Kwankwaso’s policy on movies

When I met Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso for the first time last month, I was eager to ask him a question on the policy of his government on movie production. During the final three years of the regime preceding his, there had been a cat-and-mouse contest between stakeholders in the Hausa movie industry and the Kano state government. Many actors, producers, musicians, marketers, etc., were arrested, heavily fined, jailed and or had their offices locked up and their property confiscated through dubious legal processes. Many were forced into exile in neighbouring states. One Abubakar Rabo, notorious for his near-crazy loathing for the movie trade, was heading the state Censorship Board in a Gestapo manner. He committed himself to the emasculation of the industry, using false propaganda and coercive instruments of the state. Consequently, Kano’s huge army of unemployed swelled. (The industry had employed thousands of school leavers and other layabouts for whom government could not provide jobs).

The reason adduced for this reign of terror by Governor Ibrahim Shekarau was that Hausa movies were corrupting morals and that movie industry stakeholders were not practising what they preached. He also claimed, during the last presidential debate, that he was responding to the demand of members of the society for the industry to be chained. Truly, there is a fringe view in Hausa land which holds that movies are sinful and should be banned – the kind of view imposed against women education in Afghanistan under the Taliban.

One of the comical regulations imposed by Rabo was that movies should not be shot at night so that men and women would not use the opportunity to commit fornication – as if those who engage in illicit sex (including top government officials) do so only at night!

The government’s stance wasn’t tenable because it was hypocritical. Many of its top guns were known to be living double lives, morally speaking. Nollywood flicks, which are more explicit, and even smuggled x-rated movies, were on sale in many parts of Kano. Moreover, during the run-up to the 2007 general election, Shekarau himself had exploited the film stars’ popularity to canvass votes. He held a lavish movie awards ceremony in government house where he extolled the virtues of film-making and distributed gifts. In the following months, he courted the industry through all manner of tricks, including donating a new bus to the film-makers’ association and, later, receiving an industry award at Arewa House, Kaduna. But when the Hiyana sex scandal broke out in 2007 and the anti-movie lobby found a louder voice, Shekarau launched his crackdown on the stars. After all, he had won his re-election and reckoned that he did not really need them. The latter view proved suicidal because the industry played a key role in defeating his party in the April 2011 polls when its crowd-pulling members like Sani Danja and Ibro joined the campaign train of his arch-rival, Kwankwaso.

Today, there is a sea change. Dr Kwankwaso is building a bridge of understanding between government and the industry. In response to my question during our interview with him, published in Blueprint on September 26, he said: “The film industry in Kano is very important for obvious reasons. For one, it is capital-intensive and has the capacity to boost the state’s economy. Secondly, and this is very crucial, it has the potential to create mass employment opportunity to the youths - both male and female - and this is one of our objectives: to provide job opportunity to as many people as possible. So, I have made it clear that our administration would give all the needed support to make sure the film industry thrives like any other industry in the real sector.”

In spite of his positive outlook, however, the governor is not blind to the need for the regulation of the business. He explained, “But be that as it may, we also have our religious and cultural values to protect against adulteration in any way by the filmmakers or any group of people.” He is setting up a Kano Film Institute in Tiga “so that the industry will be sanitised.” This is clearly a purposive and focused leadership. There are no frenzied, false claims or pretences. There is simply a clear urge to reduce unemployment while firmly minding cultural preservation.

The movie practitioners should repay this gesture by producing qualitative movies that are also sensitive to culture and religion. They should do away with their Indian copycat impulses and be professional. Hausa movies should be made to appeal to a universal audience through originality even if they have to be modern in outlook. It doesn’t have to take a Malam Rabo to remind the practitioners about this.

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Published in BLUEPRINT yesterday

Censorship: Kano's smouldering cauldron (2)

The abject failure of the censorship regime in Kano State under Governor Ibrahim Shekarau was due to the lack of sincerity that dogged the whole project, as well as a deliberate policy of subjugation which aimed at throwing away the baby with the bathwater. The notion that the people appointed to administer the Kano State Censorship Board were on a pedestal where they could not be faulted was erroneous; just because the they were brandishing religious cards did not mean that they were unassailable. They were promoted as saints because doing so fitted snugly with the simple mentality of the common man, who is thought to be manipulatable by the false prophets in that government.

Had the censorship board wanted to promote Hausa film-making and make it amenable to the cultural and religious heritage of the people of northern Nigeria, it could have done any of the few of ways to go about it. It board would have formed a partnership with the right stakeholders in the industry in order to, first, put a stop to all the “undesirable elements” of movie content and, second, replace them with more wholesome productions. Instead, the chief censor, Rabo, adopted divide and rule tactics, selecting only yes-men though they could not help spearhead genuine changes. At the same time, he waged a brutal campaign against those he regarded as rebels, arresting and jailing them at will, as well as tarnishing the image of the industry in general. What followed was counter-attacks between him and his opponents; the war of attrition led to nowhere but the eventual failure of the board to sanitise the industry. At the end, Rabo himself was demystified, his holier-than-thou mien discredited.

Now, a new era appears to be on the horizon. Engineer Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso was the one who created the censorship board in 2001, during his first tenure as governor. Under him, the board was said to be lax, thus giving way to all sorts of misdemeanours which critics linked to the deterioration of both the quality of Hausa movies and the moral rectitude of movie practitoners. Shekarau tolerated much of the lapses, probably because he needed a re-election in 2007. It took the Hiyana sex scandal of 2007 to startle him into action, with the view to pleasing the mullahs.

Now that Kwankwaso is back, expectations in the industry are high. Stakeholders see him as their won. Some of them want him to appoint one of them as DG of the censorship board. They are almost doubly sure he will not “betray” them. But will he? Or won’t he?

However, it would be foolhardy of anyone in the industry to suppose that the carefree days of the past will return in this dispensation. The films will be censored because they are a veritable weapon of commiunicating ideas that impact on the society, with overarching consequences. Kwankwaso is expected should a technocrat who knows the movie business and the relevant matters of censorship. It should be somebody who can midwife the industry towards a level of professionalism not usually seen in these parts. It should be someone who will make our films competitive not only on the national scene but also continentally, from where they will be uniquely attractive universally.

This task should have no name-calling, campaign of calumny and policies that could weaken the business. Remember that one of the serious challenges facing the new government in Kano, and by extension all governments in the North, is reducing the huge army of unemployed youths roaming the streets. Kano has the largest population of unemployed youth, many of whom are not indigenes of the state – or even Nigerians. The movie-making industry has sucked in thousands of such men and women, thus contributing to the economy of the state and to its wellbeing. Governor Kwankwaso should create ways of encouraging this entrepreneurship while ensuring that it conforms to the norms of the society. There are many competent hands in Kano who can do it. Any attempt to kill the film-making business would be counterproductive and futile, just as we saw during the last censorship regime in the state.

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Published in my column in the current issue of BLUEPRINT, the weekly newspaper

Kannywood: A Luta Continua!

Why is Kannywood - the Hausa film industry - both more backward and more despised than Nollywood, and its promoters poorer in terms of material comfort? Why did Nollywood, the English language movie industry based in Lagos and Onitsha, grow so exponentially within a few years than Kannywood to become, according to UNESCO, the second largest film industry in the world in terms of the number of annual film productions, placing it ahead of Hollywood and behind Bollywood? Some reports say that Nollywood is estimated to rake in between US$200 million and US$250 million per year, churning out some 200 videos for the market every month.

