17 Feb 2008 |
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Nollywood And Mike Okiro's Film Scripts Mike Okiro, the Inspector General of Police, at a meeting with senior police officers (from the rank of Commissioner and above) in Abuja last Tuesday, according to The Punch, February 13, 2008 "expressed disgust in (sic) the indiscriminate use of police equipment by film producers... (he) said he was tired the way police men were being paraded in some scripts as monsters." He added: "we are going to meet the film producers on the issue of usage of police uniform and equipment in films being produced in the country...The way and manner police men are portrayed in these films do not relate to facts on ground. Our policemen are courteous and responsible and not the way they are represented in the films. "We may have to insist on vetting scripts where policemen and equipment are to be featured before we will give them the permission to use or (sic) apparatus and uniform." To this end, the Inspector General of Police is inviting film producers to a meeting on February 26. I see that the Inspector-General of Police is trying to write a film script of his own and teach Nollywood producers how to do their job, but Nigerian film producers should shun the meeting that he is calling on Feb, 26. They should refuse to take part in this unserious film being put together by the Police Inspector-General. It is not the duty of the Nigerian Police Force to vet film scripts. The Inspector-General of Police should not seek to acquire powers that he has not been given by the law. The body that is empowered to discharge the function that he seeks is the National Film and Video Censors Board, and there is an enabling Act, Cap N. 40 which outlines the grounds for censorship and the classification of films. The law states that the Board of the Film and Video Censors Board shall include a representative of "the Nigeria Police Force, who shall not be below the rank of Superintendent of Police". Other interest groups and stakeholders are also included in the composition of the NFVCB. It stands to reason that if the Nigeria Police Force has any grievances about the portrayal of the Police in Nigerian films or the use of police equipment, the best thing to do is to channel its grievances through the NFVCB or the Film Censors Committee. Whatever fears that the Police IG may have are addressed in Sections 36 (1) and (2) of the NFVCB Act dealing with "censorship criteria". Nor are the powers of the NFVCB absolute for it can be sued, and its decisions challenged. Certain sections of the NFVCB Act (Section 24 (1), 42, 62) recognize the power of a police officer to enforce provisions of the Act especially in the parts relating to licensing of premises, exhibition of video/films, power of entry, search etc. But nowhere in this or any other law is the Police empowered to act as the film censor. When the Inspector-General of Police seeks to intimidate film producers by purporting to tell them how the Police should be portrayed in films, he may actually be stepping on a dangerous territory namely the likely violation of the right to free speech which is guaranteed in the extant Constitution. This certainly is not the intention of the law on censorship. How the police is portrayed is a matter of interpretation. Films and videos are primarily works of art. They may approximate reality, pay the necessary gestures to verisimilitude, especially because of their virtual three-dimensionality, but the film producer as an artist is free to roam in the sphere of imagination, he can if he so wishes expand reality, reconstruct it, contract it, or choose any idiom that suits him to convey a significant message. Mr Okiro says the portrayal of Nigerian policemen in films and videos does not relate to "facts on ground". I am tempted to agree with him. The policemen I see in real life on the streets of Nigeria dress shabbily. In Nigerian movies, they seem to dress better than their real life representations. The streets of Nigeria are full of police men wearing torn shirts, dirty uniforms, most of the junior ranks go about without belts or caps. Daily I see many of our policemen wearing pairs of bathroom slippers. In the movies, they at least wear proper uniforms and they look neat. I have watched quite a number of Nigerian movies, thanks to the Africa Magic Channel on Cable Television. I observe that in the movies, police stations also tend to be portrayed as organized places, with the DPO sitting in a clean office. In real life, you don't want to go near a police station: those dingy holes they call police stations or the rat-infested, dilapidated barracks in which our police men live. I was watching a movie titled Simple Baby, only yesterday evening: the police men in that movie were quite courteous and responsible. And Simple Baby is not an exception. In real life, the only police officers that are courteous and responsible are the senior ranks: the police rank and file is peopled by ragamuffins in uniform. Even in such films as Sergeant Okoro (starring Sam Loco Efe) and Police woman (starring Patience Ozokwor - Mama G) where the police is the direct butt of the joke, the producers still manage to offer a more progressive view of the Nigerian police than "the facts on ground" indicate. Mr Okiro should in fact be grateful to Nigerian film and video producers, all things considered, except he is being insincere about the "facts on ground." And should film producers choose to ridicule the Nigerian Police, this will be perfectly acceptable as free speech. If Mr Okiro wants to promote the image of the Police, he can encourage the Nigerian Police Force Public Relations Department to start a television series, or do a series of videos on police work or even produce movies in which his "facts on ground" can be turned into film scripts and marketed to the public. He complains about the use of police equipment and uniform. It is true that in many Nigerian movies, you are likely to find vehicles and guns belonging to the Nigerian Police, and often, some of those uniforms look like they have just been taken off the back of a serving police officer. But the question that the Inspector General of Police should answer is: how do those equipment and uniforms get on to movie sets? The truth is that movie producers rent Nigerian police uniforms, police guns and vehicles for the shooting of their movies. It is common knowledge that the Nigerian Police is available for rent. What movie producers do is to go to a DPO or some high ranking police officer. They pay some money and police men, police guns, police equipment are released for hire. While the shooting of the movie is going on, the real police men whose equipment would have been handed over to the actors are kept busy with drinks and food and what Nigerians call "smoke". If there is any distress call at that moment, obviously, the shooting of the movie takes precedence. This practice may not be known to the Police Headquarters, but Okiro can investigate it. It is not only the police that is available for hire, though. To shoot a movie at any of the country's airports, film producers are asked to pay, and such monies are never documented. They don't form part of public revenue. It should be noted however that a film producer does not even need to use Nigerian Police Uniform. Fictional uniforms can be created. Fake guns may be used. In the movie, Koseegbe, for example, the guns used are toy guns. Mr Okiro is not the first government official to complain about the image of the Nigerian state and its components as portrayed in Nigerian films and movies. Government officials are wont to protest that the movies do not portray Nigeria in a good light. This is an acknowledgement of the power and influence of contemporary Nigerian movies, as represented by the explosion of enterprise and talent represented by the Nollywood phenomenon. Nollywood today is rated third in the world, next to the American Hollywood and the Indian Bollywood in terms of the pace of growth and productivity. Besides the banking sector, Nollywood is the next most active industry in Nigeria today. Its total market potential per annum is estimated at over N500 billion. It has also proven to be a major cultural and social phenomenon, and Nigeria's principal cultural export considering its growing popularity among Africans at home and in diaspora. But whereas the potential of culture is thus being loudly demonstrated, there is no proof of a conscious effort on the part of government to link Nollywood and indeed the Nigerian cultural establishment to the country's development process. Government prefers to complain about the content of Nollywood and allegations of a lack of patriotism in the portrayal of Nigeria. What is required is a change of attitude on the part of government and its agents. The resort to blackmail cannot work, what is required is a constructive engagement with the culture establishment, either severally or collectively. This is done is serious countries, and the starting point is the definition of a development-oriented cultural policy, in which culture is properly defined as art, as life, as vehicle, as business and as a sacred part of the governance and national identity process. The likes of Okiro are obviously impressed by what they see in American movies in which the American state and its agents are forever portrayed as exceptional. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the New York Police Department (NYPD) are forever imprinted in the minds of world audiences as very efficient institutions. America owes its cultural hegemony to the force and impact of its cultural industry. But this did not happen by accident. In the 50s, there was a moment when a certain Senator McCarthy launched an onslaught against the American cultural establishment as artists were accused of supporting Communism, but this was a passing phase of hysteria, what has endured is a conscious and organised effort by the American state to turn Hollywood into an extension of the American State Department, not through blackmail, but a well-honed policy of cultural engagement and official support. Today, America's vision of being the best, American hegemony, democracy and capitalism are all conveyed through the vehicle of culture without short-changing the demands of artistic creativity. The subtle caveat however is that what we see is not the kind of propaganda that Nigerian officials seek, but a picturization that reflects the "facts on ground". A well-dressed LAPD officer, or a tenacious FBI agent, is not a fictive creation, he exists in reality. Those beautiful streets in American movies are not made up; they exist. If anything, Nigerian film producers give a picture of affluence in Nigeria that is at variance with reality. They deserve praise not stones. Those who want to re-brand Nigeria through the movies must begin at the level of good governance and good conduct and the artistes will reflect this transformation as "facts on ground" in their works. Government at all levels must also seek to engage Nollywood and the rest of the culture establishment by providing incentives which can help create a more enabling environment for artistic expression and creativity. The Nigerian artist today is practically ignored by the state. He or she is remembered only when foreign dignitaries are to be entertained or the high and mighty need to amuse themselves with a few hours of song and dance, or there is an opportunity to award contracts under the guise of promoting arts and culture! Mr Okiro wants a meeting with film producers. Perhaps if he changes the agenda of the meeting, our film producers may be interested in meeting him. There are ways in which the Nigerian Police Force can assist the movie industry, and through that forge a partnership that may be more useful. For example, distribution is currently a big problem that is threatening to hobble the industry. The Film and Video Censors Board under Emeka Mba's watch has come up with a "Comprehensive Policy on the Distribution and Marketing of Films and Video works in Nigeria" but the policy is not yet tested. The "facts on ground" is that once a movie is produced, and it is shown once or twice, the pirates move in and reproduce the movie and they sell it on the streets of Nigeria. Oftentimes, they sell the works in packs of six or twelve at give-away prices. There are copyright laws in need of enforcement, the merchants of pirated cultural products are out there on the streets of Nigeria, while film producers are struggling to protect their copyright. Hollywood film producers enjoy support from the FBI, the Marines, the Police and other security agencies in the United States whenever they have a film or scene relating to national security image. Here in Nigeria, film producers are routinely exposed to needless harassment from police men who ask for bribe, and area boys, neighbourhood thugs and "omo oniles" who insist on collecting ground rent. The Nigerian Police Force can help to provide security at movie locations. If the Inspector-General of Police is seeking to intervene in Nollywood, he would be doing a world of good by starting in this direction.
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