At the National Stakeholders Engagement on Smoke-Free Nollywood held in Enugu on Wednesday, May 22, 2024, the Executive Director/CEO of the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), Shaibu Husseini, announced that the federal government had prohibited Nollywood movies from showing scenes of money rituals, ritual killings, and smoking. Expectedly, the announcement has sparked different reactions.
Time for clean up
“Today, I am delighted to announce to you that the Minister of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, pursuant to section 65 of the NFVCB Act 2004, has approved the regulation. The minister has approved the Prohibition of Money Ritual, Ritual Killing, Tobacco, Tobacco Products, Nicotine Product Promotion, and Glamorisation display in Movies, Musical Videos and Skits” Regulations 2024,” Husseini told the audience.
The federal government said it placed a ban on those scenes to sanitise the screens, which they have desecrated over the years. The prohibited scenes are said to have impacted Nigeria’s society negatively. There has been an upsurge in ritual killings and other social vices in recent times in the most populous African nation. It is believed that the perpetrators of these criminal acts, either teens or young adults, have learned about them from Nollywood movies.
Debate rages on
However, some believe the prohibited scenes are mere artistic works that do not pose any harm. They claim that the government intentionally banned the scenes to stifle creativity and silence the movie industry. “Whoever is behind this from the FG is joking. It’s a way to silence the movie industry. They should focus on the real challenges facing the country,” a veteran musician, Mike Okri, snapped.
Similarly, Kanayo .O. Kanayo, a veteran actor who inducted his son, Clinton Mbaise, into the movie industry, recently equally criticised the government for banning the scenes while describing the decision as ‘sensible nonsense.’ He added that the Minister of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy, Musawa, who approved the prohibition, had no job.
Supporting the government’s decision, the President Actors Guild of Nigeria, Emeka Rollas, said the banned scenes teach wrong lessons and have adverse effects on the viewers and society. He, however, said, “The Federal Government is not banning those things outright; there is a rider under it that says glamourizing those things in our medium and making it look like that is the only source of survival is not doing us any good as far as Nigerian culture is concerned.”
“Nobody is saying that these are not social vices, they are, but if you glamorise them, it gives a wrong picture and teaches a wrong thing instead of changing somebody. Today in Nigeria, youths believe to make money, you have to do one kind of thing, nobody believes in natural labour again, and that is what the Federal Government is trying to say,” he added.
Finding a balance
On his part, Bolaji Amusan, the National President Theatre Arts and Motion Pictures Producers Association of Nigeria, said, “I was at the conference where it was pronounced yesterday in Enugu State. The Federal Government has explained the reason behind it, and as an association, we are going to meet, but there is no way we won’t support the Federal Government because of our culture and some other things.
“Every movie association was well represented, and they (FG) explained the rationale behind it. For now, we don’t have anything against the FG; we will meet at the association level, and whatever areas our members feel we have to adjust, we will engage the federal government and let them know.”
Experts agree that money rituals and other social vices scenes can have adverse effects on society, particularly the youth.
A 2023 study by the University of Lagos found a correlation between exposure to violent content in Nollywood movies and aggressive behaviour in young adults. However, they argue that those scenes can equally be presented in ways that will discourage social vices among the youths rather than promoting them.
