The Nigerian movie industry popularly known as Nollywood named after the American Hollywood has come of age.
The coining of the term Nollywood is credited to A New York Times journalist, Norimitsu Onishi in 2002 ten years after Kenneth Nnebue’s ground breaking film: Living In Bondage that revolutionized the movie industry was released. Although this piece is not about the historicity of the movie industry in Nigeria but suffice it to say that the film and cinema culture in Nigeria has been in existence since the colonial era.
However what acted as the catalyst that triggered the upsurge – the upsurge that uploaded the sector to the global stage – was the release of the epoch-making movie entitled: Living in Bondage in 1992 by Kenneth Nnebue.
Thereafter, other blockbuster movies like: The Glamour Girls, Violated, The Battle of Muzanga, Ikuku, Igodo, The Figurine, Ije, The Wedding Party, The Half of A Yellow Sun among others followed.
One of the striking features of Nollywood movies was a deviation of the traditional cinema thing that was prevalent heretofore. As rightly noted by some observers, the “Early Nollywood movies were characterized by a kind of home video production quality.
More recently, however, the Nigerian movie industry is improving their craft. Known for comedies and dramas, Nollywood is now producing more genres like horror, period pieces, musicals, animations, and even nolly-noir at industry standard picture and sound quality”.
The Nigerian film industry, a subset of the entertainment sector is growing in leaps and bounds. With a production output of over 2,500 films annually, it is ranked second highest producing film in the world behind the Indian Bollywood. As of 2013, Nigerian cinema is rated as the third most valuable film industry in the world based on its worth and revenues generation. It is on record that by the end of 2013, the film industry reportedly hit record-breaking revenue of ₦1.72 trillion ($11 billion). And in 2014, the industry was worth ₦853.9 billion ($5.1 billion) making it the third most valuable film industry in the world, behind the United States and India.
It contributed about 1.4% to Nigeria’s economy; this was attributed to the increase in the number of quality films produced and more formal distribution methods.
Many factors have been attributed to the phenomenal success of the movie industry in Nigeria. Apart from the resilience and creativity of the movie producers another factor that has acted as a boon to the sector is the country’s multilingualism that has made the operators produce films not only in English or pidgin but in the three major languages. Thus, there are films in Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and some other local languages making the industry very popular even among the rural folks.
As a Nigerian in Diaspora, I know that the Nigerian films are in high demand especially by our people living outside the shores of the country for many reasons. First, it evokes a feeling of nostalgia amongst Nigerians living abroad because of the themes explored by the movie producers.
Secondly, the peculiar humor and the unique locales of our films are things to cherish among our people. Again, the characters depicted by our film makers and the plots and the story lines provide a complement to the high-tech outlandish Western films.
At present, the Nollywood and its allied industries employs over one million Nigerian, the highest employer of labour, second only to Agriculture in Nigeria. As a movie practitioners and activist, I am aware of the enormous contribution the motion picture industry has contributed to the growth of Nigerian economy.
As I observed earlier, “apart from those involved directly in film production – the actors, producers, directors, singers, make-up artists, and costumiers among others – the industry creates employment for film sellers and business men,” inter alia.
But the contribution of Nollywood is not just to the growth of Nigerian economy nay the culture and tourism in Nigeria. It is against this background of phenomenal success that I wish to congratulate the leadership and practitioners in the industry more especially for its contribution to cultural revival in Nigeria. Recently, in Abuja the leadership of Actors Guild of Nigeria organized a New Yam Festival where our cultural Arts were on parade. In a colorful ceremony held at Nannet Suites Abuja and attended by dignitaries from all works of life were different cultural displays.
There was the Atilogu Cultural Troupe, the Gbagyi Cultural Troupe among others. Also in attendance were the who-is-who in the Nigerian entertainment sector. The leadership of the Actors’ Guild of Nigeria used the occasion to present awards in different categories to deserving members of the society.
In presenting the awards, the leadership of the Nigerian motion picture industry enjoined the awardees among who is my humble self, to uphold the ideals which necessitated the conferment of the awards to them. In his address at the occasion, the President of Actors’ Guild of Nigeria Chief Emeka Rollas enjoined actors, producers and directors in the industry to remain focus and forward-looking to be able to identify and harness the opportunities available in the industry.
Also, a member of the New Yam Festival organizing committee and a movie veteran Steve Eboh, on his part, during an interview with members of the Press, admonished the movie practitioners to be ethical and to always and uphold the spirit of camaradie without which synergy and networking would be impossible.
Indeed, the Nollywood and the entertainment sector are growing and significantly contributing to the development of the country by creating employment, income and FOREX earning and other remittances to the country. It is contributing to cultural revival, enlightenment campaign, education and value re-orientation. It is projecting our cultural values by satirizing the evils in the society.
No doubt, through the instrumentality of the cultural activisms such as the New Yam Festival and other platforms instituted by the leadership of Nollywood, the attention of the industry would be drawn to its potentials and challenges. It would also provide avenues to articulate issues affecting the industry.
The issues associated with cost of movie production, piracy, funding and the existence quacks bedeviling the industry sometimes are better tackled through concerted efforts that could only be engendered in an atmosphere of peace and conviviality.
In the past, the leadership of the movie industry has been able to attract the government attention which came in form of several interventionist funding programmes. For instance in 2010, the regime of President Goodluck Jonathan launched a ₦30 billion ($200 million) Intervention Fund, financed by Bank of Industry (BOI), in conjunction with Nigerian Export and Import (NEXIM) Bank for the “Creative and Entertainment Industry” to support training, funding, and also help in creating necessary infrastructure for the industry.
The industry needs more of such interventionists’ programs especially now that youth unemployment is on the increase for the growth of the movie industry is directly related to growth of Nigeria economy.
Mohammed, an actress, social activist, and politician, writes from London, UK, via [email protected]
