Nigerian actor, Tito Harrison has shared that he lost acting jobs for two years after the Association of Nigerian Theatre Practitioners (ANTP) stopped its members from working with a youth group.
In an interview on Agbaletu TV, Harrison explained that the association told its members to stay away from a youth-led group called ‘One House’, which was led by Kunle Afod and other young actors at the time.
He mentioned that the new group paid better than ANTP. However, Harrison made it clear that he was never personally banned and said he had never been part of any caucus.
“The ban did not target me because I was never part of any caucus. It came from the division within the system, like what happened between TAMPAN and ANTP. Some people chose to remain where Baba Ogunde founded, while others decided to move on. A sanction was imposed when they felt the house had split, which I felt was unnecessary,” he said.
He said he gradually noticed he was no longer being invited for roles.
“It went on for a long time. I believe what triggered it was resentment towards my honest lifestyle. When the group called ‘One House’ emerged that year, they said we should not work with them. That was my era. It was a youth formation separate from ANTP, led by Kunle Afod and others, and we were told not to work with them,” he said.
“That was when I was enjoying prominence. I was getting invitations. I had to stay loyal to the association. They called me several times, but I ignored them. Sometimes they would drop scripts, and I would ignore them too.
“When it continued for about two years, my wife advised me to reach out to the people calling me. The spin-off group paid far better than ANTP.
“When I eventually called someone, one of the officials said they had already released people to start working with the group. By the time I was rejecting the offers, they had already moved on to other actors.
“By the time I lifted the embargo, my relevance was already fading. The Yoruba industry believes in people they started with.”