I want to leave a better Nollywood behind, says MbaBy The Guardian
Published: July 28, 2006
Print One year after he was appointed Director-General of the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), Emeka Mba has achieved so many things his predecessors thought were impossible. He has also set in motion a programme of ‘Nigerianising’ the film industry. In this interview with Group Life Editor, Olumide Iyanda, the DG paints a picture of Nollywood of his dream.
How easy has the job been? It’s been a learning process. Sometimes I say to myself that I wish I had had the privilege of working in public service at some point earlier in life. But generally, I would say it’s been a most challenging experience.
What has been the most challenging experience?Dealing with people. Let’s look at it in two ways. The first is dealing with my staff. I have worked in a private environment for 16 years, where you are not directed to do something; you work from your own initiative. Not just that, I’ve not worked in a corporate set up like bank, but I’ve worked in a media environment all my life and you know that is largely informal. So, having to work as the CEO of a major government agency where you have a lot of people who see themselves as civil servants is quite challenging. One, if you act differently from the way you are used to people would say it’s because you are now DG, and if you act the way you usually do they would say it’s unbecoming of your office as DG. From a personal level you have to second-guess your actions, but I try to be myself. I do things in good faith with the conviction that my actions are good for the country and the job. There is also the issue of dealing with stakeholders. I have been dealing with many of them for many years. You might soon get the feeling that they think you are no longer picking their calls because you are now DG. But they may not know it comes down to pressure of the job. The focus is all on you and it is like you are on top of a pyramid. But like I said, it’s a four-year tenure and the goal for me is to leave a legacy I would personally be proud of. I want to leave a better Nollywood and ensure Nigerian movies win more awards. And hopefully, there’ll be a lot more multi-millionaires in the Nigerian movie industry. If that happens, I’ll be able to hold my head high anywhere.
How often does government interfere with your work?Not much actually. Even within the ministry some still refer to us as those Censors Board people. People know we exist, but they don’t see us as a core government agency. Nollywood is very visible, but we are both admired and at the same time treated with some kind of contempt or suspicion. Maybe because we have not really structured and formalised Nollywood to a level where we would be seen as active members of the Nigerian economics. I was making a presentation to some banks the other day and I said this industry employs more people than any sector of the economy besides agriculture. If 2,000 movies are produced in a year, we should also imagine that an average of 60 to 100 people work on a movie even with a N3 million budget. A movie would have the main actors, director, producer, scriptwriters, waka pass people, cameramen, gaffers and others. So, if you do the maths you’d find that hundreds of thousands of people are engaged, this is besides talking about the video rental people, marketers, caterers, people who paste posters, among others. More than three or four hotels in Enugu have been taken over by actors and producers. All these people might have turned to crime if Nollywood did not employ them.
I think the present government realises the importance of this sector. Mr. President has taken, in my view, the kind of credible steps any leader could take to try and transform the industry. But because we have in a creative environment, there is a limit to what government can do, it has to be largely what we can do for ourselves as an industry. We have to prepare ourselves and lobby for what we want. But if we sit back and expect government to do everything for us we just won’t get far. That is why when we came on board we came up with "Nigeria in the Movie project" because we believe Nollywood should become, and quite rightly so, an industry of national importance. Not just because of the economic potential of the industry but also its socio-cultural importance. I can say with all certainty that anywhere in the world where there are Black people, be they Nigerians or other Africans, there are elements of Nollywood. To think that in Ghana, Malawi, Kenya and South Africa people who in their widest imagination would not have had any contact with Nigeria other than reading about 419 now see Nigeria for what it really looks like. You and I may not have had the privilege of going to America, but we can experience their culture through CNN and watching their movies. So, Nollywood offers us a big opportunity to market our country. We can decide that this is the kind of image we want of our country. Films are no longer about entertainment. If you think James Bond is all about entertainment you are mistaken. It is business, it is politics and it is economy. Remember the cold war era when James Bond movies were about co-operation between the British and the American CIA. Bond would be fighting one Russian agent while getting help from the Americans. That is subtle politics delivered to us in the form of entertainment. It is diplomacy at work. They demonstrate the relationship between the British and American governments for the world to see. Even the more recent James Bond movies are tools of commerce. I keep telling people that the BMW rode on the success of Golden Eye is business. Our big businesses too, should realise that you can push a brand through Nollywood because movies get to the nooks and crannies of the world. A homegrown Nigerian brand like Glo or Zenith would get more visibility through movies than going to CNN.
Critics of "Nigeria in the Movie project" argue that it was an attempt to impose a kind of ‘Nigerianness’ on people’s creativityI would be absolutely proud if I were to impose Nigerianness on filmmakers. What is my role? Would I want our filmmakers to make films about Europeans? I want them to make films about the whole of Nigeria, not even ‘Hausaness’, ‘Yorubaness’ or ‘Igboness’. If you watch an American film, they would say this is the American dream. What is the Nigerian dream? Do you know? It is our artistes that could provide us with the answer. They are the ones who can paint the picture of what Nigeria should be. We are not just talking about what Nigeria is or the problems we face, but a vision of what Nigeria should be. I am an optimist and I have no excuse for that. I was telling some people recently that instead of the image we all have of the police, why don’t we do a movie with the police of our dream. It would be nice to see a well-run police station, with computers and other equipment, where the officers look smart and work conscientiously. Why don’t we do like oyinbo and do a futuristic film showing 2056 Lagos State where everything works. What we are trying to do with "Nigeria in the Movie Project" is to show that the film business is not about selling part one to four, but to promote Nigerian values.
Is it this same passion that led you to propose what some people believe later became Africa Magic on DSTV?I have always been passionate about Nigeria. A lot of people think Africa Magic is the first all African channel on DStv. In 1996 I started what we called Choice TV then. It was the first 24-hour local movie channel and we had our own TV guide.
Did you apply for the job of DG?Let’s say it was more of an appointment. I was asked if I was interested in the job. The government was convinced about my passion to change Nollywood. Nobody would be appointed to a position as sensitive as this if Mr. President is not convinced you can deliver.
Does the board plan to start classifying musical videos now that they are packaged as home video?Absolutely. In our new regulation we have it specifically that if you are retailing musical videos, that is, if they would be found in shops or the street; that falls squarely under our ambit. However, we have little or nothing to do with musical videos that are strictly for television. We would be extending the same guideline to those in musical video production as we have for films. Even in America where they don’t specifically have an industry regulator, that sense of self-regulation makes people classify their work. That is why you see some artistes whose CDs carry warning like ‘parental guidance’ or ‘explicit lyrics’. The big businesses do that to show you how wise they are because, if the government steps in it would be more stringent. So, they themselves pay money to have an organ that regulates their work. When people say we are too restrictive, even those countries that are bastions of civilization have some restrictions. It would make our job a whole lot easier if the stakeholders know the enormous responsibility they have. But this is a country where you will be driving and someone comes to hawk a blue film to you and doesn’t care if your four-year-old daughter is with you.