In line with the renew agenda of tge present government, it seems no stone will be left alone as an X user @afrisagacity said the government is now telling every skit makers to get approval before posting their job
online.
Is This a Move By Tinubu’s Govt to Tax Skit-Makers and Stifle Their Creativity?
Here’re the facts…
So, the news spread in the evening of yesterday, June 26th, that the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) has ordered skitmakers to submit their skits for “rating” before posting online.
The news went viral after NFVCB posted it, themselves, on their Instagram handle.
It’s quite surprising that this is making headlines now. It had been made public since 24th of May, this year.
That was in a meeting of the DG of NFVCB, Shaibu Husseini, with some key players in the movie/entertainment industry. During the meeting, Shaibu revealed that the NFVCB would start classifying (i.e. rating) skits and music video.
Interestingly, another body named Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) had earlier, in December 2022, mandated skit makers, content craters, social media influencers, and bloggers to submit content to them for rating and approval.
You’ve to pay those ones too, to get their approval.
That was in a meeting of the DG of NFVCB, Shaibu Husseini, with some key players in the movie/entertainment industry. During the meeting, Shaibu revealed that the NFVCB would start classifying (i.e. rating) skits and music video.
Interestingly, another body named Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) had earlier, in December 2022, mandated skit makers, content craters, social media influencers, and bloggers to submit content to them for rating and approval.
You’ve to pay those ones too, to get their approval.
So, with NFVCB giving their own order, Nigerian skitmakers and content creators have to get approval from two govt agencies before posting their content – isn’t it interesting?
For context, Tinubu appointed Shaibu Husseini as the Director-General (DG) of the board on 12th January, 2024. The man has been in Tinubu’s political circle for a long time.
Clearly, Shaibu and his team are following the pattern of Tinubu’s govt – to regulate everything and include almost everyone in the tax net.
He announced about the registration of skits with the NFVCB almost the same period when Tinubu’s govt announced that POS agents would be registered.
Back to the issue…
Even though the NFVCB had first revealed it would start classifying (rating) skits and music videos since May, Nigerians only took interest and reacted after their post yesterday.
Most likely what prompted the reactions is because they made it a cr!me if skitmakers and music video owners fail to submit their content for rating.
The post was even entitled “Warning.” Part of it read, “the attention of the board has been drawn to the activities of some unscrupulous “Filmakers/Content Creators” who clearly flouting the provisions of the country’s law with impunity by the production, premonition, distribution, streaming of prohibited and unapproved contents, especially same-sex content on social media(Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter) and other platforms.”
My bet is that they deliberately included “same-s£x content” in the their post to catch public attention and, maybe, win some public support – as the average Nigerian hat£sanything same-s£x.
Again, they intentionally used offens!ve words in the post to vict!mize/cr!minalize skitmakers and make it seem as though they’re breaking any known law – which is not true. It’s just the usual Nigerian govt way of finding grounds to justify their illegal policies.
Make no mistake about it…the real objective of Shaibu’s NFVCB is to exploit Nigerian content creators and get a share from the “content creators’ revenue” that social media platforms pay them.
Their biggest targets are big skitmakers. It’s just another means of taxing Nigerians and stifling creativity.
This truth is revealed in the processes and money involved in getting the NFVCB classification/rating…
So, to get your skit or music video rated, you have to follow the same procedure film and video producers take. Although, they’re planning on building a different online platform where people will submit their skits, music videos or other content.
Here’re the processes…
One, you’ll submit your content in a format that they’ll provide. Details of this format are on their site.
Two, they will send it to one of their departments called the Film Censorship and Classification Committees to review your content with a software called Magpie Suite.
Three, after they report and rate your content with the software, they’ll inform you to pick up and re-edit (if there’s need).
Four, this process has several stages (even the NFVCB stated it on their site). Usually the process takes between 5-30 days.
Now, knowing the Nigerian system, you can bet you can’t get anything done without sorting officials.
If you want to do “strong head”, they’ll frustrate your life with multiple “error findings” on your content. You may not even get to see it until after 3 months, that’s if they eventually pity you.
To the charges…
Of course, you know you are not submitting your content for free. In fact, I believe the actual purpose of submitting is to pay fees – and it’s not just one fee.
First, you’ll pay N5,000 for what they call “application fee + the cost of constituting a review committee.”
After this, you’re now required to pay specific fees according to your content type. For instance, distributors of films (between 0-15 minutes) pay N10,500 if it’s a local film or N25,000 if it’s a foreign film.
Also, if you submit a music videos, you’ll pay N2,000 for each video. There are many others.
Now, let’s consider some questions…
One, how exactly does NFVCB classify a skit? They say it’s any video mean for public consumption. So, if I casually make a video of me have a conversation with someone, it’s a skit?
Two, are NFVCB mandated by law to extend rating and classification to skits and music videos or is it an illegal means of milking Nigerians and cashing out?
Well, it seems the later is the obvious.
Three, why do I need to submit my skit or music video to NFVCB and pay after I had submitted to ARCON and paid a fee for the same content?
Do I even need to submit my work to NFVCB when I can easily rate the content instead?
A case for skitmakers…
This move by the NFVCB, as earlier stated will frustrate young Nigerian creatives who are into skitmaking and content creation and k!ll their creativity.
Skitmaking is usually based on trends. For instance, many skitmakers made multiple skit videos on the #Chivido24 trend. Such videos have time lapse – not usually more than 48 hours.
So, if a skitmaker is to submit the content they did on a particular trend (with time lapse of 24 hours) to NFVCB, and have to wait for 5-30 days rating period, what use is the skit after the rating? It’s already irrelevant and won’t generate the needed buzz.
In the end, we have a classic case of Tinubu’s “widen the tax net” policy playing out. The aim of the entire process is obviously to get skitmaers and content creators drop a share of the revenue they generate from their content.
Responding @zeit07-This is a two prong attack, rake in revenue where government did not invest, and to censor the content. This way, no skit with content that projects the ugly realities of the present admission makes it to the public
@ruleoflawng-
Except that after the regulatory hurdles, there will be no revenue to share.
If I suggest a lawsuit, Nigerians will not take it seriously. But a lawsuit challenging this attempt to stifle freedom of expression is the best route.
Cooperation with the government won’t work.
Samuel Francis on his own said-We saw all this coming when we said no to this government. They just want to shut everybody’s mouth not to talk esp against them but they forgot, they will not be there forever, what they set today will also fight them tomorrow after they leave office. We dey here.
All eyes on supreme court-If this would make the skit makers and all film makers to be serious and stand with ordinary Nigerians to fight this evil government – I think it should be forced on them. Most of them are actually sitting on the fence not minding what the government is doing. Speak up now or –+
