Actress and filmmaker, Toyin Abraham has penned a long note of reconciliation to her senior colleague, Funke Akindele.
The duo have dominated the box office space but Funke Akindele has moved past the competitor’s stage after hitting a billion and above in her last year’s cinema movie ‘A Tribe Called Judah’.
Following them closely is Mercy Aigbe who just had her cinema debut in December 2023.
In a lengthy Instagram post, Abraham noted that they became “competitors and persona non grata” due to gossip.
She recalled that their rivalry began in the Yoruba movie industry and they carried it over to the Nigerian-English cinema when they crossovered to Nollywood.
Abraham, however, said age and wisdom have made her realise that they can compete without being negatively competitive.
She wrote: “If you guys knew the fierce competition to be number one in those days in the Yoruba industry (I don’t know if that still exists though). The fierce competition created camps, enmity, and much professional gossip. The number one cause of fights in the industry then was ‘he said, she said’ before the social media era. Dear Nollywood people, let me chip this in, stop tearing the industry down with your gossip. You have caused lots of damage with ‘he-said, she-said’.
“Let me go back to my story. In those days of the Yoruba film industry, @funkejenifaakindele was number one after the likes of Aunty Bukky and Aunty Faithia. I was the next in line. The competition was much and with much gossip in between, we became competitors and persona non grata.
“She moved on to the English industry, I became number one before moving on too (A word of advice to young actors of today, no one will be number one forever. It doesn’t mean you fall down the pecking order, it might just be that you move on to bigger things. E rora tele bashubashu. You don’t own the industry, the industry is bigger than you).
“In the English industry, Aunty Funke and I continued the rivalry sort of. It pitted our fans against each other. We are two competitive Virgo women, we love to win and sometimes in that process, we splash dirt and mud. But with time, age, and more wisdom, I have realized we can compete without being negatively competitive.
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“Aunty Funke, I celebrate you for showing us what is possible. You are a winner. You sold over 1B, you made it possible for other women to dream. You can use street with that 1B o, this year, many of us will move to 1B and we pray God makes you bigger. Thank you for making great movies and selling them like your life depends on it. You taught other women to hustle harder.
“I had set records in box office records, and Aunty came and beat them, today I am happy because she has challenged me to set higher goals. Sis, let’s complement each other even in competition at the box office, I owe you one post in December (only 1 o, I need to sell market…Lol). I pray that God will make all your dreams come true. I admire you and wish you all the best.”
