Head of the Benin Centre of the National Films and Video Censors Board(NFVCB), Fred Elakhe, has pleaded for collaboration between his agency and the media.
He made the appeal when he led a section of the agency’s management team on a visit to the Secretariat of the Edo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists(NUJ) in Benin on Wednesday afternoon.
He disclosed that the board has the mandate to act as a regulatory body for video/film production, to censor and license a production before the movies is made public.
“Movies must be censored and licenced by us when you finish the production and before you show it to the public” adding that the agency have moved from censorshio to classification.
“We classify movies based on the age relevance of the movies. Movies from western culture is eroding our culture. There is a trend to watch foreign movies not classified by us and not potraying our culture,” he posited.
He disclosed that the agency is on the Project Healthy whereby the screens are supposed to be healthy to the children adding that the notion of Nigeria been portrayed as a fetish and corrupt country by Nollywood movies is incorrect and would be addressed appropriately by the NFVCB even as he described Nollywood as a kudos to Nigeria.
Responding, Dr. Festus Alenkhe, Chairman of the Edo State Council of the NUJ, noted that the points raised by Elakhe are quite germaine “and it is our(Journalists) responsibility to follow up from there.”
He observed that most Nollywood movies are doing well in the market
though the internet has taken over most of the shares.
“We condemn any form of movies that will promote religious crisis. We must know that what we need in Nigeria today is peace. We should try as much as possible to educate the public.
“Children emulate what they watch in movies. We should ensure that the movies produced show repercussions for every action that’s taken.”
He charged the NFVCB to cultivate a good working relationship with the media and should endeavour to let the media know the status of a movie that it had censored so that the message can be made public.
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