A planned move by the federal government to ban the shooting and
production of music and video clips
outside the country, has drawn the
ire of practitioners in the industry.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed had while speaking
at the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) House in Lagos, said the
proposed ban would help tackle exploitation of perceived loopholes in
the Nigerian Broadcasting Code, NBC.
Throwing more light on the matter, the minister said; “The NBC code
today as it stands has been exploited and not defined and that’s why
movies being directed by Nigerians with Nigerian actors, actresses can
be shot in South Africa and then brought back to be consumed in Nigeria.
All we are saying is that we are going to amend the code in a manner
that it will not be possible for you to exploit any loophole there to go
and shoot outside Nigeria film, music or programs that are meant to be
consumed in Nigeria”.
Continuing, he added that; “It is not directed at any particular
incident, every country should respect the local industry of other
countries. For example, in Ghana they introduced a law today that
demands visiting actors to pay a thousand dollars to the government
coffers while visiting directors and producers pay 5,000 dollars.
We
must create an enabling environment and also generate revenue from our
creative industry. The argument is simple, when you go to shoot a film
offshore, you use the work force of that country to develop the capacity
of that country and you improve the economy of that country and that is
what we are trying to do here.”
The proposed ban has however drawn the ire of scores of entertainers
who have condemned the proposed move especially with the fact that the
FG has not provided an enabling environment where such videos can be
shot and produced competitively on a local scale.
In his reaction to the proposed ban, one of Nigeria’s busiest music
video producers Jude “Engees” Okoye took to his Instagram page to slam
the proposed move by the FG.
He wrote; “An industry they NEVER encouraged, supported or empowered
is what they now want to control. Let all of you stop running to abroad
when you are sick,” he wrote in part.
Jude added; “You people are the ones refusing to fix our health
facilities so u travel out when mosquito bite una. So why tell us where
to record when u can’t provide uninterrupted power here in Nigeria.”
His brother, Peter who is one half of the musical duo, Psquare also lashed out at government over the planned move.
He on his part, he lamented that the entertainers were the ones who
redeem the country’s image which is usually soiled by the politicians.
He also said it is at times like this that he is ashamed of being called a Nigerian.