Some would think it is foolish to make this kind of contradistinction because the two industries appear to be operating on different turfs. On a closer look, however, it is possible to glean the factors that make the two similar and why the fortune of one should ricochet on the other. The greatest point of divergence is language, which may appear to present certain restrictions on the Hausa industry that could militate against its growth. But if you look closer, you will wonder why Bollywood movies were able to penetrate societies globally even though they came loaded with Indian cultural motifs. If Hindi melodramas could have a universal appeal, why should the Hausa ones be restricted to particular audiences? The answer to these questions will tell us why our movies remain in chains twenty years after they began while those of Nollywood wax stronger. First, let’s take a look back at the origin of the problem. The Hausa movie industry is going to celebrate its 20th year anniversary next week, but of course not many outside its circle know this. And this is very instructive. This momentous milestone is generally lost on most people, including those who should know better, because this is an industry that has always suffered the fate of being misunderstood, misreported and even cast in the wrong league of Nigerian entertainment history.

Official history says the “Nigerian home video industry” had origins in the release of the movie ‘Living in Bondage’ in 1992. This drama thriller, written by Kenneth Nnebue and Okechukwu Ogunjiofor and directed by Chris Obi Rapu, is believed to have been responsible for the beginning of the shot straight-to-video ventures that came to define what is generally known as Nollywood today. This wrong historicisation of the art form does not take cognisance of the “other” movie industry known as Kannywood, which is so named because of its main base in Kano. It is a home video industry that is as big as Nollywood in terms of number of productions per month and the sheer population of stakeholders - stars, directors, producers, crew and marketers. Its viewership transcends northern Nigeria because its flicks are watched all over West Africa and the Hausa Diaspora.

The truth also is that Kannywood predates Nollywood. As Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu, unarguably the leading scholar on Kannywood alive, told an audience in Kano on November 25, 2010 at an event to mark 20 years of the industry, Kannywood began in March 1990 with the release of the home video ‘Turmin Danya’. Written by the late Aminu Hassan Yakasai, it was produced by the pioneer drama group in Kano, Tumbin Giwa, and directed by Salisu Galadanci. The relative success of ‘Turmin Danya’ caused an upsurge in Hausa filmmaking as more and more production outfits, called companies even if they were not formally registered with the authorities, emerged, mostly as breakaways from older groups. Kano, with the biggest army of unemployed youth in the north, got an industry that was self-created, independent of government intervention.

According to Adamu, “Another landmark in the history of video films in Africa was recorded in August 1999 edition of Tauraruwa magazine - the first magazine in Africa devoted to indigenous African video films - edited by Sunusi Shehu ... that Sunusi created the term ‘Kannywood’ to refer to the Kano-based Hausa video film industry. It is significant that the term ‘Nollywood’ to refer to the Nigerian English language video film industry was created by Norimitsu Onishi, in an article titled ‘Step Aside L.A. and Bombay, for Nollywood’ published in The New York Times on September 16, 2002. This was three years AFTER Sunusi Shehu created ‘Kannywood’.

“Of further significance was the fact that ‘Turmin Danya’ was released in 1990, two years BEFORE ‘Living in Bondage’ - the video film generally acknowledged as the first in English language Nollywood film industry. So either way, the Hausa video film industry - both in terms of an industry as well as a label - is the first full-fledged video film industry, not only in Nigeria, but also in Africa.”

So, why should an industry that made this milestone be licking its wounds today instead of licking the juice of its labour? The answer is that Hausa movies veered off culturally by their adoption of alien cultural mores - Indian, Western and even southern Nigerian. They lost their uniqueness. The early movies were responsible for the monumental growth and popularity of the new art form. But when some producers in the heat of deadly competition injected the ‘Indian-type’ movies - the singing and dancing aspect, forms of dress, storylines, and even posters, etc - the audience began to shrink. I watched with keen interest, as a reporter deeply embedded within the industry, as the market went into a spin, crashing a lot of hitherto legendary production outfits and names.

Then in 2007 came the infamous Hiyana affair. An A-class actress and her non-industry lover had foolishly made a video clip of themselves having sex in a hotel room, using a cell-phone camera, apparently for the fun of it. Even though it was a non-industry event, the inadvertent release of the clip into the society created a consternation and opprobrium against an industry that had for some time been struggling to remain popular and tolerated. The scandal forced the Kano State governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, who feared a backlash from Islamic clerics at a time he was instituting a Sharia law regime, into a clean-up exercise in the industry. He appointed a new boss for the state censorship board known for his heavy-handedness while working for the state Sharia police. The man, Abubakar Rabo, took it as part of his duties to emasculate the industry in any way he could. Acting on his weird understanding of the functions of a public officer and a pitiable misreading of the public mood, he battled the industry for three years, using the instrument of government power, ensuring that many actors, producers, directors, etc., were jailed or fined heavily on false charges. Many stakeholders migrated to other states. It took the sudden occurrence of his own sex scandal to check his acts of injustice and persecution and make him mellow down and seek rapprochement with his opponents.

At 20, Kannywood needs to take a pensive look at the progress it should have made but hasn't. The stakeholders, most of whom are young, need to train for roles in moviemaking, especially the technical aspect. Skill acquisition is low. The marketing system is rudimentary and pedestrian. Piracy, a big spectre, is gobbling up potential profits and keeping producers on the verge of bankruptcy. Movie stories are shallow and thematically restricted, lacking in unique cultural motifs that can create a universal loyal audience. Unity of purpose is almost absent, leading to an individualism that is injurious to the common interest of stakeholders; this makes it impossible for outfits to collaborate on productions and sometimes lead to court cases such as the current one between a leading director and a famous actor/producer. Overall, government empowerment is necessary in growing the industry as a private sector capable of sucking in thousands of school leavers and dropouts, as well as gearing the movies towards the common good.

Kannywood, as its struggles continue, can learn a lot from Nollywood, where collaborations and norms and conventions have created a cohesiveness that promotes the common good. There should be rules and regulations that everybody should be subjected to. The Motion Pictures Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MOPPAN), Hausa movie industry's main trade association, has a role to play in this. Education is of paramount significance; an under-educated class cannot even write grammatically correct subtitles, talk less of producing captivating box office hits. A cursory viewing of Kannywood flicks on Africa Magic’s Hausa channel today shows just how backward Hausa movies are in this regard. If Kannywood refuses to start cleansing itself of its present imperfections, it cannot hope to make any headway in its next twenty years.

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Published in LEADERSHIP WEEKEND, last Saturday

Tsugunne ba ta kare ba

Akwai alamun cewa sau}i ya fara zuwa masana’antar finafinai ta Nijeriya, wato Nollywood, domin kuwa mako uku da su ka wuce ne Shugaban {asa Goodluck Jonathan ya yi wani ho~~asa na kyautatawa ga masu aikin fasaha da basira na }asar nan. Ku]i ne zunzurutu wuri na gugar wuri har dalar Amurka miliyan 200 ya bayyana bayarwa ga masu sana’ar nisha]antarwa a matsayin rance don ha~aka sana’ar su. A ku]in Nijeriya, sun kama kimanin naira biliyan 30.

