I don’t want to be remembered for my many fights — Obaseki

By BENJAMIN NJOKU

Following the unfulfilled promises of the Buhari-led government to boost the creative industry, the incoming administration has been urged to pay more attention to the sector if it must realize its goal of growing the country’s economy in the next four years.

This advice was handed down by some strong voices in the movie industry who spoke to NollyNow during the week.

The stakeholders regretted that the outgoing administration of President Buhari made a series of empty promises, including that of creating an enabling environment for the industry to thrive.

However, they want the incoming administration to consider the idea of prioritizing the creative sector, particularly Nollywood so as to engender genuine economic growth for the country. .

Lamenting the unprecedented challenges facing the industry, ranging from lack of funding to absence of a formal regulated structure, piracy and inadequate distribution network among other factors, the stakeholders expressed optimism that the new administration will make a huge difference in boosting the creative industry. .

Leading the call was veteran actor, Jide Kosoko, who wants the Tinubu;led administration to formulate policies that will create an enabling environment for them to practice their crafts.

“We want the incoming administration to help us set up a regulatory body and intervene in the area of assessing financial support from banks in order to minimize interest rate to assist productions and equipment, and by extension increase our inputs to the country’s GDP,” Kosoko said.

Speaking in the same vein, legendary filmmaker, and producer of popular TV series `Super Story”, Wale Adenuga, urged the incoming government to endeavour to set up grant schemes for Nollywood, while lamenting lack of funds to actualize their dreams.

“We implore the incoming government to set up grant schemes for Nollywood so that Nigerian film practitioners can put Nigeria on the world map as one of the best film producing nations. We all know the numerous benefits from a fully developed film industry which include massive employment opportunities, colossal revenue, remarkable GDP, global projection of our culture, traditions and tourism,” Adenuga said.

On his own, veteran Yoruba actor,who’s also President of Theatre Arts and Motion Pictures Practitioners Association of Nigeria, Bolaji Amusan, popularly known as Mr Latin, said : “We want the incoming administration to build film villages across the country to make our job easier, tackle the menace of piracy, allow us to have access to airports, seaports and other federal government property and establishments so as to make it easier for us to ply our trade.”

For Alex Eyengho, former President of the Association of Nollywood Core Producers, ANCOP, “the incoming administration should hit the ground running by delivering to us the Motion Picture Council of Nigeria,MOPICON, and pushing it to the National Assembly as an Executive Bill.”

MOPICON, according to him, which has been on the drawing board of the Federal Government since the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo, is the expected structure that will deepen professionalism and ensure sanity in Nollywood by erasing the perception out there that the Nigerian motion picture industry is an all-comers affair.

“I urge Tinubu to give MOPICON to Nollywood within his first 100 days in office as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The next thing is for the relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to roll up their sleeves and work strictly in tandem with their extant laws in carrying out their mandates. The Ministry of Information and Culture should ensure that agencies like the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC), National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) and Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) carry out their mandates without going outside the necessary laws that established them. If these fundamentals are ensured, the challenges of piracy of intellectual property, classification/censorship of films, quality production etc, will be put in proper check. Apart from creating the conducive environment for the industry, President Tinubu should work out various grants and zero-interest loans to practitioners through the MOPICON platform. Tax breaks/holidays should also be considered for practitioners from time to time”, Eyengho stated.