On January 12, 2024, a journalist/lecturer, Dr. Shaibu Husseini, was appointed the director general cum executive director of Nigeria’s world famous National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.
A time tested journalist of the movie critic sector, Husseini who was one of the forces behind African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) before his appointment, was brought in not only to strengthen the board’s enforcement of regulations but to give its operations human face, which befits a board that operates in a civil democratic environment like Nigeria; and this mandate, the academic doctor has grappled with and has quietly recorded lots of positive results without controversy.
A journey of a thousand miles they say starts with a step and like a man who was prepared for the task that president Tinubu handed him, Husseini kicked off his voyage into the world of movie regulation on March 6, 2024 when he formally assumed office with what he termed classification as against censorship.
To him, the word censorship is archaic, draconic and no more in vogue the world over. He believed that movies must be segmented into categories by way of classification bearing in mind that the under 18s who behaves, believes and acts what they see and hear in movies and who form a larger percentage of movie viewers, must be protected by strengthening compliance, ensuring that films meet statutory standards so that audiences, especially young people are protected from harmful and unclassified content.
That major institutional priority has been achieved – that is the shift from censorship to classification of movies has been achieved; it has not only been achieved but no longer takes ages for a movie to be classified unlike in the days of censorship when it takes the board months to censor a movie. Now, one can stay in the comfort of his/her living room and get his/her movie classified.
Kudos to the Igalaman who has come with the new ideas.
From censorship to classification, Hussein noticed that our movies are replete with ritual, cigarettes and alcoholic scenes even when such scenes are not necessary. What did he do? He embarked on the journey of cleansing our movies of the unwanted ritual, cigarette and alcoholic scenes. To him let us play down on such scenes. On this, he got the support of an NGO that helped to take the no ritual, cigarette and alcoholic campaign round the country and today our movie producers are beginning to imbibe the culture of less ritual, cigar and alcohol scenes in their latest pictures.
Another gbosa for the man we fondly call CJ. That is a story for another day.
Collaboration with stakeholders is one of the things he brought to bear in the work of the board and this has been responsible to the numerous successes he has achieved within the short period of two years he has stirred the leadership of NFVCB. Collaboration has remained at the heart of the many successes his regime has chalked up so far.
In the last two years, Husseini has also enlarged the coast and popularised the annual Peace Anyiam-Osigwe Nigerian Digital Content Regulatory Conference (PAO NDCRC) beyond expectations that even the late AMAA founder, Peace Anyiam-Osigwe on whose memory the programme was founded, will be beaming with broad smile in her grave and saying a big thank you to him.
PAO NDCRC was founded during the tenure of Alhaji Adedayo’ Thomas as the director general of the board.
The conference was established in 2021 as the Nigeria Digital Content Regulatory Conference (NDCRC). It was later renamed the Peace Anyiam-Osigwe NDCRC in 2023 to honor the late filmmaker and industry icon, who died that year.
Dr. Husseini, has hosted the 4th and 5th editions of the conference during his tenure and like reggae music, which did not command global acclaim and was a local brand of music played in Jamaica until the late Bob Marley surfaced on the music scene and took it all over the world, PAO NDCRC was celebrated within NFVCB family and movie stakeholders but today, it has become a national event that attracts speakers, eminent personalities and sponsors from unexpected quarters all over the nation. In the last two years, it has shifted venues to important places like Sheraton Four Point, The prestigious MUSON Centre. Thanks to Husseini’s spirit of collaboration and the believe that the venue makes an event. Today PAO NDCRC is now a major event to look forward to by creative people due to many innovations Husseini has brought into it. In fact, time and maybe space will not allow me to continue to enumerate the achievements of Hussein in the last two years in NFVCB one thing, however, that is certain is that by the time Husseini is done with his tour of duty in NFVCB, things will definitely change for good for the board.
And as we maybe gathering to toast to the many feats he has achieved within a space of two years, unauthorised uploading and streaming of films by unscrupulous persons still remains the biggest challenge that he is tackling and with the cooperation of stakeholders, he will definitely wrestle it to the ground.