Shugaban }asar ya fa]i haka ne a Legas, a wurin bikin cikar shahararren kamfanin nan masu gidajen silima da shirya gasar sarauniyar kyau mai suna Silverbird Group shekara 30 da kafawa. Mamallakin kamfanin, wato tsohon Darakta-Janar na Hukumar Talabijin ta Nijeriya (NTA), Mista Ben Murray-Bruce, shi ne ya ro}i shugaban da ya yi wani abu don karrama masana’antar, wadda ta }unshi masu shirya fim da kuma mawa}a. Jonathan, wanda ya halarci taron da kan sa, ya ce wannan jari da gwamnati ta zuba an yi shi ne “ba don komai ba sai don a mara wa masu sana’ar fasaha baya da kuma ha~aka masana’antar mu ta nisha]antarwa.”

Mutane da yawa da ke da ruwa da tsaki a masana’antar sun yi murna da wannan ku]in, su na ganin su a matsayin agajin da ya zo a daidai lokacin da ake bu}atar sa, wato a daidai lokacin da ruwa ya kusa }are wa ]an kada. Su na ganin sa a matsayin wata babbar karramawa da amintaka ga gudunmawar da wa]annan ]imbin masu basirar su ka bayar wajen sa a }ara sanin Nijeriya a fagen ayyukan nisha]i, wato fim da wa}a.

Nollywood, wadda masana’anta ce da ke bun}asa a koyaushe, ta na tafiya kafa]a-da-kafa]a da masana’antar da ta girme ta a fagen, wato ta ki]a da wa}a. Duk an san su a duniya. A wani rahoto da hukumar UNESCO ta buga a cikin watan Mayu 2009, an bayyana cewa masana'antar Nollywood ce ta uku a duniya wajen fito da yawan finafinai, wato ta na bin masana’antar Hollywood ta }asashen Turawa da kuma Bollywood ta }asar Indiya. An }iyasta cewa darajar Nollywood ta fuskar ku]i ta kai kimanin dala miliyan 250, kuma akwai mutum a}alla miliyan ]aya da ke aiki a masana’antar. Wannan masana’anta ta haifar da ’yan wasa wa]anda sunan su ya zama ruwan dare a cikin }asar nan da }asashen waje. Sunaye irin su Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Ramsey Nouah, Kate Henshaw-Nuttal, Pete Edochie, Ali Nuhu, Segun Arinze, Funke Akindele, da sauran su, sanannu ne. Akwai kuma irin wa]annan sunayen a fagen wa}a. A dalilin haka, akwai manazarta da dama da ke tururuwa daga }asashen duniya su na zuwa nan domin yin nazarin irin tashin gwauron zabon da wannan masana’anta ke yi. Abu sai ka ce tsafi! A yau ]in nan akwai tashoshin talabijin na satalayit da dama da ke nuna finafinan Nollywood dare da rana, ciki kuwa har da shahararriyar tashar Africa Magic, kwatankwacin yadda tashar Fox Movies ke nuna finafinan Hollywood da kuma yadda tashoshin B4U da Zee Aflam ke nuna na Indiya. Wa]annan mutane, mazan su da matan su, wa]anda yawanci matasa ne, su na rayuwa cikin jin da]i a matsayin attajirai, a cikin aikin da su ka }ir}ira da kan su, ba tare da sa hannun hukuma ba.

To amma kuma akwai mutanen da ke kallon wannan gara~asa da Jonathan ya yi ga ’yan fim da mawa}a a matsayin wani abu bambara}wai. Su na ganin cewa ya yi abin ne da ka kawai, ba tare da ya numfasa ya yi tunani ba, don kawai Mista Murray-Bruce ya ro}e shi da ya yi masu ko ma menene don nuna kulawa. Tun daga lokacin da aka bayyana gara~asar, na ji 'yan fim da mawa}a da dama su na yin wasu tambayoyi a kan ta: Shin wannan kyautar yaudara ce ko kuwa? Shin siyasa ce? Shin Jonathan ya na }o}arin samun goyon bayan masu sana’ar nisha]antarwa a daidai lokacin da ’yan adawa ke girgiza kujerar sa? Shin kishin }asa ne ya sa ya ba da wannan babbar kyautar? Ko kuwa ma gwamnati ta na so ta yi wa ’yan fim da mawa}a }ofar raggo ne, wato ta biyo ta bayan fage domin ta mamaye harkar saboda gudun irin sa}wannin da ake iya jefawa a cikin finafinai da wa}o}i?

Bayan haka, wa zai kar~o ku]in daga hannun gwamnati a madadin ’yan fim da mawa}an, wa]anda ba su da wasu tsayayyun shugabanni da kowa da kowa ya yarda da su? A yanzu dai, ba a ma san yadda za a raba ku]in ba. Shugaban }asa dai ya ce gwamnan Babban Bankin Nijeriya (CBN) tare da ministan ku]i su ne za su je su fito da hanyar da za a bi a fito da ku]in da kuma yadda za a yi da su. Jonathan, a jawabin sa, ya ambaci kalmar Nollywood ne a matsayin masana’antar finafinan Nijeriya, to amma don Allah ainihi su wanene Nollywood ]in? Da yawa in an ce Nollywood, to ana nufin ’yan fim na Kudiu kenan, wa]anda ke zaune a Legas da Anacha. To su kuma ’yan fim na Hausa fa da ke Arewa, wa]anda sunan tasu masana’antar Kannywood? Sannan kuma ina sauran Wood Wood da ke akwai - misali masana’antar finafinai ta Nupawa, wadda }arama ce kuma ba ta kallon kan ta a matsayin wani yanki na Kannywood, da sauran wuraren da ake shirya fim cikin harsunan mu na gado? Su yaya za a yi da su? Bugu da }ari, me ake nufi idan an ce maka]an Nijeriya? Shin sun ha]a da masu wa}o}i da harsunan gargajiya, irin su Nasiru Garba Supa na Kano da Musa [anbade na Kaduna, ko kuma ana nufin mawa}a na zamani masu wa}o}in Naija irin su Dapo Oyebanjo (D’banj), Abolere Akande (9ice), Innocent Idibia (Tuface), 2-Effects da Sound Sultan? Sannan ina za a saka su Aminu Ala, Fati Nijar, Maryam A. Baba da ire-iren su? A gaskiya, akwai bu}atar a fito a yi wa jama’a bayani, kuma a fito da hanyoyin da za a bi wa]annan ku]in su kai ga ’yan fim da mawa}a. Idan har ba a bi a sannu ba, to wannan gara~asa ta gwamnati za ta haifar da babban rikicin shugabanci a industiri, ta jawo rarrabuwar kai tsakanin masu fasaha a ~angarori daban-daban.

