‘This industry is in a coma’ and 4 other lessons from the Nigerian entertainment conference

The fourth edition of the Nigerian Entertainment Conference held recently at landmark conference centre in Lagos, on April 15, and was an avenue for celebrities to share their thoughts on the entertainment industry and ways of solving its problems.

Here are five interesting things we gathered from the conference:

THE INDUSTRY IS IN A COMA

Some celebrities were vocal about their opinion of the Nigerian entertainment industry while some were subtle about it. However, a common conclusion that everyone arrived at is that the entertainment industry needed major work.

Bovi Ugboma, comedian and actor, said: “The shape of the Nigerian entertainment industry is like that of a pyramid that stops halfway. How will it get to the apex?

“The industry has a structure but the structure is comatose.”

Actres Funke Akindele also said: “Having a structure is very important; structure matters.”

MOPICON BILL IS ‘ABSURD’

The proposed bill that advocates the formation of the Motion Picture Practitioners Council of Nigeria was vehemently opposed at the conference.

Artistes on the Nigerian entertainment scene did not hide their resentment for the bill.

Femi Falana, Nigerian actor and rapper better known as Falz, described it as a restriction of his fundamental right of expression.

“The MOPICON bill seeks to make it compulsory for anyone seeking to make motion picture work for economic gain a member of the council.

“That is absurd and a restriction of my fundamental freedom of expression that cannot be encroached upon.”

Bovi Ugboma, popular comedian known as Bovi to fans, said: “We talk about the MOPICON bill; is it a step in the right direction?

“Only time will tell. Is the timing right? It’s actually wrong. I have said this over and over again.”

CELEBS NEED MORE EDUCATION

A general thing agreed upon by the crowd and speakers alike was that celebrities and the general entertainment industry needed more education.

Funke Akindele said: “Education is important, illiteracy is a disease get to know, we celebrities should acquire more knowledge, go back to school.

“How many celebrities have lawyers or good managers and offices? What about websites? How active are celebrities online apart from Twitter and Instagram?”.

Timi Dakolo, a singer and songwriter, advised celebrities to be smart, saying: “Get to know the business side and you can monetize it. Private companies should make it their corporate social responsibility to educate talents.”

A ‘BIG’ NATIONAL FESTIVAL IS NEEDED

Artistes lamented the inability of a platform to get together with their counterparts from other parts of the country.

“We have a ministry of arts and culture, what are they doing? The last big festival we had was Festac ’77,” Bovi said while addressing the conference.

“How many of us were born then? There is a limit to how much the private sector can do.”

MAYBE THE INDUSTRY DOESN’T NEED THE GOVERNMENT

It seems like the entertainment industry is not getting the attention it desires from the government and according to Bovi, the ministry of arts and culture is not doing enough.

“We have local governments, 734 of them. We have 36 states and even if you cannot build a centre in every local government, we can use the states. We have just 36 of them; everyone cannot live in Lagos and have access to BOI,” he argued.

“We need to spread and decentralise. There was cultism in every school at its peak, then we had access to the Internet. Before people started making videos, everyone was going into Yahoo and now everyone is shooting videos.

“Boys have made a living shooting short videos; they get paid for advertising. How do we make this thing reach the rural area? That is what the government should be doing.

“Senators are having issues for buying a vehicle costing N30m; N30m will build one entertainment centre in every state.

“If we have a ministry of arts and culture and they have cultural dancers who dance at government functions and that is all they do, then we don’t need the government.”