Nigerians decry the rate at which the Nigerian movie industry continue to stream out pornographic movies rather than releasing educative content into the market, raising doubt over the effectiveness of the National Film and Video Censors Board.
By Philips Sunday
Gone are days, when the norms and ethics of the Nigerian culture and tradition was embedded in the film production of the Nigerian movie industry, ‘Nollywood’. But reverse seems to be the case this days as the Nollywood has lost its African bite and uniqueness.
Legendary actors like Olu Jacobs, Nkem Owoh, Liz Benson, Joke Silva, Bukky Ajayi, Chinwe Owoh, Regina Askia and many more have been known over the years not only for their acting prowess, but the decency in their work. It can be recalled that the Nigerian actors and actresses then had upper hand over their Ghanaian counterparts in terms of good script, great directing and productivity, as well as cinematography aspect of the movie.
Two decades ago, Nigeria movie industry garnered publicity with the kind of movies that the producers where streaming out, these movies gained recognition within and outside the country, due to its informative and it’s rich content, the Nollywood then was known for the cultural heritage of Nigeria showcased in its movie scenes, with many suggesting that the industry in no time will meet up with its European counterparts in terms of professionalism and otherwise.
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| credit Mile2herald |
Some of the movies that caught the attention of the movie fanatics:
Movie Producer Production Date
Glamour Girls: Kenneth Nnebue 1994
Domitila: Zeb Ejiro 1996
Living in Bondage: Kenneth Nnebue 1992
Score to Settle: Sunny Collins 1998
Hostages: Tade Ogidan 1996
Most Wanted: Dozie Eriobu 1996
Diamond Ring: Tade Ogidan 1998
Osuofia in London: Kingsley Ogoro 2003
This were the golden era of Nollywood, where script was well read, prepared and understood before it is acted, in this time, Nollywood movies were rich with proverbs, like “the bird that chooses to perch on the rope must be prepared to dance with that rope”, used in the movie Conspiracy and Misconception. Not this days when Chinwetalu Agu mutters one single line throughout the entire movie. Then producers like Teco Benson, Tade Ogidan and Kingsley Ogoro a lot others, were stunning out movies with excellent storyline, well directed by directors who went extra miles in bringing out the best out of the script with their creative mindsets.
It came not as a shock to many Nigerians when Nollywood icons like Patience Ozorkwo, Omotala Jalade, Olu Jacobs and his wife Joke Silva, and Kenneth Nnebue were recognized for their excellent acting prowess by the Federal Republic of Nigeria with some receiving the centenary award to mark Nigeria 100 years of existence, while some were awarded with the Member of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (MFR) by the government of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
The decadence expressed by the producers, directors and actors in the Nigeria movie industry, calls for questioning if the industry has suddenly lost its culture and discipline, when the movie Room 027 produced by Damijo Efe Young was released in 2013, Nigerians criticized the film but one of the actors in the movie Collins Owochei defended it stating that Nigerians are hypocrites for making so much noise about the movie, saying that most of the people who criticized the film, watched all episodes of Spartacus in the comfort of their living room and nobody gave a whoop about it.
However, years of hard work by the legends of Nollywood, where many won different numerous awards within and outside the country, has been thrown into dungeon by some star-starved individuals, who due to lack of employment, saw Nollywood has a dumping ground for their nudity. The Nigerian movie industry is far from what many were use to, the creative intellectual efforts usually witnessed in production has diminished no thanks to the nonchalant attitude, nepotism and selfish mentality of some people who call themselves actors and actresses.
It came as a shock to Nigerians when a soft porn film “Destructive Instinct 3&4” produced by Judith Opara Mazagwu popularly known as Afrocandy, was not banned by the National Film and Video Censors Board, after the review of this film it was discovered by many that the script in question had no message what so ever rather than the showcasing of nudity, which definitely was the main objectives of the producer.
In an interview with Nollywood Director and Actor Iyke Michael, this is what he had to say:
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| Iyke Michel |
What can you say about the kind of films Nollywood producers stream out these days?