Ni a nawa ganin, har yanzu tsugunne ba ta }are ba ga masu shirya finafinai da kuma buga wa}o}i a Nijeriya. Industiri ba ta bu}atar wa]annan ku]in. Dalili: an yanke shawarar ba da su ne kurum a cikin irin tunanin gwamnati da ya da]e ya na addabar }asar nan, wato inda za ka ga an watsa ku]i ga matsala a matsayin magani maimakon a gano dalilin faruwar cutar. Abin da masana’antar nisha]antarwa ke bu}ata shi ne a samar da kyakkyawan sararin da mutum zai yi sana’a har ya ci riba. Mu tuna, wasu ’yan kasuwa masu tarar aradu don fa]in kai ne su ka haifar da industirin Nollywood da rana tsaka kimanin shekara 18 da ta gabata lokacin da su ka fitar da fim mai suna Living in Bondage, kuma tun daga lokacin ta ke ta }ara bun}asa ba tare da jarin gwamnati ba. Na san cewa masana'antar ta na fama da manyan matsaloli. Na farko, matsalar da ke damun Nijeriya ma ita ke damun ta, domin abin da ya ci Doma ba ya barin Awai. Matsalolin sun ha]a da satar basira da wasu ~arayin zaune ke tafkawa, ga rashin tsaro da kuma ta~ar~arewar tattalin arzikin }asar nan. [aya daga cikin manyan matsalolin ita ce satar basira, inda wani zaunannen ~arawo zai ]auki kayan ka ya gurza ya ri}a sayarwa, kai kuwa ko oho. Rashin }arfin doka da oda ya sa masu aikin basira sun kasa cin moriyar shukar su. |arayin zaune sun yi masu talala. Ya kamata a fitar da su daga wannan }angin, su samu sa’ida.

Lokacin da hukumar UNESCO ta ce Nollywood ce ta uku a duniya, ta ba ta wannan matsayin ne a kan yawan finafinan da ake shiryawa kawai, ba wai saboda }arfin arziki ko kuma ingancin finafinan ba. Su finafinan mu na Nijeriya, ana shirya su ne bisa ku]i }alilan, tare da yin amfani da kayan aiki masu araha. Yawanci babu ilimin abin domin su masu ruwa da tsakin ba wani horo su ka samu a makaranta ba; duk a lokeshin ake koyon komai. Shi ya sa za ka ga a finafinan ana nuno abu a duk yadda aka ga dama. Idan ka na kallon finafinan Kudu, sai ka yi tunanin cewa a }asar mu ba abin da ake yi sai tsafe-tsafe da aikata laifuffuka da kuma tsiraici. Rashin doka mai }arfi da kuma han}oron samun }azamar riba sun sa lamarin ya }azanta. Don haka babu mamaki, finafinan Nollowood }alilan ne ake ]aukar su da wata daraja a }asashen da su ka ci gaba, in ban da a unguwannin da ’yan Nijeriya ke zaune, masu }awazucin tunowa da gida. Yanzu dubi wani fim da aka yi a Afrika ta Kudu wai shi Tsotsi, da wani da aka yi a Indiya mai suna Slumdog Millionaire. Wa]annan finafinai ne da ake ji da su a duniya. Shi Tsotsi, dalar Amurka miliyan 3 aka kashe wajen shirya shi, to amma an samu dala miliyan 10 daga nuna shi a silima. Haka kuma ya ci manyan gasa guda biyu na duniya, wato lambar Oscar (a cikin 2005) da lambar Golden Globe (a 2006) a matsayin gwarzon fim cikin harsunan }asashe ban da Ingilishi.

Amma mu finafinan mu na Nijeriya, ba su da labarai masu }arfi, sannan da an fara fim za ka iya cankar inda zai }are. Sakamakon haka, za ka ji ana kuka da finafinan a gida da waje. Yanzu haka a Uganda har wata mata ’yar Majalisar Dokokin }asar mai suna Sarah Wasike Mwebaza ta ]ora laifin }aruwar ayyukan tsafe-tsafe a }asar ga yawaitar finafinan Nijeriya a }asar. Gwamnatin Uganda ta na nan ta na shirin kafa dokar da za ta magance matsalar. Wannan ya nuna cewa ya kamata masu shirya finafinan mu su yi karatun ta-natsu, su maida hankali wajen shirya finafinai masu inganci, da nuna gwaninta wajen ba da labari, da kyan hoto da sauti. Ya kamata su nuna wa sauran }asashen duniya cewa ba wai neman ku]i kawai ya sa su ke shirya fim ba, a’a har ma don su nuna bajinta a basira da fasaha. Saboda haka, kada a dubi gara~asar da Shugaba Jonathan ya bayar a matsayin ku]i kawai, maimakon haka a ]auka cewa alama ce ta nuna goyon baya da kuma karramawa. Idan har aka saka ido a kan ku]in, to ba abin da zai biyo baya sai cacar baki da rarrabuwar kai da fa]ace-fa]ace, daga nan kuma zancen bizines ya }are kenan.

Still Living In Bondage

Succour appeared to have come the way of Nollywood penultimate week when, in a rare gesture of goodwill towards the arts in Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan announced a $200 million stimulus for the entertainment industry. The money is worth about N30 billion. Speaking in Lagos during the 30th anniversary celebration of the Silverbird Group, the famous entertainment company headed by former director-general of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Mr. Ben Murray-Bruce, the president said the investment was a lifeline "for the exclusive purpose of supporting artistes and developing our entertainment industry."

The move was hailed by many stakeholders in the industry as an intervention that couldn't have come at a better time. They saw in it a clear recognition and honour of the contribution of the talented men and women who have helped to put Nigeria on the world map of entertainment.

Nollywood, the nation's growing movie industry, which can now be regarded as a twin of the equally soaring, though older, music industry, is a global brand from Nigeria. According to a UNESCO report released in May 2009, Nollywood is the third largest movie industry on earth by value, after Hollywood and India's Bollywood. Worth about $250 million and employing about 1 million Nigerians, the industry has created artistes who are household names, nationally and internationally. Names like Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Ramsey Nouah, Kate Henshaw-Nuttal, Pete Edochie, Ali Nuhu, Segun Arinze, Funke Akindele, etc, are well known. Similar big names abound on the music scene. Consequently, Nollywood has attracted academics from across the world who consider its phenomenal rise worthy of study. Talk of African magic! Indeed, several satellite television channels, including the appropriately named Africa Magic, now offer Nollywood movies 24 hours a day, the way Hollywood movies are shown on stations like Fox Movies or Indian ones on B4U and Zee Aflam. These men and women, most of whom are young, lead comfortable lives in jobs they created for themselves.

For many others, however, the president's gesture was very odd. To them, he acted impulsively - having been begged to do something, anything for the industry, by Mr. Murray-Bruce. In the last two weeks, I have heard questions being asked by stakeholders: Is this a Greek gift? Is it political? Is Jonathan currying the favour of the entertainers as he faces stiff challenge to his leadership? Was his offer inspired by true nationalistic fervour? Is the government coming in to control an informal sector which can communicate political messages not favoured by officialdom? Who will collect the money on behalf of the stakeholders in an industry that has no formal structure or universally recognised leadership?

