Lagos Assembly seeks way forward for Nollywood from movie marketers, to tackle piracy

Lagos State House of Assembly has challenged Movie Marketers Association of Nigeria to come up with ideas to take Nollywood forward especially the issue of how to tackle piracy.

Speaker of the Lagos state House of Assembly, Hon. Mudashiru Obasa in his remark on Wednesday at the Lagos Assembly RoundTable Dialogue with Movie Marketers Association comprising of marketers, distributors, producers and directors, at the Lateef Jakande Auditorium, Assembly complex, Alausa, Ikeja, assured that the Assembly will back it up with the instrument of law.

He said, "There is a ministry in charge of matters that concerns anything about Nollywood and with one of you with us here as a lawmaker we are sure we will do something to protect your interest. It is a war that we have to fight together. Your existence is a source of joy and happiness to Nigeria, and that is why we will be glad to help in any way we can."

The speaker assured them that the government will not allow Nollywood to die because "your industry has developed the economy and made this country popular abroad. And we are happy that you have a strong faith in this parliament and we are ready to partner with you and we share your plight as with piracy", the speaker said.

In his opening remark, Nollywood actor and now a member of the Lagos Assembly representing Surulere 1 constituency, Hon. Desmond Elliot who facilitated the forum attributed the slow growth in the film industry to little or no involvement of government in the business of the industry.

He decried piracy saying it is killing the industry and operators in the industry. He said the dialogue is to look at "how development partnership between the state government and the Nollywood Film Industry can boost the economy of the state; the bane of piracy in the industry and the way forward and also to look at the situation in Nollywood as regards, the spate of illnesses and deaths; the need for an Emergency Trust Fund etc."

He informed that they are the first among the group of operators in the industry to be invited for the forum, others who will also be invited for the same interaction are actors, comedians and musicians.

Making contributions, a distributor/producer of motion pictures, called on the government to create an enabling environment for "us to operate and for the industry to thrive, like finding a solution to the issue of piracy as it has destroyed the industry", adding that it has gotten to a stage where the government should declare a state of emergency on it and also use KAI or a special task force to arrest those selling pirated copies on the streets.

He also said the government should grant them tax rebate or tax holiday as it is done in other countries and also create a film village in Lagos structured by the government and this can generate revenue for the government in form of taxes and will also create jobs.

The stakeholders also advised that the government should create DVD shops all over the state where people can buy original films, and also build cinemas all over the place from which the state can also make money, arguing that just like building estates and markets, cinemas is also real estate business.

"Building numerous cinema houses that can seat about 800 people at a time all over designated points in the state will be a big revenue earner for the state and it will be the biggest economic revolution, and can indeed make Nollywood the biggest revenue earner for Nigeria".

They also asked the government to criminalise piracy activities and begin to implement or redesign the laws dealing with piracy to make it more effective because it is denying the state needed revenue.

When properly harnessed, the stakeholders said Nollywood will boost tourism by 40 per cent as it would make Nigeria popular and known internationally and bring more foreigners into the country for tourism.