Until Dr. Shaibu Husseini came to the Film, Video Censors Board ( NFVCB), the place operated below its strategic and regulatory roles. The place, without being too harsh, just existed for nothing, and whenever prodded by media introspection and interrogation, the pretenders who held court then struggled into action, messing up the industry, which it was mandated to regulate, set standard and empower to contribute to national cultural development.
When Dr. Shaibu Husseini came barely a few months ago, he took the agency under the Ministry of Culture and Creative Economy back to the owners, the long-suffering and helpless film and video production companies. He also sought out the actors and the many stakeholders in the industry for a buy-in to new narratives about the sector.
On cigar smoking scenes and, which the Federal Ministry of Health had publically warned of the health implications of the lifestyle, Husseini sought an outright ban on such scenes in film and video productions.
Husseini also highlighted the cultural setbacks in projecting rituals and other characters alien to our culture and creative economy marketing and called for refreshing interventions that truly reflect who we are as a people and nation.
There are no doubts that Nigerians took note and wondered where this young journalist, film critic and culture expert holed up all this while.
To validate that cheering position, two national newspapers in their editorials took note of the changes in NFVCB and advised Nigerians to throw in their support for Husseini and the new reinvigorated censors’ board.
The truth is that NFVCB, under Husseini, does not have all the physical cash to run through the race of the industry reforms and recalibration but depends on the goodwill of stakeholders, film and video production companies who threw their weight behind his efforts to bring out standardisation in the system.
Sadly, as is wont with spoilers of good dreams for our country and enemies of Nigeria’s rebound, a certain purported letter from the office of the SGF, Senator George Akume, written June 21st, to the minister of culture, Hannatu Musa Musawa, to wind down NFVCB within 30 days went viral in dark places.
The suspicious letter allegedly directed the minister to ensure that the administrative and financial procedures of the film sector regulatory agency be completed within three weeks and its transition to a mere department in the ministry should also be reported to the SGF’s office.
Indeed, Nigeria is a wonderful country where sensitive letters or directives have emerged in the public space without the real signatories ever knowing anything about it. It is not only in the civil service. Even the judiciary has severally warned of fake judgements circulating in public space, including certain interpretations of judgements to the fancy of claimants and their legal representatives.
As much as I would want to treat the purported NFVCB termination letter with a pinch of the salt, I am equally mindful of the fact that the minister of culture, Hannatu Musa Musawa, has not disclaimed the letter, neither has the office of the SGF.
I am aware that this government does not operate in the dark places and would usually make public its position without recourse to any funny and confusing grandstanding.
I am equally aware that the film industry is replete with unprofiled investors and producers with dubious intentions who may be troubled by the presence of a recalibrated and strong NFVCB.
Without being accused of playing the devil’s advocate, it would not be out of place to think that NFVCB, under Husseini, must have shown capacity to help clean up the system, throwing out the bad guys playing little gods, so to fly the kite in public space to advocate for the downgrading of NFVCB suits them well.
However, it is important to let us know that the government should not be “primed”by external forces to demote or scrap a regulatory body as critical as NFVCB in our emerging film industry. To listern to such agents of distarblization would spell doom for our young persons and the cultural image of Nigeria.
Apart from the absence of such regulatory roles by NFVCB, the national security implications will be grave and would leave us unprotected from uncensored foreign digital films and videos, exposure that are harmful and are oxygenators of strife, insurrection, kidnapping and rebellion.
The Nigerian youth population should be deliberately protected through an agency like the NFVCB at critical times like this when our country is grappling with socioeconomic reformations. What we watch is as good as what we eat.
To those who, through their fixers in government are playing the cat-and-mouse game with our NFVCB, we can understand that the new sheriff in NFVCB is a man of integrity, unbribeable, patriotic and a lover of the job we gave him to help sanitise our film industry.
There is no country in the world today that has left the importation, consumption and regulation of its creative products such as the film and video ecosystem to strange hands. It is not a job for portfolio consultants masquerading as global experts.
I am indeed burdened that, of all the Jack and Jill non-performing agencies in the civil service and in culture in particular, it is the rebranded NFVCB that is being singled out for scrapping to justify an Oransaye Report, which in itself has outlived its submissions and needed some tinkering to really weed out “chop-I-chop” agencies created as special purpose vehicles by powerful politicians.