For now, it is not clear how the money will be shared. The president said the Central Bank governor and the finance minister will handle that. Jonathan, in his speech, alluded to a group called Nollywood, but who, really, is Nollywood? Many reserve it for only those entertainers based in Lagos and Onitsha, but what of the huge Hausa film industry up north, known as Kannywood? And what of other 'Woods' - such as the miniscule, but silently growing Nupe movie industry which does not see itself as a part of Kannywood, as well other small vernacular outfits? Also, what do we mean when we say Nigerian musicians? Do they include those singing in the vernacular, such as Nasiru Garba Supa in Kano and Musa Danbade in Kaduna, or only those Naija crooners such as Dapo Oyebanjo (D'banj), Abolere Akande (9ice), Innocent Idibia (Tuface), 2-Effects and Sound Sultan? Clearly, much needs to be done to sift the grains from the chaff and then determine the modalities for moviemakers and musicians to access the fund. If care is not taken, this government's bonanza would spawn the biggest leadership tussle ever witnessed in the industry and cause divisions between the various "Woods" in the country.

I believe that the industry does not need the largesse. Reason: it came out of the practice by successive regimes to throw money at problems. What the entertainment industry truly needs to develop is a conducive business environment. Remember that Nollywood was created from nothing by adventurous entrepreneurs about 18 years ago with the release of the flick, Living in Bondage, and has grown in leaps and bounds without government money. Of course, it is bedevilled by problems. It suffers from the "Nigerian factor", which includes anything from piracy and insecurity to the poor state of the economy. One of the biggest problems is piracy. The country's lax laws have made it impossible for producers to enjoy the fruits of their labour. They are held in bondage by these thieves. They should be rescued.

Nollywood's ranking by UNESCO's Institute of Statistics as number one in the world is on production volume rather than quality. Nigerian movies are shot on shoestring budgets with cheap equipment. Professionalism is rare because stakeholders lack training, hence the insensitive portrayals of our society as a haven of crime, fetish and exposed flesh. Lax laws and the get-rich-quick nature of Nigerians worsen the situation. Little surprise, then, that only a few Nollywood movies are of value to foreign audiences aside Nigerians in the Diaspora. Consider Tsotsi, the South African movie, or India's Slumdog Millionaire. Tsotsi was made on a $3 million budget and it grossed about $10 million. It also won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for best foreign language film in 2005 and 2006 respectively.

But our movies have poor storylines and a predictable nature. Complaints, as a result, are reverberating across Africa. In Uganda, an MP, Sarah Wasike Mwebaza, blames an increase in witchcraft cases in that country on the influx of Nigerian movies. The Ugandan government is now mulling a bill to address the issue. This shows that our movie makers need to self-reflect and aim at quality in their stories, storytelling style, pictures and sound. They should show the world that their business is not only about making the quick buck but also about art. The bonanza from government should not, therefore, be viewed in monetary terms but as support and recognition. Once regarded as cool cash, it would divide and distract them from business.


--
Picture above: Artistes and crew shooting a Nollywood movie. Photo: BBC

Published in LEADERSHIP WEEKEND, today.

Fim, October 2010 cover

Rabo: Pursuing The Pursuer

LEADERSHIP
Wednesday, 01 September 2010



In this piece, ABDULAZIZ ABDULAZIZ writes on the recent case of an alleged illicit sex affair between the director general of Kano State Censorship Board, Malam Abubakar Rabo Abdulkareem, and a minor. He raises questions from both ends of the story.

Efforts were allegedly made to 'kill' the story but it stubbornly fizzled out and when it did, it sparked a shocker to many, though some said there was nothing odd about it. However, the proponents of the oddity of the story may have the upper hand, in terms of reasons to cite: the man is exceptionally pious; that is if it can be deduced from facial expression. He was once the next in command at the state’s Sharia implementation agency, Hisbah, derogatorily tagged 'Sharia police'. He pursued filmmakers and other artists in the state as if they are the most devilish of devils. He has disowned them with unprintable words. Therefore, it should naturally be a story when a person with such a profile of Malam Abubakar Rabo Abdulkareem is found wanting.

The Story

The story of the scandal, as narrated to LEADERSHIP Interval, goes thus: A patrolling police vehicle was moving along Maiduguri Road on Sunday, August 22, 2010, around 10pm when they sighted a Peugeot car parked in a bushy area by the road's shoulder near Rukayyat House. They beamed a light and the man sped off to escape. The police also accelerated to catch up with him. The police used their vehicle's siren to alert the man to stop but he refused and instead engaged them in car race.

He raced frantically following the eastern by-pass road and through Unguwa Uku quarters with the police trailing him. This made the man with the car to knock down a motorcyclist around Unguwa Uku Shago Tara. He however forged ahead, accelerating the vehicle. The latter incident, which led to inflicting injury on the motorcyclist prompted some commercial motorcyclists, to help the police in trailing the fleeing driver. He was subsequently caught up with.

The angry mob of motorcyclists began to beat up the driver as some aimed at the car, incurring serious damage on the car, before the arrival of the police who dispersed the people and arrested the driver. On reaching the police station at Hotoro Division, the runaway driver identified himself as Abubakar Rabo Abdulkareem, the director general of the state’s censorship board.

On searching the car, according to a LEADERSHIP source, a young girl was found. Abdulkareem claimed that the girl was his niece and he was coming from his family house when he was trailed. The police at the station demanded that the DG tendered a written statement to that effect. He was released afterwards.

Abdulkareem, LEADERSHIP learnt on good authority, departed for Saudi Arabia a day after the incident. When our correspondent called him last Thursday, on introducing the reason for the call, the chief censor replied; "By Allah, I don't know about it."

However, Abdulkareem had confirmed the story to other journalists with the alteration that the girl was his niece, whom he was conveying from his parents house to his own house. He however appealed to the journalists to let the matter die as exposing it amounts to ridiculing Islam.

His argument, according to a clip of an interview with him obtained by LEADERSHIP, was that the whole drama was a set up to blackmail him by PDP stalwarts in the state who have been looking for a way to eliminate him. He said those people had been meeting for about three weeks, at Shagari quarters, on how to nail him.

According to him, seeing a full beam from an approaching car on that fateful day, he became scared due to the incessant threats he had been getting, he therefore accelerated unconsciously in order to save his life. He denied that it was police that trailed him, saying the police only showed up later.

Rabo admitted that he was booed as a thief to get him to stop, but he continued speeding to get to where he can be saved. He said when the police realized that the girl found with him was his daughter, they released him. The DG lamented that some people were out to cash in on the incident to damage his reputation.

When LEADERSHIP visited Wase Hospital, where Abdulmudallib Jibrin, the injured motorcyclist, was hospitalized, entry access was denied him as he sustained serious injuries on his arm and head. The victim, who is a staff of the state History and Culture Bureau said he could not recall what happened as he was taken to hospital unconsciously.

Contradiction

Contacted for an official position about the saga, Kano State Commissioner of Information, Barrister Haruna Isa Dederi, said the incident was cooked up by Abdulkareem's enemies in the film industry. He said for a long time a group of filmmakers have been fighting the DG to the point of issuing death threats.

However, contrary to LEADERSHIP's findings and Abdulkareem's claim that the young girl with him in the car was his nieces, Dederi said the DG was with his wife and his daughter at the time of the incident. According to him, Abdulkareem had a running stomach and therefore stopped to ease himself in the nearby bush when the police vehicle approached him in full force. Reminded that the DG was pursued by the police with a siren vehicle, the information commissioner said it was not true and that the police was in a private vehicle, not an official one.

