Stakeholders in the Nigerian film industry have urged the Federal Government not to disband the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) as it implements the Oronsaye Report.
The filmmakers, who made the request in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja, said the NFVCB should be preserved as the motion picture industry’s regulating body.
According to them, any change to the board’s current status, such as a merger or subsumption, would be unproductive and impair the industry’s contributions to the national economy.
Veteran director, Paul Apel-Papel stated that Nollywood was too huge to operate without a particular organisation, such as the NFVCB, to oversee its operations.
The director of the 2021 war action drama film “Eagle Wings,” who received training at Colorado Film School, claimed that he is playing a crucial part in keeping Nollywood sane.
“We are not in support of subsuming or merger because we are even looking forward to a specific ministry that will focus on Nollywood properly as we grow from here.
“The Federal Government should think of how it can actually make a specific focus on Nollywood the way it is doing for agriculture, because after agriculture, the industry is the largest employer of labour.
“We are bringing revenue; we are creating jobs and we are positively promoting the image of the country globally.
“Nollywood is not getting any direct support; everybody is trying to develop their craft and then the only agency we have they want to take it back to the ministry and kill it,” he said.
According to Habib Mohammed, National President of the Motion Picture Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MOPPAN), a regulatory agency in a crucial sector cannot function successfully as a department.
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“The move to subsume the board as part of the ministry will be a real setback to the development already achieved.
“Let us not forget that the board was in the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture as a department, and the creation of the board has developed the industry to where it is today.
“Let the policymakers have a rethink and we are also calling on the National Assembly to stand on its feet for the board to keep its statutory position,” he said.
