By Alex Enyegho

I started this topic last week with a brief historical antecedent of the proposed Motion Picture Council of Nigeria (MOPICON) for practitioners in Nollywood. I made it manifestly clear that a so-called Coalition of Nollywood Guilds and Associations (CONGA) populated by a few characters with very unclear motives, was scheming to play the role of interim MOPICON albeit through the backdoor.

This has been firmly resisted by major associations, guilds and stakeholders in Nollywood, thus further widening the gulf of unity and one voice the industry is seriously longing for. Bellow is the concluding part of the essay. Enjoy it.

…It has always been tough for Nollywood practitioners to be unified in one formidable unit. This, in my view is as a result of the lack of a body enabled by a legislated law to unify the various interests in the Nigerian motion picture industry.

If the well-received stakeholders-initiated Conference of Motion Picture Practitioners of Nigeria (CMPPN) died a natural death mainly as a result of the lack of a legislative legal backing, I wonder what made the handlers of CONGA think they could fly with all the shenanigans, and particularly without first sincerely, consciously and deliberately building consensus among key stakeholders in Nollywood.

In my view, CONGA, as presently constituted is peopled and controlled mainly by some former association and guild heads who are using the platform of a popular agitation (for MOPICON) to achieve their hidden agenda (of perpetually remaining relevant as leaders in Nollywood) to, as usual, invariably box and pocket the industry as their personal fiefdom! To them, since they are out of power as heads of the existing associations/guilds, CONGA is yet another association/guild to be used to open doors for them in government and corporate circles!

For the avoidance of doubt, it is illegal, fraudulent, scandalously misleading, null and void for anybody to claim that CONGA is an umbrella body, which represents the interest of all associations and guilds in Nollywood. At the very best, the group can only represent the interest of those who subscribe to it.

CONGA can NEVER represent Nollywood as presently constituted. CONGA can only be CONGA if all associations and guilds in Nollywood (both the ones registered by CAC and the ones yet to be registered) are automatically free to be members without any form of inhibition – religion, tribe, location, political affiliation etc. Anything short of this is not CONGA in the true sense of it but COSNGA (Coalition of Some Nollywood Guilds and Associations). Anything short of this is criminally erroneous and therefore, a ‘CONGAROO’!

In terms of structure, the legitimate and all-encompassing way forward for Nollywood is for MOPICON to come alive with all its attendant benefits. For instance, it would streamline activities of practitioners in the motion picture industry and force every practitioner to conform to guidelines set for the industry and inhibit most of the challenges the industry is currently facing.

It will perpetually kill the challenge of proliferation of associations and guilds in Nollywood. There will be just one producers’ association in the country and every producer must fall in line. Ditto for actors, directors, writers, distributors and other guilds.

MOPICON will also boost the confidence level of investors and other financial institutions to putting their money in Nollywood. Against the backdrop of criticism that Corporate Nigeria is refusing to contribute to the growth of Nollywood through partnership on film projects, I dare say that it is difficult to work with an industry, which is lacking in structure.

Until the motion picture industry is structured properly with MOPICON, no serious financial institution would be willing to enter into a blind risk with the industry.

However, the MOPICON I have in mind should not be another government agency peopled by civil servants and other non-practitioners. It must be a MOPICON of the practitioners, by the practitioners and for the practitioners.

Government should only give the necessary legal and other related fillip to the process and its sustenance. Anything short of this will not be worth the whole idea and struggle.