Police Investigating

However, the Kano State deputy commissioner of police, Mr Lawan Tanko, confirmed the arrest of the DG. He said the police are investigating the issue to find out why Abdulkareem ran away when pursued by the police. "We want to know what the running was about" DCP Tanko said.

The police top man said the command would unravel the case even as he described it as nothing serious. DCP Tanko also confirmed that the DG has knocked down a motorcyclist while escaping from the trailing policemen.

The ‘Niece’

However, a neighbour of Abdulkareem at his Tarauni residence, who do not want her name in print said the girl is indeed from Abdulkareem's household. She however wondered what the two were doing in a car at such an odd hour in a less populated place, "that is if what I heard was true" she said. The little girl was identified as Fati.

As the story made waves in Kano, many people are still dumbfounded that Malam Rabo could be involved in such a mess. His sympathisers dismissed the story as unfounded but those who have a hatchet to bury with him said the man has never been the saint he claims to be.

Police, in their usual promise, said they are not leaving any stone unturned to unravel the true picture of the incident. Many people see the incident as a turning point not only in Abdulkareem's career, but in that of many of those of his ilk.

Kano Chief Censor In Alleged Child Abuse Scandal

LEADERSHIP, Monday, 30 August 2010

By Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, KANO


The Director-General of Kano State Censors Board, Malam Abubakar Rabo Abdulkareem, is enmeshed in a case of an alleged illicit sexual affair involving a minor whom he allegedly abused.

Though it is unclear whether the chief censor had actually penetrated the girl or not, investigations by LEADERSHIP revealed that he was trailed penultimate Sunday in Kano by patrolling policemen who saw a car parked around a bushy area along Maiduguri road by Rukayya House, in Kano around 10 p.m.

The police on patrol beamed their vehicle's light on the parked car and the DG, who was in the car, started the car and zoomed off to escape the approaching vehicle. LEADERSHIP learnt that the police used the siren of their vehicle to alert the DG that they were trailing him but he refused to stop, engaging the police in a car race.

Rabo raced frantically through the Eastern by-pass road and through Unguwa Uku quarters with the police trailing him. This led him to ram into a motorcyclist around Unguwa Uku Shago Tara. He, however, forged ahead accelerating the vehicle.

It was learnt that the motorcyclist he ran into was wounded, as a result of which some other commercial motorcyclists joined the police in trailing the director general. They subsequently caught up with him around Filin Kashu area of Unguwa Uku.

The angry mob of motorcyclists began to beat the DG, while some aimed at the car, causing serious damages to it, before the arrival of the police who dispersed the people and arrested the driver, who turned out to be Rabo.

The director general was then taken to the Hotoro Police Station where he identified himself. On searching the car, according to a LEADERSHIP source, a young girl was found in the car, and a pant, suspected to be the girl's. Rabo claimed that the girl was his cousin and he was coming from his family house. He was released at the time.

Rabo, LEADERSHIP learnt on good authority, departed for Saudi Arabia a day after the incident. When our correspondent called him last Thursday, as soon as he mentioned the reason for the call, the Chief Censor replied; "By Allah I don't know about it."

However, Rabo had confirmed the story to other journalists, saying that the girl was his cousin whom he was conveying from his parent’s house to his own house.

He also appealed to the journalists to let the matter die as exposing it amounts to ridiculing Islam.

Rabo's argument, according to a clip of an interview with him obtained by LEADERSHIP, was that the whole drama was a set up to blackmail him by PDP stalwarts in the state who had been looking for a way to eliminate him. He said those people had been meeting for about three weeks at Shagari quarters, on how to nail him.

----

This is another story on the Rabo sex scandal story. It gives additional detail. I heard that the Hausa movie industry's main union, MOPPAN, is going to hold a press conference on the matter today.

Court Orders Arrest Of Kano Chief Censor

Written by By Abdulrahman Tonga
LEADERSHIP
Thursday, 10 June 2010

The Kaduna State police command has been ordered by a judge to arrest the Director-General of the Kano State Censorship Board, Malam Abubakar Rabo Abdulkarim, for his failure to appear before it on two occasions.

The judge, Alhaji Nasiru Idris Lere of Magistrate Court 1 in Kaduna, gave the order for Rabo’s immediate arrest by the police.

Rabo was billed to appear in person in the court after five members of the Kaduna State Filmmakers Association sued him for criminal defamation.

He was reported to have claimed in a live television interview in Kaduna that Hausa moviemakers were now engaged in the production of pornographic films and that the people of Kaduna State should rise against them.

He reportedly claimed to have bought a copy of such pornographic movies in the Unguwar Sarki area of Kaduna metropolis.

When the case opened in court last week, the Kano chief censor failed to appear, citing ill-health. His counsel sought a postponement, a plea to which the filmmakers' counsel, A.S. Suleiman, did not object.

During yesterday’s hearing, counsel to Rabo, Mr. Gabriel Didam, told the court that his client could not appear in court in person as a result of insecurity in the state, adding that his client was also sick. He, however, apologized to the court on behalf of his client.

Counsel to the plaintiffs, Malam Sadau Garba, appealed to the court to issue a bench warrant against Rabo, pointing out that this was the second sitting in which he was not in the court. According to the lawyer, information reaching him was that the accused was determined never to come to the court.

“Justice has to be done,” he said. “The accused person had complained that he was sick, but no written document had been produced. And information reaching us is that the accused is bragging that he will never be present throughout the case and that nothing will happen. We therefore apply that this honorable court issue a arrest warrant to make him appear and take any alternative measures to bring him to the court”.

When ruling on the request, the judge said, “The accused person did not follow the proper way to channel his complaint to the court, a behaviour which may leave the other party to feel they are not treated equally.

“I will not believe him that there is insecurity in Kaduna. It’s an excuse by the accused person. And he has to tell us the names of those that thinks are after him so that court will stop them from coming to its premises.

“Since the inception of the case he has been complaining frequently, but the accused never did in the formal way. Under the section 153 of the CPC, the accused has to be in court. I am left with no option than to order his arrest under section 70 / 1A / B by the Commissioner of Police, Kaduna State.”

Hearing in the suit was adjourned till June 16, 2010.

-----

This is sequel to the story published on June 2

Defamation: Hausa Filmmakers Sue Kano Censors Board Chief

Written by Abdulrahman Tonga, Kaduna
LEADERSHIP
Tuesday, 01 June 2010 19:14

Members of the Kaduna State Filmmakers Association yesterday dragged the Director-General of Kano State Censorship Board, Malam Abubakar Rabo Abdulkareem, to a magistrate court in Kaduna over alleged criminal defamation of character and inciting the public to violence.

In a complaint charge filed before Chief Magistrate Nasiru Idris Lere of Magistrate Court 1, Ibrahim Taiwo Road, Kaduna, six filmmakers argued that a television interview granted by Rabo to the DITV station in Kaduna a fortnight ago had ridiculed their image and lowered their reputation in the eyes of the public.

Rabo was quoted to have told the TV station in a live broadcast that Hausa moviemakers were now engaged in the production of pornographic films and that the people of Kaduna State should rise against them.

He reportedly claimed to have bought a copy of such pornographic movies in Unguwar Sarki area of Kaduna metropolis.

