Following the spontaneous reactions that trailed Falz the Bahd Guy‘s latest video, This is Nigeria, where he showcased his female choreographers dancing Shaku-Shaku
in Hijab and several other issues affecting the nation, the National
Film And Video Censors Board (NFVCB), Abuja, the agency in charge of
censorship and rating of music videos and movies has reacted.
In an interview with veteran entertainment journalist Rasheed Abubaka, the Director, Licensing Department of the NFVCB, Cornell Agim
said the rapper, Falz didn’t bring his music video for licensing and
rating before he released it to the public and unfortunately, the
agency’s monitoring team hasn’t reported the video to the directorate.
He said that, though it is their job to censor and rate videos before
they get to the public, they can’t be everywhere. That is why
journalists and members of the public affected by the visuals are
expected to notify them. With that, they can investigate the videos.
In his words, ‘the agency do censorship and rating of music video
before it gets to the general public. We ensure we do analysis of those
videos. We also try as much as possible not to tamper with the creative
intention of any artiste except they come with some obscenity, which we
most time kick against. BUT Falz didn’t bring his music video for
licensing before it gets to the public. As the Director of Licensing, I
haven’t seen the video. Same as the agency. None of our monitoring team
has brought it to my notice. Hence, we didn’t censor it before it gets
to the public.
He added that,
‘the truth is, most time we can’t reach out. We are handicap
because we are not everywhere and we can’t be everywhere. That’s why
people like you (journalists) should notify us once you see things like
that. Bring them to our notice and we’ll investigate it and bring the
perpetrators to book. Often time, we get complain from Nigerians, saying
what’s the agency doing? We are trying our best though our best might
not be good enough. That’s why we need people like you to supply us with
information about the affected song.
The agency do organise sensational programmes for filmmakers and
music video doctors. We held one recently in Bauchi, we called it
consultative forum but many of them didn’t come. You invite them, they
won’t come. Some of them will even ask you for transportation fee. We
also print out handouts containing guidelines. If you visit our website,
there are relevant materials on licensing and rating. But are they
visiting the site? Are they reading the uploaded materials? Despite our
efforts in sanitizing the industry, some of them would prefer to break
the rules’.