President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime has banned the production of Nigerian movies that glamourise villains.

Specifically, Adedayo Thomas, CEO of the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), warned movie producers that if they produce films that only glamourise villains such movies will not be approved.
He urged filmmakers to produce movies that depict Nigerian cultures positively and not glamourise evil.

On Monday, Mr Thomas stated this in Calabar at the opening of a five-day capacity building on censorship and classification for selected University of Calabar students in the Theatre and Media Studies department.

”Nigerian films and movies should not depict reality but also give out moral lessons at the end. Our films should identify a societal problem, go into action and at the end of the day, show what happens to perpetrators of evil in the film,” says Mr Thomas. “But when you produce a particular film and you glamourise or celebrate someone who has done terrible things against the culture or humanity without punishment, we don’t approve such films.”

He reminded filmmakers that the government was monitoring movies produced to see if “the film is morally right and protect our children from societal ills.”

The NFVCB boss added, “Even though we are aware that some defaulters still produce movies without passing through NFVCB, we want to make students understand the activities of the board so that it becomes part of them.”

He added that the workshop would also look into hate speech in movies, YouTube, Google, and script development into movies.

The NFVCB was established by Act 85 of 1993 to regulate film and movie production both for import and export.