ONE of the ways that foreigners have mocked the slow growth of cinema business in Nigeria is to say that we have closed down cinemas to open churches.
Indeed, while the cinemas of yesteryears have been bought over by modern businesses, and painfully axed down with nostalgia, it is not unlikely that some of them may have been replaced by annexes of some big church brands.
The foreigners’ perception of the irony of cinema story in Nigeria is relative to the extent that cinemas dwindled until the recent but slow revamp, while churches have grown in geometric progression. This is not what you find in other climes.
As you walk along tube stations in London, adore billboards on the streets of New York and Toronto, or take a pleasure trip round Johannesburg, or Durban in nearby South Africa, you can’t miss the captivation of film posters which rival most product advertisements. Whereas in Nigeria, posters of church revivals, bearing photos of the pastor and his Mummy Mission-wife compete with the popular MTN slogan of ‘Everywhere You Go’.
Vono Andile, my South African friend who had imagined that Nigeria is such an unrivalled football loving nation came visiting last year, but found it amazing that there are more church posters than advertisement of local football leagues.
We joked and laughed.
The question that comes to my mind is, how do we see the future of African cinema, when apart from that ‘lousy’ comparison between film and church advertisement, there are more Hollywood posters in our re-emerging cinemas than Nollywood’s?
The other aspect is that although the analogy of the church posters may sound heretical, it is illogical in my Public Relations’ media point of view for a charity or non-commercial and untaxed organisation, under which the church falls to rival a commercial organisation like Nollywood in advertisement.
Of course, the churches are not to blame, for how else do you promote the work of the Lord effectively without the modern techniques of evangelism that also have more TV channels dedicated to ‘deliverance’ dramas than all the Africa Magic and Mzanzi Magic channels put together.
The present government, in its readjustment of priorities, must begin to identify potentially viable non-oil sectors of the economy and give them some feathers to fly. This is talking about enabling environment that not only reduces the cost of film production, but also walking the talk of piracy minimisation.
Cottage and community cinemas should be encouraged to change the cinema-going culture from the elitist recreation that some Nigerian cinemas have made it.
With these in place, it can only be a win-win for the Nigerian motion picture industry and the Nigerian government, as filmmakers will not only be able to repay loans conveniently, there will be more employment and basis for government to tax the filmmakers and jump start the country’s GDP.
Art and entertainment must continue to hit our psyche as real businesses and not the ‘play’ thing for which it has been carelessly underrated like other sectors of the economy, as against the almighty oil.
