The FG Wants To Stop The Filming of Movies And Music Videos Outside Nigeria

Conveniently forgetting that our President is currently living receiving treatment in London, the federal government says it has taken steps to get the National Broadcasting Commission's code to discourage the production of Nigerian movies and music outside the country.

The minister for information and culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed, made this announcement last weekend when he paid a visit to the headquarters of the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON).

The minister believes that the production of films, reality TV shows and music outside Nigeria for Nigerian consumption is negatively affecting the empowerment of entertainment industry practitioners, the development of the entertainment sector and the nation’s economy in general.

He said:

"This government has agreed that henceforth, whatever we consume in Nigeria in terms of music and films, must be made in Nigeria. We cannot continue to go to South Africa or any other country to produce our films and then send them back to be consumed in Nigeria.

The Broadcasting Code and the Advertising Code are very clear on this. For you to classify a product as a Nigerian product, it must have a certain percentage of Nigerian content. When they get there, they will patronize the economy of that country and then bring the products back to Nigeria for us to consume.

It is like somebody going to China or Japan to make a product that looks like palm wine and bring it back home to label it Nigerian palm wine."

(Photo: DavidoVEVO)

No, it is not like that at all, but that simile is not the only thing wrong with the honourable minister's line of reasoning. He went on to say that to encourage local production of movies and music, the creative industry will be granted pioneer status, which entitles it to certain incentives, tax holidays and waivers for shipment of imported music and films production equipment.

Casually ignoring the reasons artistes have to go abroad to shoot music videos and movies is just plain silly. Nigeria has no infrastructural support for artistes who want to make high quality entertainment material and instead of the government to create an enabling environment, they do the exact opposite, as usual: impose restrictions that harm the people it should benefit.

And if the minister really had plans to fulfill any of these promises, why impose a ban? Think about it, if it was cheaper and easier to produce anything in Nigeria, why would anyone go abroad?