Whenever people want to contest, they come to us to help them project their intention ambition, because they know that we are like mirror in the society, who speak to the masses
on their behalf, because they know they would listen to us. So when government refuses to do what they are expected to do, there would continue to be what we call moral decay.
What is your opinion on the state of film industry in NigWeria?
ell it depends on the way you look at it, from my own personal perspective we are growing, if you watch our films 5 years ago, it wasn’t like this, the
standard is improving probably due to technology, but we are not yet where we are supposed to be, but we are gradually moving up there.
How true are the clams that the movie industry has contributed greatly to insecurity and ritual killings in our society?
That is 100% not true. Like one of the courses here, especially sociology, when you gave birth to a child, the first behavior of that child begins with the parents then pair groups. So before coming to the media, media is like number four or five, pair group, the teachers and so on. I have never seen a movie, have never watched a movie, where by the producer or the director promotes crimes. The perpetrator of that crime must suffer at the end of the movie production. The problem we are having about this ritual killings and insecurity and ill occurrence in the society, rest on the press and the government. Some of them, they send their children to school, some of them don’t know the school their children attend, some of the students when they are going to
school, they leave their houses with very decent outfits, when they get to school they change to something else. Are all these practices imbedded in them by the movies? No! In our movies, yes we do portray money ritual but
at the end of the day, you will eventually
see that the person that did that money
ritual diesorispunished.Letmegoback
the memory lane, when we were much
younger, this through the mass
mobilization programme, they taught us
moral through radio and television, and
then that thing was part of our system, its
embedded in our mind. I will give you two
instances, there is one that they played for us when
we were a little younger on Radio Nigeria or NTA or so.
At about 6 o clock, you heard them playing ”Efura o, ifura ni
ogun agba, pansa ofura, pan sa ja si ina, aja ofura, aja jin oni ile ti koba
fura,oleniyiokolerilo.Tebafesunlaleetannasileedetuntiilekun
gbonyingbonyin, e to ju duki ya o, ka ma a pa raw a loru”. They played
it more than ten times every day, so you would remember, have I
forgotten to lock my door, due to that orientation. Where is that
today? During the omi yale issue in Ibadan, there was a jingle that
was being played every time, if you hear that jingle, you would be
glad to help your fellow human being, it says ‘eni keni tii iwo,
banipa lati se iran lowo fun o, oun na ne nikeji ee, to ju ree’. Omi
yale, to wa ni Ibadan eni to ni ile, di eni ti ni ile, to feel concerned
aOnNdShTAeGlpEeMdAGthAZoIsNeE that were under distress, but unfortunately,Page 12 VOL. 1, ISSUE 2, 2022
this things are no more today. The last one is a story of muibi sonubu, the story came up about 2 months ago, he was taxi driver, and somebody forgot a huge amount of money in his car then, so that man took that money to the government, so they now composed a song for him then, been relayed on radio every now and then, ‘otito loo ri ninu ise iyi un ta ban un se, ero tio muii e lo gbagba owo iye bi iye si inu moto on wa, muibi ko jegun mo iyan, oti gbe owo oun fun ijoba, . So those things reminded us of how to behave, but it’s so unfortunate that such is not in practice anymore. So we film makers, we are playing our own parts in playing our own role in mobilizing people to do the right things at the right time, by projecting Nigeria image abroad.
Whenever people want to contest, they come to us to help them project their intention and ambition, because they know that we are like mirror in the society, who speak to the masses on their behalf, because they know they would listen to us. So when government refuses to do what they are expected to do, there would continue to be what we call moral decay.
How do you hope to station TAMPAN as a tool to curb all hours of moral and decays and indecency in our society?
Let me quickly say this, some of our parents like I said are at
The problem we are having about this ritual killings and insecurity and ill occurrence in the society, rest on the press and the government. Some of them, they send their children to school, some of them don’t know the school their children attend, some of the students when they are going to school, they leave their houses with very decent outfits, when they get to school they change to something else.fault, when you slot any movie, you see them putting 18+, 14, which means that if you are not up to 17 years , the movie is not meant for you, likewise other age restrictions, how many parents stick to this? If we want to show a movie of someone that is an harlot, such a person have to dress to meet up to the standard of the character, but you must be patient enough to watch the outcome or consequences of such character in the movie. Instead, of our children that are in higher institutions to reason that such character is displaying as a professional cast, rather, they start to imbibe such character, not thinking about the consequences.
