Actor Jidekene Achufusi, also known as Swanky JKA, has talked about his exclusion from the nominations for the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA) 2024.
In the list of nominations released in March, Swanky who played the character Emeka Judah in Funke Akindele’s film A Tribe Called Judah was not shortlisted unlike the actress and another co-star Timini Egbuson got nominated.
Speaking in a recent interview with Arise TV, Jidekene stated that awards should not be the only motivation for creatives.
When asked if he was a bit upset about his exclusion from the list, he said: “Well, experience teaches you that everytime there is always going to be a generational shift. Sometimes, the people who do these awards have targets. It could be, ‘Let’s make sure we bring on new people or let’s make sure the veterans know that we see them.’”
“It could also be, ‘Last year we went that way, this year let’s go this way.’ I don’t know what they think about when they make the selections that they make. But I do believe that collectively, there would always be news about whatever selections that they made.
“So my advice would be, it is a win-win for everybody. Whatever your motivations are, it shouldn’t be limited to awards because at the end of the day, if you made good films or you are getting better roles than you did last year, you are winning. And our real focus is to feed the Nigerian film market. Not necessarily about who is where or who is not where.”
The actor first joked and expressed his displeasure over the snub in a post on his X account on March 27 when fellow actors Chimezie Imo and Tobi Makinde trended over their AMVCA snub for their roles in Breath of Life and A Tribe Called Judah respectively.
Jidekene who wasn’t trending at the time wrote: “After delivering stellar performances in 2 of the top 3 films of 2024 but your snub isn’t trending.”