Describing the censorship board chief's assertion as false, the plaintiffs said such statement was capable of inciting violence in the state.

“His statement that people should rise against us has made our members to live in constant apprehension for fear of being attacked by the public,” they said.

Rabo’s allegation was contrary to sections 392 and 114 of the penal code, they added.

The complainants consist of executive committee members of the Kaduna filmmakers association. They are: Ashiru Sani Bazanga, Rabi’u Mohammed Rikadawa, Aliyu Abdullahi Gora II, Sulaiman Sha’ani, Aminu Musa Carlos, and Jamilu Adamu.

LEADERSHIP learnt that the court summons, which was endorsed by a magistrate in Kaduna, was received by Rabo yesterday in his office situated within the Kano State-owned City Television in Hotoro, Kano.

The hearing comes up tomorrow in Kaduna.

Relations between the Kano State Censorship Board and Hausa filmmakers has been frosty since Rabo’s appointment by Governor Ibrahim Shekarau in 2007 following the Hiyana scandal.

Many artistes and producers were either jailed or heavily fined for one offence or the other by the censors board’s mobile court in Kano.

Rabo was sued by the Kano State Filmmakers Association last year over comments he made against them in a radio interview, but the case did not go far, with the filmmakers alleging that it was frustrated in the courts by the state government.

Hauwa Ali Dodo, Zulkiflu Muhammad, Safiya Ahmed

Oh, God! A lot of things have happened since my last posting in this blog. A lot on the political and cultural scenes, including the deaths of my actor friends Hauwa Ali Dodo, Zulkiflu Muhammad and Safiya Ahmed. Safiya (pictured 3rd here) was actually the star of my own movie 'Fargaba' (Fear), which I funded in 2008. Her illness and subsequent death were devastating to me personally. Hauwa and Zulkiflu (Zik) I had not seen for some years, but their deaths were nonetheless shocking. Hauwa was the biggest Hausa actress.



May their souls rest in peace, amen.

I hope to say more on them (and other issues that passed without my commentaries) very soon. Meanwhile, I am not happy with myself for keeping quiet all this while, to the dangerous extent of nearly forgetting my passwords to the blog! Well, I have reprimanded myself and hope to be back blogging one of these days.

Police Arrest Kano Censors Board DG

By Nasir Gwangwazo, Kano

Director-General of the Kano State Censorship Board, Malam Abubakar Rabo Abdulkareem, was yesterday arrested by the police over a complaint filed against him by the Kano State Filmmakers Association.

A reliable source told LEADERSHIP last night that Rabo had been dragged to a Sharia Court in Sabon Gari, Kano, by members of the association over an allegation credited to him, in which he was said to have described movie makers as a bunch of homosexuals and lesbians during an interview he granted Radio Kano recently.

In the interview, a copy of which was made available to LEADERSHIP, Rabo stated that he had proof that many of the filmmakers were gay, saying his intervention in the industry had helped sanitise the situation.

The statement incensed the filmmakers, and they wrote him a letter demanding a retraction and an apology within 48 hours.

But at a follow-up press conference recently in Kano, the director-general repeated his claim, warning that he would publish more damning reports about the alleged immorality in the industry if pressed further.

The association went ahead with its threat, suing him before the Sharia court, which was said to have advised the association to report the matter to the police first.
According to a member of the association and the immediate former chairman of the state chapter of Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Malam Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino, Rabo was picked up yesterday by two plain-clothes policemen at about 4pm and taken to the Metro police station located on Bank Road in the city, following a complaint by the filmmakers.

At the police station, three leaders of the moviemaking association - Nura Hussain, Ahmad Alkanawy and Isma’ila Afakalla - endorsed the association's formal complaint, which Rabo reportedly denied.

According to Gidan Dabino, the case is due for hearing at the Sharia Court, Fagge, today.

When our correspondent contacted Rabo on phone last night, however, he denied knowledge of the issue, saying he was in a meeting and promptly switched off.

Published in LEADERSHIP today

Interview: Rabo, Hausa Movie Chief Censor

The following interesting write-up/interview was posted by Salisu Ahmed Koki on the listserves "writersforumkano@yahoogroups.com" and "nurul-islam@yahoogroups.com" today.

Much can be gleaned from the interview about the director-general of the Kano State Censorship Board, Malam Abubakar Rabo Abdulkarim. The title given to the piece by Koki is "Hausa Home Video Industry AND the Rabo Abdulkareem Phenomenon (The Exclusive Interview with Rabo Abdulkareem)". The piece contains some grammatical and typographical errors, which I have not corrected. Enjoy



Hausa Home Video Industry AND the Rabo Abdulkareem Phenomenon (The Exclusive Interview with Rabo Abdulkareem)

By Salisu Ahmed Koki, Kano
sakoki@gmail. com


It is an industry that churns out roughly over 2000 sellable movies to the world annually; employing over 20, 000 hitherto unemployed youths and sometimes exports to the world the once ruined face of Nigeria. But turn the clock back to the years between 1975 and 1995 and the picture would have been different, very different, for that was the long, trying period when Hausa movie industry was struggling to establish itself as a viable showbiz hub equal in prestige and whim only to Bollywood that overshadowed the northern axis, then.

And just like the tiny and equally soullessly-wrapped up pupae growing into a beautifully designed and flip-flying butterfly that can fly to various destinations at will, the Hausa popular drama has transmogrified into Home Videos that evenly instigates cultural fusion and diffusion whose implications and impact on the Hausa culture critics posits is an area yet to be fully appreciated by researchers.

Indeed, the Hausa Home Video industry is now an unstoppable phenomenon that serves as a medium exploited by NGOs and various governments to relay informatic messages to children and adults. To say the least about the interest shown by most NGOs and even Diplomatic missions within and around Nigeria on Hausa Movies, it pays to say here and now that it was alleged that the arrest and detention of one of the popular Hausa movie Producer going by the name Hamisu Lamido Iyantama couldn't be unconnected to his allegedly unauthorized release of a NGO-sponsored Hausa film.

The fact that almost 40 million people around the world use the Hausa language medium to communicate and transact gave these movie makers an unprecedented opportunity to reach out to the world.

But of recent there has been a widespread complains about the modus operandi of the Hausa Movie makers most of which are accused of indulging in entertaining misplaced priorities, movie-making wise. They are said to be employing unorthodox, unprofessional and fluke-characterized techniques and methodologies in writing, acting and shooting their now widely condemned movies. The pomp and pageantry of films produced in the Lagos axis are more pronounced on Pay TV Channels like Africa Magic than that of their counterparts in northern Nigeria obviously because of the absence of quality and catchy storylines in them, although some of the Hausa movies are beginning to find their ways into the sister Magic Channel, the Africa Magic Plus.

Most of the Hausa film makers are accused of distorting the closely guarded Hausa culture which by all indications served as the sole excuse ceased by the present administration in Kano State to take stringent majors in curbing the excesses of this so-called rogue Hausa film makers. There has been an almost general consensus that Hausa movies shot some 20 years ago and far aback are far better in substance and content than the present day Hausa movies which explain why many are of the opinion that there has to be some check and balances as far as Hausa movie making is concerned.

