ONLY some weeks ago, I wrote a piece on the gradual erosion of professionalism in Nollywood, the sight assaulting nude films and the booming ritual of cutting movies into four to six parts. I also stated in lucid terms that there was a long, curious silence and inactivity from the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), wondering if it had abdicated its critical monitoring responsibility.

Well, a few weeks ago, NFVCB seemed to be saying that they still had their fiery force and that Nollywood’s misguided and untutored Producers need to wake up. But the NFVCB isn’t drawing a battle line. What it gave was a vista of hope for the industry as it enunciated an agenda for change.

It was tagged Stakeholders Meeting. Venue was Nigeria Film Corporation (NFC), Ikoyi, Lagos. It was a gathering of who is who in Nollywood. Gabriel Okoye (Gabosky), Andy Amenechi, Zeb Ejiro, Mahmood Ali Balogun, Nobert Ajaegbo, Mike Nliam, Alex Eyengho, Dan-Chris Ebie, Chris Ekejimbe and representatives of the various guilds and associations.

The Director General of NFVCB, Patricia Bala, matronly looking, with more grey hairs than ever before, broke the silence. You could almost vow that coping with the whims and pressure of Nollywood must have added to her now glittering hair. But she was calm, relaxed with a soft smile caressing her lips.

“We have not been silent”, she opened up. “We have been working tenaciously to make things work better in Nollywood. But we are not making noise about our efforts”. She would go on to explain that there were a few decisions or actions she could not take pronto because she had been working in an acting capacity. But now she is a substantive DG and there would be increase in tempo of planning and execution.

But even in an acting capacity, Bala had taken some crucial steps to set at least an agenda for a more professional and productive Nollywood.

A visit to Ghana Board classification

Bala explained that late last year she took a team of Nigerian professionals from Nollywood and NFVCB to Ghana for talks with the Ghana Board of Film Classification. “We had to visit Ghana because there were so many nude films from Ghana in our markets and a lot of their films were released in Nigeria without passing through NFVCB for censorship.”

Talking tough, she stressed, “we couldn’t take that any more. We had to put an end to it. And the only way to do it was to sit at a meeting with our Ghanaian counterparts”

The meeting was successful. Bala and her team met with the Ghana Board of Classification and the Ministry of Information. At the end of the day, they reached an agreement to continually exchange information on movies duly censored and classified in both countries so that each could easily track and locate movies that are illegally released. It was a revelation that attracted ovation from the respected stakeholders who had bemoaned the alarming increase of nude movies in the film markets.

The NFVCB also got its Ghanaian colleagues to address the issue of high taxation and discrimination against Nigerian films in Ghana.

Consumer forum

There is no question that there has been a drastic drop in the sales of Nollywood movies. But there had never been a constructive effort to carry out a research on the reasons for this dwindling fortunes of Nigerian Movies.

“We in Censors Board felt that we are not going to sit in our offices and just censor films. We are concerned about the reduction in the sales of movies”, Bala stated with concern.

To tackle this critical issue, the NFVCB has now begun what it called Consumers Forum around the country. This forum is a gathering of Nollywood film fans and buyers. Here, the NFVCB engages them to find out their complaints, the kind of movies they like to see, what they do not like and what the buyers would like to see more in Nollywood movies. “We believe that if the producers know what the consumers like and are able to produce such films, the demand for movies will increase and that will be good for the Nollywood and of course the “NFVCB”, she enthused.

Digital censorship

The analogue way of censoring movies that keeps producers shuttling the NFVCB office like a grocery store is also about to end. The Plateau State born DG told the Stakeholders that the NFVCB has commenced online censoring of movies. “Once submitted, you can now stay in your office and monitor the stages of censorship your movie had passed and exactly when you should come for a final chat with us,” she said beaming with smiles.

This application of IT in censorship which the NFVCB calls the Magpie Method, will surely reduce drastically the time wasting and frustration that arise from endless visit to the Board’s offices for censorship of movies by producers.

But NFVCB wasn’t done just yet. Bala is worried about the absence of Children’s movies in Nollywood. She wants producers and directors to begin to look at possibilities of making more children friendly movies including animation even if she has to call on the Nigerian Film Corporation to seek a synergy in this area.

She acquiesced to the Stakeholders demand for a review of the censorship guidelines and graciously agreed to involve the stakeholders. The NFVCB is also poised to check the excesses of quasi-professional producers who dismember their films into ridiculous parts, sometimes up to eight. The entire gathering agreed that it was time for Nollywood movies to begin to serve as an instrument for the renaissance of our cherished values and reconstruction of the image of our country through illuminating Nigeria’s noble story and inspiring ideals.

For the stakeholders, the meeting with the NFVCB indeed created a confluence of hope as everyone left with high expectations and robust confidence in the future of Nollywood.

Did you say a new dawn in Nollywood? We say kudos, Nollywood Police!

ZIK OKAFOR a film producer,, wrote from Abuja.