Films have existed for several decades, and it has acted as a vital tool that
has shaped the world positively and negatively Africa as a continent was
able to get rid of some of her fetish practices like human sacrifices, killing
of twins, religion and a host of others through the influence of the Western
film industry. On the contrary, the Western world through her films have
negatively influenced our society in the area of dressing, morality, music
etc. A typical African lady is known to dress decently and responsible but
the influence of Western culture have made our sisters to dress in a
seductive manner to provoke lust in men. Nigerian boys are not left
out of the poor influence of foreign culture, but have copied the dressing
of convicts in foreign lands through films. Most of the prisoners were not
being provided with belts because of the perceived damage they could
cause with them and this made their trousers to sag out of their will.
Nigeria. This in combination with other factors has made the “Nigeria”, to
project a bad image to the world. The Nigeria film industry is the largest in
Africa and it’s watched in many homes across the world. I was amazed
sometime back during a chatting session with one of my facebook friend
from East Africa when she said, “She has been watching Nigeria movies
and will try to visit the country someday”. “If a foreigner could say this about
our film industry, it means we can collectively rewrite our image as a great
nation through film.
The world at large has lost its bearing on the morality axis and they are
looking for every possible way to find back her bearing. Nigeria film
industry can be the answer to the cry of the world.
Culture can be defined as the total way of life. It encompasses food,
clothing, language, music, etc. One unique aspect of culture that has been
endowed to Nigeria by nature is the gift of language. Despite the variation
among the languages, Nigeria has been able to remain as one nation.
Short films that display varieties of our languages will help in projecting
to the world that Nigeria is a nation united despite diversity in language.
I have had encounters with Westerners who during our conversation,
displayed their level of ignorance about Africa. Most of them have a wrong
picture of Africa and have concluded that it is just a single country ravaged
by poverty. I am of the opinion that films be short in different locations of
Nigeria and Africa to erode the ignorance that abound in the mind of the
Western world about our landscape.
Corruption can be said to be the process by which a word or expression
is changed from its original state to one regarded as erroneous or debased
stories of corruption have continuously hot the world media about Nigeria
but employing Nigeria film can help to redeem her image. Most people
involved in the act of corruption learnt it from the media. Children who
spent all their time watching war movies are mostly the ones who end up
carrying guns to steal, commit crime and agitate for secession. Acting films
where Nigerians will obey traffic rules, avoid taking of giving bribe, work
hard to earn a living instead of stealing will go a long way in shipping the
mind of Nigerian youths and project us as a great Nation to the world at
large.
The location that comes to the thought of any man about where to spend
holiday or for tourist attraction has always been Las Vegas, Paris, etc.
Why not Nigeria? The film industry has a great part to play to
make Nigeria attractive to the rest of the world. Shooting movies around
tourist centres like Yankari game reserve, river Niger and Benue will
help to draw the attention of tourists to the country. They will in turn,
publicise Nigeria as a great nation to the rest of the world.
In addition, nature has so blessed Nigeria with natural with natural ranging
from crude oil, agricultural produce, gold, coal, limestone etc. but this has
not been well exploited for the good of man. The Nigeria film industry
should make urgent efforts to display our resources in movies to the rest
of the world so as to draw in foreign investors.
On the 25th of December 2009, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab attempt to
bomb an airplane projected Nigeria as a terrorist nation to the rest of the
world. This however was however not true as his dad reported his son to
security agents concerning his strange behaviour. For the country to
prove this allegation wrong, shooting a film that will tell the story to the
world about what really transpired in the Mutallabs’ incidence show how
the Nigerian society discourage terrorism will help to redeem our image
as an anti-terrorist nation.
Finally, I want to thank the organizers of this essay for this platform and
beckon on them not to relent on their effort in using film as a tool to project
the value of Nigeria as a great Nation. If the Western film industry was able
to corrupt Nigeria through her films, Nigeria film industry too can turn the
world to a corrupt free world by the grace of God. Amen