Does our National Assembly know anything about the Nigerian entertainment industry?
2020 has been the most challenging year for the global entertainment industry, including #Hollywood, #Bollywood and our #Nollywood with the unprecedented shutdowns of film and TV productions and cinemas due to COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and hazards of the #Coronavirus in workplaces. And the. American government has been very responsive to the economic shortfalls in Hollywood, but the Nigerian government seems either clueless about how to respond to the deficits in Nollywood or confused. I have heard more about government concerns over #fakenews in the social media than government concerns about shortfalls in Nollywood that is the second biggest and largest employer of labour after agriculture.
The negligence of the economic challenges in the entertainment industry caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is due to the administrative incompetence of the government officials appointed to oversee the Nigerian entertainment industry from Lagos to Abuja.
The Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) recently hosted the Zuma Film Festival, but not a single call to action on the shortfalls caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the Nigerian film industry. I watched the Director-General of NFC in a live TV interview on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) on the Nigerian film industry, he did not address the economic crisis iin Nollywood or Kannywood. It was unbelievable and that was why I ignored their film festival that has not even improved over the years. They cannot even learn from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), except only to submit a Nigerian movie for the annual #Oscars.
Hello DG of NFC, a working visit or study of AMPAS will be great for your knowledge and the benefit of the NFC.
The hands of the Honourable Federal Minister of Information and Culture (FMIC), Alhaji Lai Mohammed are full, so he cannot carry the whole "Wahala" of the Nigerian entertainment industry on his head. The DG of the NFC can be more pragmatic and responsive by addressing the critical situation of the Nigerian film industry to the Nigerian government; especially the National Assembly.
- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
Publisher/Editor of the NOLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series.
https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima.NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series,
The first book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry published since 2013.
