Structuring Nollywood: The MOPICON option

Three months ago, the Minister for Information, Mr. Labaran Maku,
revealed that the Ministrywas at the verge of presenting the Motion
Picture Practitioners Council of Nigeria (MOPICON) bill to the Federal
Executive Council. According to him, the bill aims to professionalize
the film sector and bring it in line with global best practices.
I was not moved by this yet another ministerial posturing because,
Maku's predecessor in office, Prof. Dora Akunyili, made so much
hullabaloo about being in possession of the original draft MOPICON
bill and indeed, in her characteristic manner, vowed to ensure the
passage of the bill by the National Assembly.
She never did. This is why I wonder if any stakeholder in Nollywood
believes Maku. For me, the much talked about MOPICON is gradually but
steadily replicating the Freedomof Information (FoI) bill in terms of
checkered historical antecedents.
Let me historicize, albeit in capsule. In 2006, the Nigerian Film
Corporation set up a steering committee for MOPICON. The committee,
whichwas made up of what was then considered as elected
representatives of all sectors ofthe motion picture industry in
Nigeria, actually generated the much talked about draft MOPICON bill.
The committee met severally and received memoranda fromstakeholders
cut across virtuallyall the zones of the federation. The committee
completed its task and submitted the draft MOPICON bill about 5 years
ago.If passed into law, MOPICON willbe akin to the Advertising
Practitioners' Council of Nigeria (APCON).
As motion picture practitioners await the "passage" of the MOPICON
bill into law by the National Assembly, little did they know that the
said bill was nowhere near the confines of the hallowed Chamber. I
suspectthat politics and personal interests set in soon after the NFC
handed over the document to its parent ministry – Ministry of
Information.
In my view, two main factors are responsible for the frustration of
the MOPICON document. These are the politicsbetween the Ministry of
Culture and Tourism and its Information counterpart on one hand, and
the rivalry between the NFC and the National Film and Video Censors
Board (NFVCB) on the other hand.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism believes, and rightly so too, that
the MOPICON issue is itsaffair and not the business of the Information
Ministry. The impunity of transferring the NFC and NFVCB from the
Ministry of Culture and Tourism to the Ministry of Information in
early 2000s by then PresidentOlusegun Obasanjo is largely responsible
for the avoidable politicking between the two ministries.
My take here is that globally, film and indeed the entertainment
industry is inseparable from culture and tourism. Apart from
conservative countries like China and France, no film making nation in
the world would pigeonhole an NFC or NFVCB under Information Ministry.
Nigeria should not be different.
The second challenge is the unhealthy latent rivalry betweenthe
leadership of the NFC and the NFVCB. MOPICON is manifestly an NFC
project. This did not go down well with some top shots in NFVCB. This
explains why somebody high up in NFVCB allegedly fired a petition to
Mr. Maku, adducing why the ministry should not pushfor MOPICON.
It is also an open secret that NFVCB under the leadership of former
(sacked?) Emeka Mba, generously supported the setting up of a
so-called 'Coalition of Nollywood Guilds and Associations (CONGA)', a
group of few persons mooning to be an interim MOPICON through the
backdoor.
Though this nebulous body still exists on the pages of few newspapers,
it effectively died soon after it was launched about two years ago.
Not a fewserious-minded associations and stakeholders in Nollywood
have refused to subscribe to it.
If the well-received Conference of Motion Picture Practitioners of
Nigeria (CMPPN) died a natural death, I wonder what made the handlers
of CONGA think they could fly, particularly without first sincerely,
consciously and deliberately building consensus among key stakeholders
in Nollywood.
In terms of structure, the legitimate and all-encompassing way forward
for Nollywood is for MOPICON to come alive with all its attendant
benefits. For instance, it would streamline activities of
practitioners in the motion picture industry and force every
practitioner to conform to guidelines set for the industry and inhibit
most of the challenges the industry is currently facing.
It will perpetually kill the challenge of proliferation of
associations and guilds in Nollywood. It will also boost the
confidence level of investors and other financial institutions in
putting their money in Nollywood.
However, the MOPICON I have inmind should not be another government
agency peopled bycivil servants and other non-practitioners. It must
be a MOPICON of the practitioners, by the practitioners and for the
practitioners.
Government should only give the necessary legal and other related
fillip to the process and its sustenance. Anything short of this will
not be worth the idea.