While speaking in an exclusive interview with Premium Times, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, reacted to criticisms trailing his recent
pronouncement on steps being taken by the government to discourage the production
of Nigerian movies and music outside the country.
The outspoken APC politcian, said the move by the Buhari-led federal government was to
tackle the exploitation of perceived loopholes in the Nigerian Broadcasting
Code, NBC.
He said; “The NBC code today as it stands has been exploited and not defined and that’s why movies being directed by Nigerians with Nigerian actors, actresses
can be shot in South Africa and then brought back to be consumed in Nigeria.
“All we are saying is that we are going to amend the code in a manner that it will not
be possible for you to exploit any loophole there to go and shoot outside Nigeria film, music or programs that are meant to be
consumed in Nigeria,” Mohammed said reported that the
minister on Saturday, said the government had taken steps to get the Nigeria Broadcasting Code (NBC) to put an end to
the trend of producing Nigerian music, movie and programs abroad.
Mohammed’s comments drew criticism from Nigerians who asked the minister to
address the issue of government officials going for medical treatment abroad first before sanitising the movie industry.
However, the minister said the government had no ill-feeling in its move to dissuade
Nigerian films from being produced abroad.
“It is not directed at any particular incident, every country should respect the local industry of other countries. For example, in
Ghana they introduced a law today that demands visiting actors to pay a thousand
dollars to the government coffers while visiting directors and producers pay 5,000
dollars. We must create an enabling environment and also generate revenue from our creative industry.
“The argument is simple, when you go to shoot a film offshore, you use the work force of that country to develop the capacity
of that country and you improve the economy of that country and that is what we are trying to do here.”
