BY IPHIE OBIECHINA
My mother has never been a fan of Nigerian movies and did not let us watch them when we were younger. She had another reason for that, they did not teach any good lessons, rather they left bad impressions on young impressionable minds. I remember getting angry for been scolded once and so in line with that I saw in a Nigerian movie, I went for the laundry rope and tied it to the guava tree, you know where this is heading, but I am still here today so you know I was too much of a coward to see it through. Not only was I afraid of the pain the rope inflicted on my little neck, I was scared that even after I died, my mum would bring me back to life just to flog the stupidity me, then proceed to mourn me. Anyway, that was it for our romance with Nigerian movies in my house, the last Nigerian movie I remember watching as a kid was Living in Bondage, every other thing I knew about Nigerian movies were from gists I heard in school.
This all changed with the introduction of DSTV's Africa Magic, I was in S.S 2 I think, old enough to defy my parents but still scared enough of them not to. The first time I watched African Magic, I was in my family friends's house and after that I watched it a few more times. Then my grandma came to stay with us for a while during my court attachment period, let just say the DSTV downstairs was hers and she watched just African Magic on it. I used to go chill with her everyday after court sessions, and I eventually got used to the stupidity of Nigerian movies. Our househelp did not help matters either, I am a kind of person that sees whatever she starts to the end, so once I start a Nigerian movie I watch it to the end.
For a while I was able to stop watching Nigerian movies, because all I ever did when I watched them was insult every move they made, my friends would always say, 'Iphie if you are going to insult this movie from start to finish why do you bother watching it?' Well the answer was simple, it wasn't the movies per say that I was addicted to, it was pointing out their stupidity that I enjoyed, hehehe! Anyway, fast forward to May 2012, and I was faced with a long summer break, May to the end of September, so I travelled and got tired and so I watched movies and series, you would not believe this, but every series that was out in summer 2012 I watched. So I was left with only Nigerian movies, after I was done with the foreign series and movies, the introduction of Iroko didn't help matters at all, so the yabbing addiction came back. Well I would be the first to admit that not all Nigerian Movies are bad, some are actually so good you wonder if it was really Nigerians that produced them. The Meeting is one of such movies, not everyone would figure out that the main story was the love story between Mr M and Ejura, but the movie also showed the reality of getting things done in Nigeria. Another Nigerian movie I enjoyed during my visit home was Flower Girl. Now I am not trying to hype anyone here oh, but these movies were movies that made me think and I really enjoyed them, not a single insult was let out by me while the movie lasted and neither did my brain cells curse me for the tortue I usually subject them to while watching Nigerian movies.
I know you are asking the point of all my long stories abi! Hmmm, so last week in the process of of writing my dissertation, I was experiencing some sort of writer's block, I discovered a lot about myself in the course of writing this dissertation. Watching and insulting these Nigerian movies helped, release the 'creative' juices that I needed, hehehe. Anyway in my hunt for for Nigerian movies, I came across three movies which shall not be named, no way am I spoiling anybody's day the way mine was spoilt. The opening scene in one of the movies was a gay scene!!! Come on, a gay scene?? They were naked and all oh. They other movies were basically the same thing, no gay sex this time, just more sex and more nakedness.
When did it become ok to teach our kids, that not only is it ok to be stupid, its also ok to be gay, it is also ok to go around having irresponsible sex whenever we felt like, with whosoever was close by, when did it become ok to go around naked. Have these actors forgotten that they are role models to young minds and that they have the rare opportunity to impact in the lives of of young people. I have a grouse with the producers and directors of these nasty movies, how do they sleep at night? What happened to the Nigerian Film and Videos Censors Board? Are the not the regulatory body charged with checking the kind of movies Nollywood throws into the market.
The truth is that, the movie industry plays a very important role in the society we live in today. It has a role to play in moulding young mind, when we were younger, my parents used to watch even cartoons before they let us watch it, because they understood how impressionable our young minds were. The movie industry has a role to play in portraying Nigeria to the world. I have been asked before if Nigerian really behave the way they do in movies, I simply asked the person if I behave that way, that ended it. Nigerian movies have a role to play in the change we seek for Nigeria.
The Nigerian movie industry has a very important role to play and its high time it starts living up to its responsibilities. It is time for us to start demanding more from these actors, its time for us to show us that they can be trusted with moulding little minds. Maybe we should start treating these actors, directors and producers like the scums of the earth that they portray in their movies, maybe then the mediocre movies would stop. Personally, no more Nigerian movies for me, except they promise to be worthy of my 120minutes, or more, I watched a movie by Uche Jombo yesterday and she had a message for men out there, make a will before you die and don't leave your wife and kids at the mercy of your family members, and for the women, have your own personal savings. We need movies with messages, not just movie that they come up with because they need some change in their pockets. I know, my boycotting these disgraceful movies would not make any dent to their business, but imagine if half of the people in Nigeria decided to do that. Its time for us to start demanding better from the movie industry, it time to tell them to stop insulting our intelligence. I intend to write an open letter to the Nigerian Film and Videos Censors Board, enough is enough!
Charles Enoh a Legal practitioner, who is very passionate about Nigeria. He believes that being in informed is a step in the right direction towards development especially for Nigerian youths.
