Shaking President Jonathan’s hands was a major achievement for me –Susan Peters

Shaking President Jonathan’s hands was a major achievement for me –Susan Peters

Nollywood actress, Susan Peters has described her recent encounter with President Goodluck Jonathan as a great achievement.

Susan was reminiscing on her recent visit to the State House in Abuja alongside other Nollywood personalities where they conferred on Jonathan the award of the Grand Patron of their association.

Although the Benue State-born thespian became a pawn for online critics at the time, ironically, it did boost her profile in the long run.

The dark-skinned actress says, “When you decide to go into an industry that is in the open you should be ready to receive backlashes. You should learn to ignore some and then really need to respond to others as well. I just try to manage myself because people will talk. anyway. It means that there is something I am doing that people are noticing.


“There are a whole lot of people in the industry who are not being talked about. The only bad thing about the backlashing is that when someone goes on Google to try to know you better, and all they see is the gossip, it gives you a bad name.”

Some months ago, a group of Nollywood practitioners, under the auspices of the Actors Guild of Nigeria paid a courtesy visit to President Goodluck Jonathan at the Aso Villa, Abuja. Peters, who says she was privileged to have made the controversial trip, recalls the episode saying, “In this industry, they say no publicity is bad publicity. We take it as it comes. They said we collected money, which is not true. We funded our trip and were only given accommodation and three-square meals.

“Everyone funded their trip themselves and came from different locations. I, for instance, was on set at the time but just flew in for the meeting and it came out well. If we had not gone as a group, they wouldn’t have listened to us. I was inside the state house and even had a handshake with the President. When I came back I had to touch everything in my house to tap the anointing. Shaking the president’s hands was a major achievement for me.”

The actress who admits that acting has opened doors for her is not a regular face in many Nollywood films. In fact, critics appear to be at a loss as to how she manages to bag awards locally and overseas. She explains, “I am of the opinion that movie roles destined for you will always come your own direction. I am not picky although they have classified us as cinema actors.

She also throws her weight behind the AGN President, Ibinabo fiberisima, who has indicated interest in running for a second term upon the expiration of her tenure in September.

“We (AGN) are still standing tall, no matter how they see it. Maybe they are complaining because she is a woman. The notion that women should always be at the background is at play here. The fact that she is a woman who is making a whole lot of difference, they (critics) are unhappy about it, but I am. Because of her strides, the Federal Government has given us a land in Abuja to build our secretariat. If a leader delivers, he or she deserves another tenure.”

For now, Peters, who was a first runner-up at the Most Beautiful Girl on Kaduna Polytechnic Campus in 1998, says she wants to produce her own film titled Don’t Cry for Me, which she bought off a script-writer. The movie scheduled to premiere sometime in August features Peters starring alongside Uti, Joseph Benjamin and Beverly and Melvin, of Big Brother Africa fame.

She defends her decision to venture into moviemaking saying, “I decided to go into movie production because that way I will be able to correct a lot of things that I would love to do in my own movie. But I will be going back into directing very soon.”