Film producer urges stakeholders to advocate MOPICON Bill passage into law

Mr Chima Okereke, the Managing Director of Fresh Talent Productions (FTP) on Thursday appealed to Nollywood stakeholders to lobby the National Assembly for it to pass the Motion Picture Council of Nigeria (MOPICON) Bill into law.

“But that the guilds and associations read what is being done in the newspapers without being involved in what baffles them.

“Heads of Nollywood guilds and associations should lobby for the passage of the bill into law as this will reshape their future positively,’’ he said.

He noted that Nollywood was not making progress structurally because it lacked the law that could guide their operations .

“We want MOPICON Bill passed into law to guide us like how Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) is guiding the operations of the advertisers and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) is guiding the lawyers.

“The Council for the Regulation of Engineering (COREN) also structures the industry very well and dictates how it should be run by engineers.

The film producer also said they needed to start planning and developing the Nollywood village where they could always shoot their films freely.

“We need structures at the proposed village to shoot movies and stop facing hostilities when we go anywhere to do our jobs.

“If we are organised, Nollywood can key into organisations that run credit facilities and get loans both locally and internationally for film production,’’ he said.

He argued that Nollywood guilds and associations were not founded to conduct elections but to collectively fashion out ways that it could progress, which was the major reason for its existence.

According to him, too much ego in the industry and unnecessary quarrels have been prevent development in the industry.

“Nollywood in the past six years was not making progress. It has got to the point where government held forums, organise industry programmes without the guilds and associations being officially informed.

“We need to prioritise heads of Nollywood guilds and associations, for them to focus on the big picture of making the industry work,’’ he said.

Okereke advised the members to be committed to the development of the associations as laid down by the founding fathers.

He said that through committed and sacrifice by the present generation as a formidable team, they would move the associationsforward collectively.