Nollywood Blues and Multinational Corruption in Nigeria
There is more opportunism than professionalism in Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry.
They should know that you can't have a film commission without at least one qualified film commissioner.
Having a film corporation is different from having a film commission.
In Nollywood, you will see someone posing and posturing as an expert on the international sales of Nigerian movies, but has not secured any international acquisition and distribution of any Nigerian movies and documentaries.
Nollywood can compete with Joziwood.
But Nollywood cannot compete with Hollywood
You see the professional misconduct of celebrated stakeholders whose professional body misappropriated the foreign funds from the French government meant for film productions and they are still going about business as usual.
Yes. It is a good development to start a film market, because you can't have a functional film industry without an international film market. But you must know how to market the film market beyond the mere announcement of launching a film market.
In Nollywood, the box office can be fixed to favour a Nigerian movie more than other Nigerian movies.
I have written on corruption in Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry, but both the local and foreign companies and other organizations have been partners in crime in the institutionalization of corruption in Nigeria.
The major sponsor of the leading musical society in Nigeria did not like my political poem, "Empty Shells in Our Oil Wells" shortlisted for the 2001 annual poetry prize. In 2004, the multinational oil company later invited me to the head office in Lagos on supporting my proposed documentary film, "Winds of Fire, Winds of Change" on the hazards of gas flares, oil pollution and terrorism in the Niger Delta region. But later rescinded and I abandoned the production of the political documentary film and rescripted it into the screenplay of "Naked Beauty" co-authored with Dr. Christian Chika Onu, the multiple award winning Nollywood filmmaker and author of "The Unusual Story of the Early Years of Nollywood", the first book by one of pioneers of the phenomenon of the first indie film industry in Africa.
"Naked Beauty" is exclusively published by Lulu Books in hardcover version, paperback and ebook versions.
The MacArthur Foundation told me about the support for investigative journalism against corruption in Nigeria, but ironically the selected news media receiving the funds, included newspapers that refused to publish my reports on millions of dollars in tax evasions by a major American multinational oil company in 2006, because they don't want to lose their adverts. The company invited me for discussion, but I declined to honour the suspicious parley.
- by Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
Publisher/Editor,
NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series,
The first book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry.
https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima
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