Stakeholders in the entertainment industry have urged the new administration led by President Ahmed Tinubu to prioritize the development of the entertainment industry beyond the present state.
Actor and Theatre artiste, Mallam Sani Muazu, noted that from the earlier campaigns and stakeholder meetings made by BAT (Bola Ahmed Tinubu) and his son, Seyi Tinubu, he was optimistic that the new administration would provide a better enabling environment for the industry than the previous administration.
Muazu further noted that the entertainment sector which comprises of movies, music, comedy and arts sub-sector, can generate more revenue for the country if it was invested in and more funds pumped into the different value chains. These investments can be by way of access to credit by producers and creatives, and reducing multiple taxation undertaken by government agencies. The thespian also urged the federal government to look into the exploration of co-production treaties with other countries to deepen co-production avenues.
“I am hopeful that new administration will look at avenues to improve in the huge entertainment sector which has the potential to create a ripple effect of employment opportunities for the youths and reduce the high rate of unemployment.
“We had a stakeholder meeting championed by the son of president, Seyi Tinubu and we spoke of our needs and how the sector can be improved upon. So we are expecting more action and less talk as handlers of the entertainment sector are appointed. Since the entertainment sector is private sector-driven, creating an enabling environment for the sector is essential,” he said.
Similarly, veteran actor, Francis Onwochie has charged the new administration to appoint officers that understand how the entertainment sector works into the ministry and government agencies, as this will ensure a smooth sailing and implementation of policies that will develop the sector and help harness its huge potentials.
He added that the Tinubu led administration should take a cue from the Goodluck Jonathan administration which brought up a lot of initiatives in developing the motion picture industry and entertainment sector at large.
Onwochei , who has decades of experience in the movie industry, berated the Buhari administration, stated that it did nothing to really develop the industry or even leverage on the previous government initiatives before it.
“I am saddened that the Buhari administration did nothing in the creative sector and to be honest, if you want to juxtapose it with the past administrations, it is an abysmal failure. If you look at it introspectively, you will find out that the government before Buhari administration actually did quite a lot like the Project Act Nollywood initiative that supported people in the creative industry, production grants, capacity building, and of course innovative distribution. Those kinds of ideas should actually have been sustained and promoted.
“That did not happen. The new administration can pick a tab on this, now that the motion picture is important. I believe the incoming administration will do better. I’ve said this in a lot of public spaces that the policy of the country and the incoming Minister of Culture will do well by looking at the cultural policy as It is a blueprint of what you can do in the environment, to make it implement the rich ideas and recreate a semblance of what is in our cultural policy document which is lying fallow and dusty in the offices of the ministry of information and culture,” says Onwochie.
