Buhari Extols Nollywood, Seeks Global Cooperation

President Muhammadu Buhari has praised the Nigerian Film Industry and the practitioners for making the government and people of Nigeria proud and for putting the country on the global map of film making.

The President, in a foreword personally signed by him in a brochure on the film industry with the title Nollywood: Nigerian Film Industry at a Glance, published by the Africa Film Academy, praised the creative energy and enterprise of the Nollywood pioneers and those who continue to make the industry stronger.

President Buhari stated, “The Nigerian film industry that is now called Nollywood, in the fashion of the American, Hollywood and Indian, Bollywood started as the effort of a group of enterprising young men and women who traded on their talents and sheer determination without anyone paying attention. It has now metamorphosed into a big industry employing thousands of people, contributing to the national Gross Domestic Product and empowering a new generation of creative entrepreneurs.”

The President traced the evolution of film making in Nigeria to the 1960s as well as to the theatre greats such as Hubert Ogunde, Duro Ladipo and Adeyemi Afolayan (Ade Love) among others.

He charged the current filmmakers to continue to use their works to promote the values that unite Nigeria and project the right image of Nigeria to the world promising the commitment of his government to continue to support the industry to grow.

“Our government will continue to support the creative sectors of its economy so as to encourage our teeming youths while we enjoin our filmmakers to continue to project the image of Nigeria and the continent of Africa in a positive way through their story lines. Filmmakers should not make films for art sake. Films should be functional and socially relevant,” the president advised. 

He continued, “Filmmakers, whether local or those who come here to use our facilities, must however be sensitive to our cultures and religions. They must not glamourise violence or sexual vulgarity in all their forms. They must not promote racism or ethnic superiority or demonise any religion or culture.

“I want to see more films that celebrate our diversity, films that celebrate the achievements of our people, films that promote social causes of right to education, films that tells us the evil of domestic violence against men and women, films that inspire hope and faith in our country and humanity in general. I am confident that Nollywood would go from strength to strength.”

In her introduction in the brochure which was presented to the global film audience at the Toronto International Film Festival  in Canada, the Africa Film Academy founder, Ms. Peace Anyiam-Osigwe noted that her organisation put the brochure together as a reference materials on the Nigerian film industry for delegates and professionals who came to the 41^st Toronto International Film Festival which is the biggest film festival in the world in terms of level of big production and distribution companies that attend to buy rights for films at the festival.

Anyiam-Osigwe said, ’This information book is a compendium on the motion picture industry in Nigeria that emerged post 1990 and that is popularly called Nollywood. It was conceived by the Africa Film Academy (AFA) to be a quick guide and reference material to help anyone understand the story of Nollywood, how it evolved, the staying power and the roles that stakeholders across the value chain, play.