The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed has come under intense fire for saying that movie scenes and music videos must be shot in Nigeria. Decrying
The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed has come under intense fire for saying that movie scenes and music videos must be shot in Nigeria. Decrying the situation in which the films and music meant for consumption in Nigeria are made in foreign countries, he said, “The government is determined to ensure that what is consumed in Nigeria, including films and music, must be made in Nigeria.”
Lai Mohammed said this during a reception in his honour by the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) at the weekend in Lagos. The minister was being honoured for his dedication to the campaign for the rights of creative people in the country. At the ceremony which featured a lot of music and documentary videos, the Minister was presented with the ‘Copyright Medal of Honour’ and his name entered in the ‘COSON Roll of Honour’ after the reading of his citation.
However, not a few artists have condemned his statement that music videos and movie scenes being consumed in Nigeria by the Nigerian audience must be shot in Nigeria rather than in developed countries. Jude Okoye, the older brother to the Okoye twins singing sensation was the first to voice out his anger. In a post he put up on social media, he wondered how the government now wanted to control an industry they never encouraged, supported or empowered.
“An industry they never encouraged, supported or empowered is what they now want to control. You all (government officials) should stop running abroad when you are sick since you use the country’s currency to patronize hospitals in developed countries. You people are the ones refusing to fix our health facilities but you are quick to travel when you are bitten by mosquito. Why tell us where to record when u can’t provide uninterrupted power supply in Nigeria. Sometime I wonder where we got it all wrong, he said”
The Okoye brothers are known to shoot most of their music videos in various countries of the world for quality output. Similarly, his twin brothers didn’t quite spare Lai Mohammed. Peter one half of the twins in a series of tweets, said he is sometimes ashamed to be called a Nigerian because of government officials. He went on to educate the federal government how it is that it is entertainers that help to cover some of the shame that government officials bring on the country.
Equally angered by the speech made by Lai Mohammed was rap artist, Ruggedman. In a post he captioned #MinisterFaceYourWork, he said, “A woman has just been arrested for exchanging her 2 month old baby for a bag of rice. That’s how hard the situation in our country is getting. Meanwhile the budget to run the Nigerian Senate in 2017 is N215billion. A government that has not in anyway supported or encouraged the Nigerian entertainment industry now thinks it can control it. An industry that men and women have single handedly built? Big joke
“We watch you use the country any how you like because unfortunately, you are the ones at the helm of affairs. We all see how that has been going since 1960. You are not providing jobs for the masses. Education is poor, our Nigerian certificates are more useless than tissue paper outside Nigeria. There’s no stable electricity supply, no security, our hospitals are not equipped, so our president has to go to a London hospital to receive treatment.
“Nigerians who are not related to any rich family are on their own. Entertainment that has kept a lot of Nigerians off the street is what you want to try to destroy. You haven’t helped us to fight pirates. You haven’t helped us get our royalties. You have not set up anything to help the Nigerian entertainment industry. The amenities we lack are a few of the reasons some entertainers go outside the country to shoot music videos and movies. Now you want to try to stop that? Please do not make me laugh.
“Even America where their government gives their citizens the amenities they deserve still shoot movies in other countries. Nigerian government should stop giving us jokes and give us light, equip and pay our forces. Equip our hospitals well enough so that even our president can be treated here. Stop owing pensioners, doctors and teachers. And stop sending your kids to schools abroad. It’s Nigeria’s money you are spending abroad. Spend our money here.”
