The Nigerian Economy and the Creative Economy Are in the Doldrums of Conceit and Deceit
Let me just make the comprehension easy in my brief commentary.
Anyone who says the Nigerian economy is doing well is a liar. Anyone who tells you the Creative Industry is booming is another liar.
The present administration of the Nigerian government blaming the immediate past administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR for the current economic woes shows political dishonesty and administrative incompetence of those in the corridors of power.
The major projects recently commissioned with fanfare by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR were started by former President Buhari.
You cannot take credit for the work started successfully by the previous administration and still turn around to blame and complain about the economic setbacks which were caused by recurrent expenditures on federal projects of which you actually benefited from the multi-million dollar contracts by proxies of the same national ruling party of Nigeria, the All Progressives Congress (APC) since 2015 to date.
Honesty remains the best policy in any public and private office.
Making excuses and living in denial of your own faults and failures is sheer conceit and deceit.
Have you noticed?
The absence and reductions of adverts and promos by majority of the companies in Nigeria are actually indications of the state of the Nigerian Economy. This means that the situation is critical.
In the creative industry, only MultiChoice of South Africa is profitable in Nigeria.
The Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) cannot afford to produce enough content; has zero budget for acquisition and distribution and still wasting millions of naira having unprofitable channels on DStv and GOtv of the MultiChoice and the partnership with StarTimes is unprofitable and should be scrapped.
If the NTA can't buy content produced by Nigerian producers that means the Nigerian film and TV industry is in economic crisis.
Only few Nigerian movies are making money from the cinemas and only few can be acquired by Netflix and other foreign streaming platforms. More than 90 percent are on YouTube channels in competition for revenues from views and only few can make ends meet.
The private TV stations cannot afford to pay for the acquisition of local content.
Both the NTA and private TV stations don't compete for film and TV acquisition and distribution deals in the international film and TV markets, because they don't have marketable content of international quality to sell and they don't have the money to buy top grade content from other countries.
It is dumb to be over the moon watching music videos of few Nigerian Afrobeats artistes on foreign TV channels who are just a fraction of hundreds of others who can't even afford to produce music videos is enough for anyone who is not a dummy to know that the Nigerian creative industry is still underdeveloped and the creative economy is underdeveloped. The creative industry is actually disorganized in Nigeria.
Coming to the international film festivals in Nigeria; none of them is profitable to the creative economy.
Ask them how much money they have contributed to the creative economy, they don't know. Because there are no annual forensic reports on the economic benefits of film festivals in Nigeria.
What are the deliverables from all the editions of the film festivals in the past 10 years?
The organizers cannot tell?
The popular annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) submits annual reports on what the film festival contributed to Canada:
"Our 11 day Festival generates more than $200 million dollars in annual economic activity to the tourism and hospitality sector for the City of Toronto and Province. We drive over $36 million dollars in taxes to the three levels of government annually through our Festival and year-round TIFF Bell Lightbox cinemas."
- Toronto International Film Festival Inc.
I have the report for anyone who wants a copy.
Which international film festival in Nigeria has any annual report for the state government and federal government?
We must stop the political conceit and deceit by political appointees who are equally being misled by political jobbers and title chasers and opportunists in the Nigerian entertainment industry.
The Ministry of Art, Culture and the Creative Economy cannot make any impact on the Nigerian economy without deliverables from every sector of the entertainment industry on the economic benefits.
What are the market valuations of the fashion and textile industry, cosmetics industry, contemporary art and photography industry, film and TV industry, advertising industry and other parts of the creative industry?
Lest we forget, assumptions are not credible.
You cannot waste millons of naira on local and international events without showing us the economic benefits in your annual report.
We want to see verified facts and figures and not mere news reports, photos and videos.
- Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
The Publisher/Editor,
NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series,
Since 2013.
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