Abubakar Rabo
14 August 2008
opinion
Lagos — When you strip Abdulrazaq Bello-Barkindo's "Kano's waft on Literature" of its pathetic rudeness of language what is left is an equally pathetic howling of a morally deranged anarchist who acquired his ethical principles from the seedier parts of a Township. T
he man must be carrying a troubled and tormented heart that cannot be appeased by good spiritedness to ascribe idiocy to Malam Ibrahim Shekarau. Abdulrazaque is, let's be fair to him, an intruder to a long steaming debate characterised by rancorousness and turgidity of positions, his best contribution being, in the tradition of his column, the intemperate language and alarmism of an attention seeker. This rejoinder would not have been necessary but for the unrestrained rascality in the allegations levelled against the Shekarau administration, an administration whose sterling achievements in all facets of human endeavour gives him and his likes goose pimples, an administration whose societal re-orientation programme attracts the wrath and cynicism of the Old Guard and its despicable apologists, incapable of weaning themselves from the old corrupt ways.
I must admit here that censorship as a topic of debate is a rather emotional one. Tongue-lashing censorship and those who are entrusted with the thankless duty of wading though filth in this age of science and reason so that normal people can get on with their lives sounds romantic and heady; maybe Malam Abdulrazaque fancies himself as some old fashioned Knight with shiny armour fighting to safeguard the freedom to produce and watch any video clip thrust into the market, the one freedom Hausa women in Purdah have been able to snatch from their men folk, long satisfied with holding up those pages in the religious books that support keeping the woman indoors "like a home-appliance or mere pieces of furniture and sex objects". I bet this is the stuff of self-deprecating commentary guaranteed to fetch Malam Abdulrazaque an extended visa to a choice European country or a fellowship invitation from a well-heeled Western-country Foundation "dedicated to the liberation of intellectually enslaved peoples all over the world".
But here in Kano our people cannot comprehend it all. Is civilisation synonymous with decadence? Is obscenity a buzzword for freedom? When there is freedom of expression (which covers the right to produce and circulate works of art, films and literature), does it take away the responsibility of parents and guardians to safeguard their wards and sheen them from corrosive visual influences? What gadgets or navigational instruments are at the disposal of these overwhelmed parents in the face of rapidly transforming technology of mass production and ease of viewing? The advent of video technology brought with it urgencies and tough challenges. In the past, you could physically prevent young boys and girls from going to watch a film at the cinema hall if you feared they would be exposed to immorality. With video technology the devil has been piped into the home and corruption is only a click away. Kano is a conservative Muslim Hausa society whose people are comfortable with their religion and cultural heritage. I say conservative because Kano people would love to sieve the impurities from the values being transmitted by the newest art forms. We love entertainment but without the corruption. And yes, it is possible to safeguard an art form from corrupting influences. Equating the rejection of an art form with official contingency to preserve an art form or the art medium from being corrupted by merchants of lewdness is pitiable debauchery.
What has the Kano Censorship Board done to warrant uncouth reviews such as "Kano's waft on literature"? Where does ignorance stop and mischief take over? Indeed has the censor's board turned the hand of civilisation's clock in Kano as Malam Abdulrazaque would make us believe? What are the facts, fiction and table of discontent? Where sweeping hysterical allegations are not backed by evidence, what and who do we believe? A sampler will alert the reader that these are the best efforts of a propagandist out to discredit the Shekarau administration and incite the hatred of civilised members of the society against it
"Meanwhile, the powers that be in the state, who had all along been waiting in the wings, pondering a devious action against the entertainment industry pounced on this error and capitalised on it to draw the curtains on acting. While the video scandal happened only in 2007, the decision to destroy the industry had been in the works for close to a decade, indeed, since the advent of Shari'a by self-appointed puritans. Having dealt a deadly blow on Kaniwood, the directorate now set its eyes on literature. It was said that the DG had even vowed to shut the doors to the book stores in the city."
Now let's expose Abdulrazaque's vituperations for what they truly are. By "the powers that be", I guess he meant the state government through the Censorship Board but the insinuation that "they had been waiting all along, pondering a devious action against the entertainment industry" is cocktail of lies and fiction. The Shekarau government is not anti-intellectual or out to suppress the creative energies of its people by any stretch of imagination and so far no person has adduced evidence to rove such. In fact, this is a government that is focused on human resource development. Only this year, the Shekarau government through the Censors Board sponsored 10 film makers to a workshop tagged "Shoot 2008" organised by the National Film Festival, Jos, Plateau state. Does that show a government "pondering a devious action against the entertainment industry"? The "video scandal", herein mentioned casually was the event in August 2007 that triggered state-wide citizen outcry that forced the hand of government into reading the riot act to the minority elements within the industry determined to abuse the air of Libertarianism enjoyed by Kanawa under the Shekarau era. After the wide circulation of an amateur video reproduction of a popular Kannywood actress in a pornographic scene, parents and guardians rose in one voice to demand the sanitisation of an industry which though extremely popular and patronised was nonetheless prone to abuse if there are no regulatory standards. The Shekarau Government did not enact the State Censorship Board Law 2001. The Law was inherited from the Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso administration and was not invoked until the unfortunate pornographic incident mentioned above.