I heard of a lots of parents now that are telling their children to go and be doing yahoo yahoo so most of this problem is from the government and the parents because the activities start from your house. Government is not helping matters, lots of our musicians they parade Indian hemp in their musical videos, on the street, on stage, what did government
do? People patronize them, we still patronise them
and glorify them, this habit of spraying on
stage, someone has said it more than 200
times, it’s against the law, have you ever seen
them punish even one out of the
perpetrators for violating that, because we
don’t have law and everybody is living
above the law, so that is why we are there
today. Government must wake up from its
slumber, they must do what is right.
During the military era of 1984
Buhari/Idiagbon people queue up in the
bank, you had no choice before you left your
house you must have prayed not to meet large
crowd in bank because you had to join the
queue. The only solution to this problem is
not to shift blame on the film makers and
producers, rather the film censors board
together with the government should work
hand to hand and make sure indecency is
eradicated.
The soul aim of the movie producer is to produce movies that are meaningful and helpful in curbing indecency and bad behavior in the society. Crime is not to be glorified rather, hard work and diligence must be glorified and this are some one of the themes that the movie industry focuses on.
Movie industry is not to be blamed,
because we are been censored by national
films and video censors board before our
films are approved and projected to the
audience or viewers. We are not to be blamed
rather the government and other concerned
authorities should be blamed and brought to account for the menace in the society.
As the national chairman of TAMPAN, how do you cope to position culture, norms and tradition in the minds of an average Nigerians even the youngest of Nigerians?
Let me tell you, the problem lies in our parents that discourage our children to speak Yoruba, dress in the Yoruba traditional attires, rather they prefer the Western ideology to our own rich heritage. We can only do our bit, but let the change begin with each and every one of us. There are lots of words that cannot
be easily understood when pronounced in Yoruba, rather we imply the English name for our audience to have a better understanding of the concept we are trying to pass across to them. Life is changing, technology is here, we just have to do it a little to the right, a little to the left, don’t forget that we want to sell our movies as well and most people that buy our movies watches its on phones and on internet, we have to try as much as possible to balance it up to meet each audience expectation and needs (educated, not too educated and the illiterate).
It is left for the government if they don’t want Nigeria to crash, they should wake up to their responsibilities and help to project and promote the rich cultural heritage, values and norms to the outside world.
Is there any group that sees to the types of stories produced by the movie industry?
There is no mechanism and there can never be any mechanism as far as film production is concern, until there is a fund earmarked for funding production of movies. There is the need for the government to give loans towards funding production of movies. Movie producers have to dance to the tune of marketers because they do not have alternative means to get funds for the production of their movies. We can only encourage our people through seminars, lectures and workshops to do it the way it should be
done.
How are the various sectors within the nollywood industry being harmonised?
About a month and a half ago, we formed an association, Federation of Registered Films in Nigeria. We are 18 there. What we are trying to do is that if you don’t belong to any of the 18 associations, you cannot get your film registered or censored. This 18 registered associations come together to form rules and laws that guide the conduct of the film industry and the benefits of our members. We want to be speaking in one voice. In the next few months, all the associations will have
the same rules that guide the affairs of their professions. There is a brighter
future for the film industry.
In the context of piracy, what is the future of the film industry?
Its borders on government again, that is why most of the private investors are not forthcoming as expected of them. The law on piracy is very weak. It is a bailable offence, but even with that, the law is weak to sanction with immediate effect. It takes up to 5 years before a suspected pirate is prosecuted and at the end of the day, they can ask such person to go and pay N1000 each on the pirated copies.
Movie industry is not to be blamed, because we are been censored by national films and censors board before our films are approved and projected to the audience or viewers. We are not to be blamed rather the government and other concerned principals should be blamed and brought to account for the menace in the society.
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