Guilds in the Nigerian film industry, popularly known as Nollywood, have urged the Federal Government to retain the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) as it implements the Oronsaye Report.
The leaders of various guilds gave the advice in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday.
NAN reports that Mr George Akume, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), recently directed Hannatu Musawa, Minister of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, to begin the immediate dissolution of NFVCB.
The directive aimed to subsume NFVCB as a department within the ministry but by-passed the legal process required to repeal the law establishing the Nollywood regulatory agency.
The development has however sparked reactions from stakeholders across the country.
The Nigerian Senate had also asked the Federal Government to halt the winding down of the board, citing a breach of the law.
It said the process of winding down an agency of government which came into force through an Act of Parliament should commence with the repeal of the act establishing it.
Nollywood guilds which work directly with NFVCB, have expressed displeasure over any policy that intend to either merge, subsume or scrap the regulatory agency.
According to them,any alteration on the current status of the board will impede progress the motion picture industry has made in the last three decades.
Mr Victor Okhai, National President, Directors Guild of Nigeria (DGN) said subsuming NFVCB into its supervising ministry would be counter-productive.
Okhai, who is also the Chairman, Federation of Nollywood Guilds and Associations, said that President Bola Tinubu already gave the masterstroke when he created the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy.
“I would like to quote what Vice President Kashim Shettima said when we had meeting with him, that Nollywood is an industry that is built entirely by the practitioners.
“He said it is time for government to support the industry, and we are saying if they want to support us they cannot just scrap the only regulatory agency that we have for Nollywood.
“In those days, the industry was known for foreign movies, but right now there is a whole industry with the value chain of over 250 jobs thriving in the 36 states at various degrees.
“If you now subsume it into the ministry, how many people have the strength to go to Abuja to have their films classified, but the censor board is in nearly all the states.
“There were about 18 Parastatals under the former Ministry of Information and Culture, and now that we have our ministry why scrap the only regulatory body under it,” he said.
According to Okhai, subsuming the NFVCB into the ministry will only weaken the regulatory momentum required for Nigeria’s film industry.
He said without such an agency of government in place, there would be influx of illicit films both from outside and within into the Nigerian market and would make the creative space unhealthy.
“As we practice, we are also mindful of the fact that there might be people who might be involved in sharp practices, so we have umbrella body for all pratictioners.
“One thing that our body has been able to help us do is that, you cannot censor your movie unless you belong to an association and these association submit their names willingly.
“NFVCB is the watchdog for the government so if we have issues with the government we go to our regulator, if the government have issues with us they go to the regulator too.
“So, I think it is in the best interest of the government to let it be, and they have over 400 staff, how would they dissolve them just like that,” he said.
Blessing Ebigieson, National President, Association of Movie Producers (AMP), said having a stand-alone film classification agency was in line with global best practices for the motion picture industry.
She said those considering scrapping or subsuming for the board were inadvertently working to impede the film industry from contributing more to national economy.
“Censors board is doing a lot to protect the country, to make sure that producers do not produce illicit movies that are detrimental to our children.
“Imagine if that board was not allowed to stand on its own all these years to protect the industry and the sensibilities of Nigerians what would have happened by now.
“We have a lot of people who are making movies that need classification and then by the time you start merging it with other agencies or the ministry that will bring politics into filmmaking.
“We as industry players are completely opposed to any move to scrap that board, because it is securing the sanity of our industry,”,she said.
