THERE have been conjectures of another misfit in the new leadership of the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC). But stakeholders in the motion picture industry appeared stunned, last Thursday, during their first meeting with the new Managing Director of the Corporation, Dr. Chidia Maduekwe, at the agency’s Lagos Office, where he showed profound understanding of the challenges facing the film sector.
Every last line of Maduekwe’s speech was greeted with applause, and what more; a standing ovation at the end of the engagement.
Now, it appears their fears have been allayed, because the new man spoke to their situations, and assured them of, not just a listening ear, but of government policies that will make their businesses thrive.
According to Maduekwe, “Our film industry today is a net contributor to our national income. Its key performance indicators in the economy clearly show that if properly funded, it can become the single largest contributor to our national income. Indeed, I can confidently say here that we can move from the present two percent to over 10 percent net contribution to our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) within the next five years.”
He noted that although the film industry has witnessed remarkable growth and development within the last one decade, its contribution to the national economy and job creation is yet to be fully tapped. “To achieve this,” he said, “we must in the first instance integrate the Nigerian film industry into the present administration’s economic diversification agenda,” adding that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is serious in reducing dependence on oil.”
On the need for self-regulation among practitioners, the NFC honcho said, “I will work with you to ensure that MOPICON (Motion Picture Practitioners Council of Nigeria) comes out in a way that, globally, it would be accepted as a regulatory body of repute.”
The MOPICON draft bill has been forward to the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who at the beginning of his tenure inaugurated a review committee for same.
Maduekwe identified some of the challenges of the film industry to include obsolete law, funding, professionalism/ethics, lack of film production facilities, poor distribution and exhibition networks, as well as piracy and intellectual property protection.
As a way of broadening the distribution platforms, the new NFC man harped on the use of internet and digital marketing as the present and future of movie business. “To advance the boundaries so far established,” he said, “we will collaborate and encourage the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and other service providers to have a dedicated bandwidth access for Nigerian movie industry streaming and marketing. Through this strategy, multiple revenue streams to the creativity of our motion picture practitioners will be better enhanced.”
On the much talked about piracy scourge, he said: “I believe you will give me your candid and professional advice on the best ways of solving this problem, which I believe has been in the drawing board for over 15 years. We would need to deploy a combination of stiffer legislation and technology to drastically reduce the presence of piracy demons in our industry. It makes nonsense of your creativity, it stiffens your creativity. If by the time you’ve burnt your midnight oil and come up with fantastic work, some other folks in Alaba market just feast on it – or Onitsha market, Kano market, Abuja market or even in Maiduguri market; you can’t rule it out – even Sambisa forest – and mass produce it and sell to Chad and other places – we are saying no to this. The anti-piracy law by the government shall be on the front burner of the current NFC.”
He expressed optimism for the positive contributions of Nollywood to the economy and cultural advancement of the country, saying; “South Africa is known for one of the best artillery bomb in the world, but here, we are still producing little firearm armament. But do you know that from Nollywood, you can change the narrative? In the same manner that John Kennedy, who was not a scientist but believed in America said before the end of the decade ‘we’ll put a man in the moon’. It came to pass, did it not? I am standing before you, I am not a professional like you, but we have shared commonality. I am a medical doctor by training. But medicine is not just a science, it is also an art. I and you have shared commonality. I and you believe in one thing, which is it can be great. I and you believe that we can turn things around and make this country greater than it is today, using movies to drive our economy, using movie to drive our technological breakthrough, using movies to drive our social re-engineering in the way we relate to one another, out inter-personal skills, our conduct to one another, using movies to drive away insurgency in our land, all these things are possible.”
The second phase of the stakeholders’ forum was the introduction of panellists, drawn from among the filmmakers, who engaged other participants on possible solutions to the problems bedevilling the film sector. The exercise, according to Maduekwe, was to develop a roadmap for a new direction in Nollywood.
“I’ve decided that we shall form three panels among you here to discuss some of these challenges to the Nigerian film industry and urgently come up with practical and applicable recommendation that will form part of our road map to government on how to develop this industry and integrate it into the socio-economic policy of this PMB administration,” he said.
The NFC boss, who has chosen to hit the ground running, said, “This is action time. The panel will focus on the challenges in the film industry and proffer solutions…Today-today; not tomorrow,” he urged, saying; “No be action una say? We have rolled sound, we have rolled camera, so now is action… We need robust argument, and the audience could oppose the panel when necessary. Let me tell you something, my minister; the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has given me the mandate to come with a roadmap for a new direction in the movie industry that we can take to Mr. President and Mr. President will sign. So, whatever you say today is being recorded so you will not tell me you were not taken along. I want to take every body along!” He said to a roaring applause.
The panellists include Mrs. Uche Nwuka, Group Head, Creative Industry Desk at the Bank of Industry (BoI), Ms. Chioma Ude, Founder/CEO of Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF), Nollywood actress Hilda Dukubo and film producer Opa Williams.
Others are filmmakers Chris Ekejimbe, Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen, Paul Obazele, Emma Isikaku, Uzor Amadi, Baba Agba, Mrs Peju Adeyemi of Lagos State Film Censorship Board, President of Association of Movie Producers (AMP) Mr. Ralph Nwadike and Chairman of Audio Visual Rights Society, Mr. Bond Emeruwa.
Other filmmakers at the event include Chief Eddie Ugboma, Kunle Afolayan, Iyen Agbonifo, and Mykel Parish.
