As the Board prepares to unveil its national headquarters in Abuja within the year, it is also raising the stakes in terms of the documentation of films produced in Nigeria. According to Dr. Husseini, all the titles of films which the Board classified since 1994 to 2026 have been documented in a book. This includes the names of the producers, the running time and the classifications. We are just going to receive the first volume and there will be an e-version of the four volumes being worked on. The fact is that we cannot have an industry, without having an index of the films that have been done”
AT a time of sluggish economic growth and low job numbers, some experts have argued that the diversification of Nigeria’s revenue potential is one way to address the challenge. With the dominant argument about the role non-oil exports should play in shoring up Nigeria’s revenue base, the spotlight is equally shifting to the culture sector, specifically film production. Nonetheless, the global best practice is to have institution responsible for the regulation and classification of films. At the core of the mandate of this institution is quality control. In the case of Nigeria, the Nigeria Film & Video Censors Board (NFVCB) is saddled with the responsibility. Given the prodigious level of creativity with Nigeria filmmakers churn out their works, the NFVCB is obliged to be on top of its game to ensure effective regulation and classification in line with extant laws. This is where Dr. Shuaibu Husseini’s expertise and experience have been brought to bear on the film industry in the last two years.
For Dr. Husseini, who can be described as an industry insider, the expectations are skyscraper high. As Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the NFCVB, Husseini brings impeccable antecedents and credentials to the job. He holds a first-class degree in Mass Communication from the Lagos State University, an MSc degree in Mass Communication (Distinction) from the University of Lagos and a PhD in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos. According to his profile published on the NFVCB, Husseini’s doctorate degree was on film studies, as his thesis examined the ‘Structure of Film Production Companies in Nollywood’. With this sort of profile, there can be no mistake that stakeholders will be looking forward to far-reaching reforms and impacts, which will contribute to position Nigeria’s film industry at the global level, where it truly deserves to be.
The fundamental question which follows is whether Dr Husseini has been able to meet those expectations? If yes, how has he gone about the herculean task of using the resources of the NFVCB to project and promote the industry? At a recent gathering of culture journalists and film industry stakeholders, Dr. Husseini was on hand to answer some of these questions. One of the very first issues he had to address was the complaint by film stakeholders that the NFVCB’s analogue method of film classification was stifling production output. Husseini narrated that in response to this complaint, the online classification process had to be rejigged with the goal of drastically reducing the turn in time. He said before coming on board, the classification process could take between one to three weeks. And given the volume of film production, this affected the industry, specifically the filmmakers. Dr. Husseini narrates how the agency swung into action and one of the out of the reform is that the return time for classified films is now 24 hours.
He said: “What we did was to harness technology, which is something we are looking for funds to do fully. With the right facilities, our people don’t have to wait to do the work between 9am and 5pm. They can work remotely.” He assured that the agency has been working assiduously to put the right facilities to consolidate on the 24-hour return period for films. In terms of the wide gulf between the Board and its stakeholders, the Board helmsman identified it as one of the gaps, which had to be addressed. “What I have done since coming on board is that I look for opportunities to engage stakeholders. Before I came here, I had three different stakeholders’ meetings outside the premises. That is important because we need to get them to understand what we do.”
To also ensure the creative process is not hindered by bottlenecks such as lawsuits against the Board, Dr. Husseini noted that he had to drive the process of ensuring dispute resolution is amicable. One of such steps, he revealed, was the decision to settle most legal disputes between the Board and some aggrieved stakeholders out of court.
“I told everyone, this is about creativity, and creators shouldn’t be in court; regulators shouldn’t be in court. So, I decided to pull out a lot of the cases and we settled out of court. Some of the things were so simple; they were as simple as recognition or waiving a particular fee.” This effort, he said had made the regulatory environment less acrimonious thereby fostering a collaborative spirit. Other milestones mentioned by the CEO includes the Board’s efforts to sustain the annual conference from which key recommendations for the sector are harvested through a communique. 90 percent of the recommendations from the conference, he noted are implemented by the Board, while broader recommendations for the ministry of culture are left to them to implement.
Nonetheless, Dr. Husseini stressed that some of the bigger outcomes in the past two years include moving away from manual and analogue mode of operations, the efforts to legislate a change of the agency’s name to remove censorship and the acquisition of a permanent office headquarters in Abuja. The NFVCD equally mentioned documentation of films as another major achievement within the two years he has been in office.
His words: “We have over 280 thousand films with us, which come from the VHS era till now. The idea is that we should be able to digitise and put them in a manner that makes them accessible. There is a partnership we are working with a German firm, and part of it is that they are ready to provide the facility for us to be able to digitise those tapes in a manner that it can be accessible.”
As the Board prepares to unveil its national headquarters in Abuja within the year, it is also raising the stakes in terms of the documentation of films produced in Nigeria. According to Dr. Husseini, all the titles of films which the Board classified since 1994 to 2026 have been documented in a book. This includes the names of the producers, the running time and the classifications. We are just going to receive the first volume and there will be an e-version of the four volumes being worked on. The fact is that we cannot have an industry, without having an index of the films that have been done,” he said.
