Popular actress and filmmaker Toyin Abraham has expressed her willingness to end her long-time rivalry with her colleague, Funke Akindele.
The ‘Ijakumo’ actress shared this sentiment in a post on her Instagram page, while addressing the root cause of their ongoing competition in the movie industry.
She explained that fierce competition has been a longstanding norm in the industry, with herself and Funke Akindele being no exception.
She further explained that this rivalry was worsened by gossip and hearsay before the advent of social media, which fueled their rivalry.
However, the 41-year-old movie star noted that she is prepared to bury the hatchet and put an end to the unhealthy competition between them.
She expressed also admiration for Funke Akindele’s recent achievement in the Box Office, where she grossed over N1 billion for her movie ‘The Tribe called Judah”.
Toyin also expressed her readiness to promote Funke’s upcoming movie in December, contrary to their usual practice of not promoting each other’s films.
Read her full post below,
“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 many professional gossips. 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 gossips. 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 like number one after the likes of Aunty Bukky and Aunty Faithia. I was the next in line. The competition was much and with many gossips 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. 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 ran us 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, Aunty came and beat them, today I am happy because she has challenged me to set higher goals. Sis, let’s compliment 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.
With Love, T!”
See her post below,
