Abuja Viral Video: “What people saw was not madness” — Hanks Anuku’s manager

Moses Allen, manager of veteran Nollywood actor Hanks Anuku, has dismissed renewed concerns over his principal’s mental health after a viral video showing the actor on the streets of Abuja sparked widespread worry online.

The video, which surfaced on Saturday, showed Anuku dressed in jeans, a black top and sneakers, lying on a road in Wuse 2, Abuja, talking to himself while clutching a disposable cup. It quickly drew alarm from fans and netizens who questioned his well-being and appearance.

Speaking exclusively to PREMIUM TIMES on Monday, Mr Allen insisted that Anuku remained mentally stable and in good health.

He said: “I’ve been friendly with PREMIUM TIMES for a long time. They’ve always been nice to me when they had to report things that had to do with Hank or me. So I understand you guys might have seen a video and then care to ask. It’s better to ask than to start making presumptions like other people used to do every time. You see, Hanks is a character; he’s an actor. So most of what he does is in a different world of his own.

“He does those things, people mistake it for madness or craziness. No, an artist is actually never really normal, you understand. An artist, in the true sense of it, is actually never really normal because your presence is in a different realm, in a creative realm. You know, he does not operate in the world where we do operate. Where normal people operate. A world of, you know, rat race, where you come in the morning, you have to go and hustle for what to eat. He does not really bother and does not live in a normal world as we do.”

Mr Allen further stated that the viral video shows the actor neither naked, nor abusing anyone, nor calling out names, and questioned why people concluded he was mad.

He stated that Anuku might have been rehearsing for a role he was assigned on a set, or simply playing out a scenario in his imagination.

“He’s a serious man, he’s a responsible man with family, with children, and everything. So, whatever you guys see there (in the video) is just like someone trying to… What is wrong with someone sitting down by the grass and then talking to himself and having a drink? What is wrong with that? He wasn’t naked. He wasn’t abusing anybody; he wasn’t calling people names and everything. He was trying to float. Maybe he was trying to rehearse or to imagine a scenario.

“He was imaginative in that video. I don’t see anything that he did that is wrong, or that the whole world is now saying, ‘Ah, this man is mad.’ Mad for where? Like I told you, if you want, I can coordinate a conference call, and you can now even record the conversation, and now see if he sounds like a mad person, or like an artist”, said his manager.

He added that the actor was now in a better state of mind than in previous years.

He noted that an artist could never think or live in the same way as an ordinary person.

“I know you guys are always very objective, PREMIUM TIMES, you guys don’t do all the soft sell stuff. If you’re interested, let me know, and I will coordinate it.

“I’ve been his manager for years. Kindly let the world know that the legend Hanks Chukwuemeka Anuku is sound and has, in fact, never been in a better mental state than now, please. He’s simply an artist, and I really wonder why the world expects artists to be like normal people.”

This was not the first time a viral video depicting the actor as mentally unstable had surfaced online.

In 2022, footage emerged on social media showing the actor in a seemingly erratic state. Still, Mr Allen debunked the claims, insisting that Anuku was not mentally ill as many had feared.

In 2024, the actor revealed in an interview with content creator Lucky Udu that the viral footage, which falsely portrayed him as mentally unstable, derailed his acting career and left him traumatised.

The Delta-born actor added that colleagues exploited the video to blackmail him, wrecking his career through what he described as hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness.