Fred Iwenjora
23 November 2002
CAESAR KAGHO is the public relations manager of the Nigeria Film and Video Censors Board. The Warri bred, Fleet Street, London trained journalist and graduate of the National Film Institute speaks on the progress and problems of the board. He says,"we are trying to contribute to the moral upbringing of our children so they can think objectively, positively and decently by our classification and censoring of the movies produced in the country. Most of all, he talks about the new initiative of the board in instituting the best movie of the month
You have come under fire for what you have been doing at streamlining the movie industry by censoring and classifying movies. What do you consider your achievements so far. How far have you succeeded in this onerous task.
Well, so far so good. We are not going to be so immodest as to praise ourselves, because the public is here to tell the truth of what we have been doing. But let me say that the duty of the board as stipulated by the enabling laws are being done. From what we see in the video works being brought for assessment and classification from all over the country by movie producers, here we have a remarkable drift from the old order. You will be pleasantly surprised to know that some of these new films have no record of violence, rituals, sex, drugs and the viewer is till held bound by the creativity of the director. You can see that Nigerian directors are really good at their work,even without the resources. It is just that the bandwagon effect really killed some of their individual creativity and many of them who obviously have towed that line are making a dramatic U turn and you can bet that within a short time, new millionaires are going to emerge from new genres of Nigeria movie makers. I must say that this is possible because of the work of the censors board's encouragement to film makers.
Are you saying that Nigeria movie makers and viewers have imbibed your message of cleansing ...
I think that they have definitely done so. They now know the rule, and so far they are doing very well, the board has introduced some additional classification category which have been widely publicised and any film maker has a choice of category for his production. As they say the choice is theirs to decide whether they want a General (G), Not To be Broadcast (NTBB), (18) Adult Viewership etc. But then again if you mean the viewing public, who are the users of the product of film makers, there is certainly a lot of awareness especially amongst parents. Nigerian parents now know that film makers cannot impose certain things for the whole family to watch. Any family who does not prize morality and virtue will fall short of their social ethics to encourage their children to continuously watch films that carry symbols other than the now famous SFB, or G. SFB denotes, Safe for Broadcast while G stands for General. We are trying to contribute to the moral upbringing of our children so that they can think objectively, positively, and decently before they attain maturity.
You must be having problems convincing the movie makers who seem hostile to your seeming good intentions.
The problems are there. As you know there are a few aspects of life which do not have problems. One basic fact is that when the people know what is right and they do it, there will be no problems. What mostly obtains in society is that people do the wrong things blatantly for many reasons best known to them and consequently problems arise. We are aware of these problems in the Board and prompt actions are always taken to contain them. These problems include the release of uncensored movies by some producers, operating illegal video outlets, forging the boards symbols on jackets and marketing banned films.
What is the future of movies in Nigeria in your honest opinion?
With the guidelines of the censorship laws being fully complied with, coupled with the talents available in Nigeria, the future of movies in Nigeria is limitless. Another aspect that will enhance this future is the improvement of the various departments that make up a good movie, namely the scripting, casting, editing, especially because, this is where the rhythm of any movie lies with smart cuts, fast mixes, fades, dissolves and other effects that increase the tempo of the movies.Then overall, when Nigerian movie makers must have evolved from this present genre of witchcraft and debauchery, after all the money seekers, wife and husband snatchers, ritual killers and the rest have finally gone extinct like the dinoseurs, will fresh blood be injected into the system, and our children's children will begin to enjoy and grow up to know the thrill of entertainment embedded in movies.
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