All over the world, the entertainment industry is scrupulously regulated not for the full satisfaction of artists, producers, marketers, distributors or even critics but principally for the moral health of the consumers, some of whom may not appreciate the consequences of what they are consuming. No work of art, be it film, video, song or book can be superior to the moral well being or even the survival of the larger society. A society is doomed which exercises no modicum of control or sets minimum standards of morality for practitioners of art and entertainment. The pressure to rein in the video film producers in Kannywood comes from the people themselves and being a responsible and responsive government, the Shekarau administration has a duty to ensure that the minimum standard set by the Law on Censorship are adhered to.
Come to think of it, why should film producers, whether video or celluloid expect not to be subjected to minimum industrial standards? Legal practice and lawyers are regulated, teachers are registered because only persons with a basic teaching qualification can teach, met sellers are supervised by sanitation officers because consumers can be exposed to ill-health if their practice is not checked. Bank, insurance companies, telecommunications companies, publicly quoted companies, beverage makers, every organisation which offers products or services to a large segment of the society is regulated through registration and its activities overseen by a competent body. Why should the entertainment industry be exempted from supervision? Why does anyone believe that by subjecting the industry and its practitioners to minimum set of rules and regulations, then "younger generations are being denied access to educational instruction". Must the education of any generation, never mind the age, include pornographic film clips of famous actresses to pass the Bello-Barkindo freedom test?
I want to draw Malam Abdulrazaque's attention to an interview granted by Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu of the Centre for Hausa Cultural Studies to weekly Trust newspaper in October 2007 where the learned scholar was quoted as saying: "It got to a stage where unless a Hausa film has girls with tight dresses, singing and dancing suggestively, it will not sell and filmmakers have been defending this by insisting that they are in the business to make money, not art. One of them - one of the biggest among them - even told us bluntly, 'to hell with Hausa culture; I am a filmmaker and I want to make money, if you people want a cultural film, do it with your own money'. This marketing mantra led to more song and dance routines with girls dressed in tight clothes, shaking their bodies suggestively, even if the story does not warrant a dance".
A poster boy of this "marketing mantra" Alhaji Sani Mu'azu, a Kannywood producer, had earlier dragged the Censors Board to court challenging the ban on his movie "Hafsah" and claiming that if Hausa women could wear tight-fitting pants inside their houses that it was hypocritical to stop his girls in tight-fitting pants dancing provocatively in his films. The question is, where did he borrow such bawdy film culture from? Certainly not from India whose Bollywood is so tightly regulated that when United States actor Richard Gere kissed a popular Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty at a charity concert in India, he caused a national uproar with crowds protesting in the streets demanding his punishment. India is certainly more accomplished than Nigeria in science, technology and the arts but kissing or any public display of affection remains a taboo there. Preserving the dignity of womenfolk is one area of agreement between Bollywood and Kannywood.
All stakeholders agree that the Censors Board has the statutory obligation to register practitioners but allegations have gone out that the Board is not satisfied with registering guilds and associations but wants to register individual artists and producers, a charge the Board denies, insisting that it has a duty to vet and verify the names submitted as association members to avoid people of questionable characters, drug addicts, paedophiles, alcoholics, cultists and robbers hiding under the Guilds to pass on their corrupt morals to younger people.
However a vast number of practitioners resent the very notion of submitting their works for vetting by any agency, claiming that Censorship is anachronistic and anti-progress. It is the civic duty of every Kanawa to ask these nihilists where they borrowed their anarchical paradigm from. In Hollywood, the most advanced film industry in the world, mainstream film producers are guided by the Hays Code (The Motions Picture Production Code of 1930) which unabashedly concedes that "If motion pictures present stories that will affect lives for the better, they can become the most powerful force for the improvement of mankind". It is no surprise that the Code's first Principle is "No picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin."
The code makes a clear distinction between entertainment "which tends to improve the race, or at least to re-create and rebuild human beings exhausted with the realities of life" and entertainment "which tends to degrade human beings, or to lower their standards of life and living". Sex and scandal are the stuff which "tends to degrade human beings or lower their standards of life and living". This debate would not be necessary if Kannywood producers had put together an equivalent of the Hays Code to which the public could hold them accountable.
-Rabo is Director General, Kano Censorship Board
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