Basically, the problem we have with the Nigerian film industry isn’t far from what we have in the Nation as a whole, corruption, lack of proper orientation and value, another issue on ground that you could find among this three issues is the issue of culture, what culture are we willing to export, the Indians for example have their own culture and they are exporting it well and some of the people that patronize them are Africans especially Nigerians, the South Africans are doing their own best as well to export their culture through films and its working for them, some of their directors are doing very well and their producers, some of their movies or soaps are making waves, the same goes out to the Spanish, they are building up their own stories through soaps and movies and they are making mega millions. But the Nigerian culture is nowhere, simply because we are coping other cultures, Nigerians are very good at imitating, so all of a sudden we are having a problem, we are rolling with cultures that we are not able to cope with and its beginning to backfire so our stories don’t have content, you see so many celebrated faces on the posters and before you know it when you get to watch the movie you will be so disappointed, there are very few Nigerian films that have exported our culture, we talk about the motion picture of the late novelist Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things fall apart,’ till date it remains the best to come of Nigeria, there have been other ones that try to hit the mark, but they have not really come up, the likes of Jeta Amata, Chimamanda Adichie ‘Half of a yellow sun’, tried its best to meet up with some good standard and it did, atleast we had some international stars coming in and some of our own stars filling in the gap, it quiet a celebrated film though to me the movie didn’t speak too much in volumes compared to the book itself, so this is just the problem we have always battled with in the industry.
What can you say about the producers then and the producers now?
Passion, sthe difference now is the pay, who really cares about fame? Nobody really cares about fame anymore, some want the good things of life, like ride in big jeeps, have your private jet take you wherever you want to, be able to live a big life out of what you do and the case of poverty in Africa especially this part of Africa have also affected, so you have a lot of people they are not interested in that passion, back in those days those producers were eager to affect lives with their story, like the late Albert Ogunde, yes they say his stuffs where a little bit fetish but he had a way of driving the movie into the heart of people watching, there were other producers like the Afolayan’s late father Ade Love, a wonderful producer, there was no money coming in then but now money is the game so you find out that people do a lot of things.
What are the procedures that a particular movie must go through before it is released to the public?
Definitely the film censors board, every country have it unless the country isn’t developed, now this country have a film and video censors board and they are operating under the constitution and we should be guided by the rule of the law, we are suppose to be law abiding citizens and not the ones that will kick against it, now what we have in the country are a group of things not really going right in the sense that some people are cutting across corners to meet up their own needs, some people are going the other way round to shoot films and take to the other countries to do a quick sell, make quick money and get out of the country and celebrate themselves but is a good thing that some films are not released to the market because it will shock you the there would have been some porn’s in the country and you begin to ask yourself why, well I guess those guys release some of those films on YouTube and they couldn’t sell here.
What about the raunchy movies that we see in the market, is the National Film and Video Censors Board not aware?
Yes because the corruption is on the high side, some people just make silly films and distribute it into the market and before the NFVCB get to know about it, they would have achieved their aim. I think this is the time were your conscience plays a role.
If you were opportune to direct one of these movies base on the pay will you do it or not?
To start with my dad told me something that a good name is better than gold, so that’s basically the thing that has kept me and I guess maybe that’s basically the reason why I have not risen that much but I don’t mind, let me have a name that gives me rest of mind. So I can’t direct such a script.
What about the well celebrated stars that still act this type of films?
It’s their choice and I won’t condemn anybody, the journey of every man begins with a choice.
What can you say about the upcoming stars that act this type of movies?
Well some actually pay directors for movie role, so I can only say to growing ones out there that you don’t have to sell yourself to make yourself and just like I told you earlier on, its better you have a good name because money can’t buy a good name, so I want to encourage them to stick to the game and the sky will be a starting point.
What is the solution to this problem?
At this point I think the government need to come in here, they should create a body that strictly checkmate the activities of NFVCB because this will make them sit up to actually check the activities of nollywood and sanction anyone that breaks the law and apart from this there should be a law that states a certain amount you can earn per a movie, this will actually discourage free acting because this is one of the reason why we have all this silly movies around, with this I think the problem can be curtailed if not eradicated.
Thank you for speaking with us sir
You are welcome anytime.
With the rate at which the producers continue to roll out these soft porn films, the effectiveness of the National Film and Video Censors Board has been questioned, with many claiming that if adequate measures are not taken in a quick manner, the Nollywood as it is known worldwide might metamorphosed into Pornwood in the near future.
Yet with this porn stories called movies by the films makers, the National Film and Video Censorship Board claims it has no idea these movies exist. However Nigerians hope that Nollywood will restore its lost glory where good movies were the bedrock of the industry in the nearest future.
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