in the recent past. I reside in Enugu, and I can assure you that all is well in that city in terms of movie production.
\nWhat\u2019s it\u00a0 like growing up in the coal city?
\nI\u2019m just like every other child that grew up from the street; where you wake-up one morning and discover that you have no food to eat on that day. I\u00a0 faced similar situation while I was growing up in Enugu. That\u2019s why when\u00a0 I see people who are facing simliar\u00a0 situation today, I do not need any soothsayer to\u00a0 tell me what those people\u00a0 are passing through.
\nAt what point, did you realise you have a passion for acting?
\nThat was in 1994\/95, when I was still an undergraduate at the Institute\u00a0of Management Technology(IMT), Enugu. Then, somebody hinted me concerning the\u00a0industry and for the fact that I have a passion for acting , I made every effort\u00a0to actualise my dream.\u00a0 I have been in the background right from the time \u201cOsofia in London\u2019 was shot in Enugu.
\nI started off from behind the camera. I wouldn\u2019t forget the role\u00a0 likes of Mr. Zulu Adigwe played in my acting career. He was the one who actually encouraged me and prepared me for what I\u2019m doing today.
\nEven when I wanted to abandon acting, he was the same person that discouraged me never to do so.\u00a0 I\u00a0 knew about the industry while I was an undergraduate. As a child, I can\u2019t remember saying, I would want to become\u00a0 an actor. But when it has to do with entertainment, I had a strong passion for it . I started my acting career when I featured in \u201cIgbudu\u201d from the stable of Great Movies Productions.
\nThat movie launched me into the mainstream acting world. But before then, I have been working behind the camera. The journey started from NTA, Enugu, where I did my industrial training as an undergraduate of Mass Communication.\u00a0 Thereafter I developed a strong passion for the tube. It\u2019s the passion I have for acting that has sustained me till date.
\nDid I hear you say, you wanted to abandon acting?
\nYes, it was because of the issue of back-biting and misleading information. Then,\u00a0there was no effective communication system as we have it today, which made it\u00a0difficult for producers\u00a0 to contact any actor they wanted\u00a0 to feature in their\u00a0productions. A situation, where a job that is meant for you is being hijacked by\u00a0somebody else simply because you could not be reached or that,somebody\u00a0 blackmailed you to secure the job. I was angered by that situation, and\u00a0decided to abandoned the profession.
\nWhat actually happened in your life that prepared you for acting as a career?
\nIt has to do with my background. I actually attended a missionary school(Seminary), meaning that if priesthood was my vocation, I would\u00a0 have become a catholic priest by now.
\nWhat happened?
\nFor anybody who knows what the seminary school is all about, you wouldn\u2019t certainly claim that, priesthood is your vocation until the\u00a0 day you would be ordained.\u00a0 So, priesthood is not a profession for anyone to pursue, it\u2019s a vocation. If God has pre-destined you to be a priest, definitely you will become one.
\nBut if not, you will be thrown out of the seminary school.\u00a0 I opted out on my own discretion, I was not thrown out of the seminary. But in as much as I opted out on my won, I would tell you that life in the seminary is not always an easy one.
\nHowever,\u00a0 I\u2019m still proud that I never regretted going through the seminary. I wonder what would have become of my life today, if I was not there. The training I got from the seminary\u00a0 has been sustaining me .
\nThat I was not a catholic priest today, is not because I was\u00a0 thrown out of the seminary. But it was as a result of my decision to discontinue the journey to priesthood. My contemporaries who are Reverend Fathers today can testify to this claim .
\nSurprisingly, it was my classmate in the seminary who wedded me recently in Benin. It\u2019s over 20 years I bowed out of the seminary.\u00a0 While I never regretted sojourning in the seminary, I also never regretted opting out of it.
\nWould you say, the training you got while you were in the seminary in way defines the
\nkind of role you play in movies?
\nNot only in movies, it affects my whole life. The kind of roles I play in movies is accidental. But I try as much as I could not to be Ofia on set, rather to be that character I\u2019m portraying in a movie. Thank God, over the years, I have not been that kind of stereotyped actor. I\u2019m an all-round actor. And it has helped in building up my career.
\nThe training I got from the seminary is still seeing me through, in everything I\u2019m doing today.
\nYou talked about wedding, did you marry recently?
\nYes, I got married recently. My wife is from Benin. I met her, while she was a student at Enugu State University Science and Technology. I wedded her the same day Mike Ezuruonye walked down the aisle with his wife.
\nAs the chairman of the Actors Guild of Nigeria, Enugu State chapter, what do you foresee as the challenges that confronted the industry in the last one year?
\nIt was that of mediocrity coupled with impatience, not funding. Mediocrity has eaten deep into the fabric of the industry and threatening to destroy it. Everybody wants to become a leader and nobody wants to be a follower. That is the bane of the industry.
\nUntil we learn how to work towards achieving a common goal, the industry will continue to witness insatiability and undergrowth in this new year. I must say that most of the problems we have been experiencing , especially in the actors\u2019 guild emanate from Lagos, which claims to be the centre of activities in the industry.
\nOther state chapters are peaceful, even though they have been suffering neglect on the part of the national officials of the body. The state chapters desire to be given attention, and carried along.I don\u2019t see this, happening in the guild.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Benjamin NJOKU Ofiafuluagu Mbaka is the chairman, Actors Guild of Nigeria(AGN), Enugu State chapter. He is one of the few actors that doesn\u2019t disappoint the fans. Yet, he\u2019s also one of the most\u00a0 uncelebrated in Nollywood today. Unknown to many,\u00a0 Mbaka was destined to be a Catholic priest. He started out from the seminary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy I abandoned priesthood for for acting \u2013 Mbaka - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/01\/11\/why-i-abandoned-priesthood-for-for-acting-mbaka\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Why I abandoned priesthood for for acting \u2013 Mbaka - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"By Benjamin NJOKU Ofiafuluagu Mbaka is the chairman, Actors Guild of Nigeria(AGN), Enugu State chapter. 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