The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has been warned to stop blaming the rising wave of crime on the nation’s movie industry.
National President, Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Mr. Ejezie Rowland, said Fashola’s claim that Nollywood’s storylines were glorifying and promoting crime was untrue.
The Herald recalls that the minister advised Nollywood filmmakers against promoting themes on money rituals and kidnapping, saying it was encouraging many people to engage in the acts. He stated this as a guest speaker at the fourth annual public lecture/symposium organised by the United Action for Change in Lagos in February.
Fashola said, “Some people believe that if you get a man’s head or a woman’s body parts, they could be turned into money. It’s not true! And when you ask people who believe in it if they have seen it happen before, they tell you someone said they had seen it.
“However, it has become a reinforced belief through entertainment, social media, and Nollywood. How can human head bring money? Money is paper invented by man, not God. They put the paper in a machine to print what we call money and that is the only place money comes from.
“But the challenge is the belief system. Just think about how many people have been missing – through kidnapping – because some people believe that it exists. The police could tell us the number of people they have apprehended with human parts, such as skulls. This belief system must go.
“Therefore, all of us, including those who make the films, must reverse the story and start selling a new story that money is printed in a machine and not through any other way like money rituals.”
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Reacting on Friday in Abuja, Rowland said, “Such statement is not based on logical fact and will not, in any way, affect the industry.
“Nollywood is not the cause of the ills that have bedeviled the country; some of the crises in the country have been there before the coming of Nollywood.
“Before Nollywood came into existence in the 1990s, the country had grappled with series of crime. Some of the country’s ills predated Nollywood.’’
He said that the minister should rather appreciate Nollywood for its contribution to the country by providing jobs for unemployed graduates.
Rowland said that Nollywood had helped to curb the rate of unemployment in the country by engaging those who could have been armed robbers.
The AGN president stressed that the last film that was shot by his crew employed hundreds of people, adding that such was the situation for other films shot on daily basis.
“For instance, in Asaba, about 20 films are going on at different locations and in those locations we have at least 300 people working for two or three weeks.
“Many women of `easy virtue’ have found their ways into the industry, thereby jettisoning their old ways and embracing a new life.
“Do you know how many prostitutes have changed from their line of businesses to Nollywood? Do you know how many `idle minds’ have changed from their dangerous thoughts because of Nollywood?
“Nollywood has proffered solutions to some of the vices bedeviling the country,” he said.
He also explained that after every show, during the end credits, warnings are scrolled on the screen about the unhealthy practices of the things they had watched in the movie in real life.