In ripping apart the genesis of the Hausa Home Video Industry popularly tagged ‘Kanywood’ one can hardly do away with two factors; one is the Colonial Film Unit factor that gave birth to some of the first produced feature films on celluloid made in Hausa and the other factor been that of the Hausa society which is theatre personified like any other society. As put forward by Haruna Aminu of the Institute of Education, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, the Hausa society is so theatre personified so much that “in every aspect of the Hausa living tradition, one finds various manifestation of the dramatic indices, and this come in different forms due to the nature of the occasion that produces it. When one takes into consideration the idea of celebrating birth and death one can appreciate the impact of entertainment and imitation of life”.

Through the introduction of cinema or ‘Majigi’ as it is called in Hausa into the north via the Colonial Film Unit, the Nigerian colonial masters were given a sure medium for using the concept of ‘Massive Media Campaign’ to further their varying propaganda interests. Though a downside in some respect, it served as an upside for the Hausa movie industry as it served as a transiting medium from where traditional Hausa drama or ‘Wasan Kwaikwayo’ (‘wasa’ for ‘play’ and ‘kwaikwayo’ for ‘imitation’) have developed today into a full blown Hausa Movies/Films.

The first indigenous play ‘Wasan Marafa’ (the Marafa’s Play) by A.T Marafa made its appearance in 1949. Soon others followed, with the likes of ‘Malam Inkuntum’ (1954) and ‘Bora da Mowa’ (1972) as been the first to be staged before been reduced into writing. The first commercially successful Hausa movie was ‘Turmin Danya’ produced in 1990 in Kano selling about 100, 000 copies then and it was not until between 1997 and 2003 only that there was a massive surge in the production of these home videos. According to Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu, a very popular and widely respected Change Analysts, so far about 800 Hausa Language Video- about 80% produced in Kano have been registered with the National Film and Video Censors Board in 2003 only. “Such high volume in a relatively short period of time indicates an underlying cultural change and transformation that requires a systematized study” Professor Abdalla hypothesized.

Interestingly enough for the reader to know is the fact that Sir. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the slayed pioneer Prime Minister of Nigeria was among the opportune-few to first wrote a book in 1933 which was later translated into film. Again, one of Nigeria’s most renowned sociologist and the person adjudged by many to be Africa’s best in that field, Dr. Ibrahim Tahir (Talban Bauchi) of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria was the principal character in one of the pioneer Hausa films ‘Dan Arewa a London’ which if translated into English means ‘A Northerner in London’, a film that propagated the use of agriculture to propel growth. And with Adamu Halilu at the helm of affairs at the Colonial Film Unit in the early years of Nigeria’s life, some more Hausa feature films were produced among which are Baban Larai (1968), Shehu Umar (1976), and Kanta of Kebbi (1978) to mention but a few.

With most of the nations’ film regulatory agencies and some of the best public-owned film training institutions concentrated in the north, Hausa films and their makers were presented with a golden opportunity to propel themselves and attain success. Imagine, the National Film Corporation (NFC), National Film Institute (NFI), National Video Archives, National Film and Videos Censors Board (NFVCB), NTA TV College amongst others all are situated in and around Jos, the Plateau State capital. Also, with about 40 million Hausa speaking audiences spread across the entire African continent and beyond, filmmakers in the north have a great market potential; little wonder the rise among the Hausa filmmaking folks of some of Nigeria’s best in showbiz, the likes of Sadik Tafawa Balewa who Directed the winning feature ‘Kasar Mu Ce’, Sani Mu’azu who feature in many award winning films and TV series including Mr. Johnson (that featured the popular Hollywood actor, Pierce Brosnan) and NASCO-sponsored Riddles and Hope, Malam Abdulkareem Mohammed who Directed the film ‘Dan Adam Butulu I’, Dr. Sule Umar who directed the duos of ‘Maitatsine’ and yet-to-be released ‘General Murtala’, Ibrahim Buba who is the CEO of Newage Networks Kaduna and film stars Ali Nuhu the principal character in Amstel’s revered ‘Sitanda’ who won the coveted ‘Best Up Coming Actor Award’ at the AMAA Awards 2007, Sani Musa Danja, Ruqayya Dawayya, Safiya Musa, Ummi Zizi to mention but a few.

Considering the rising popularity and growth of Hausa films and its industry despite its prevailing complexities, controversies and allegedly unprofessional conjunction, a team of concerned practitioners and renowned academicians got together in the month of August 2003 to discuss the state of research on Hausa popular culture and media technologies, with particular reference to the Hausa home videos. It was an event chaired by the renowned Change Analyst, Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu of Bayero University Kano and was tagged ‘International Conference on Hausa Films’. The event was meant to be a brainstorming session with various inputs from members overshadowed then by the then current crisis in the non-marketability, and non-exportability of Hausa Home Videos beyond Hausa communities either in Nigeria or abroad. The event attracted scholars from close and afar including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Germany whom many considered an indication of the success recorded by the event.

Not long ago after sponsoring the International Conference cited earlier, the British Council Nigeria through its ‘Connecting Futures’ project gave 5 budding filmmakers first class training in filmmaking for two years, which culminated in the youth producing five winning short films. Also, the French Embassy in Nigeria in collaboration with Motion Pictures Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MOPPAN) it is that wholly sponsored a 4 day workshop on filmmaking in 2005, adding to the support the industry is now gaining from the international community.

The recent crackdown of filmmakers in the north particularly in Kano State by the authorities signaled a very interesting epoch in the history and relevance of this important industry in the north, and by extension in Nigeria.

Part of the symptoms of the alleged excesses of the present crop of Hausa filmmakers is said to be the almost uncontrollable pollution of the closely guarded and respected Hausa culture that leads to some female admirers of Hausa Filmmakers to publicly showcase their sexual orientation, meaning that some women did publicly declare that they are going to emulate Californians by getting married to each other publicly and fearlessly, an action viewed by many as a taboo. It is a story of awe and confusion and it is what can rightly be described as the most demeaning abuse of fame ever to bear its ugly head out of the now allegedly promiscuous Hausa film industry; a rare show of feminine crudity and a terrifying tale of rumpus manifestation of prevalent lesbianism that is eating deep into the fabrics of Kanywood. On 22nd April 2007 the most talk about religiously- tense Kano state witnessed yet another attempt by some group of people at tying the hands of people of the same sex into the bonds of marriage, only that in this case it wasn’t masculine gays but a fair-looking and pleasurably hot lady going by the name ‘Aunty Maiduguri’ getting married to four sanguine girls- a sure feminine polygamy you can call it!

The contentious act swiftly invited the wrath of Kano state government whom since expressed bitterly its skepticism over the activities of those operating in the film industry. For a start, the venue slated to host the four modish brides alongside their groom for a party which also happened to be an open theatre where plays were staged was demolished beyond recognition alongside two adjacent theatres on the instructions of the state governor Malam Ibrahim Shekarau with their Certificate of Occupancies and Operating Licenses all revoked. Soon followed an announcement that the government has sternly banned all forms of Gala and stage plays to be performed by men and women of the Hausa film industry, indefinitely! Then came the last, but expected one- order from the state government to the security agencies in the state to fish out and arrest ‘Aunty Maiduguri’ and her accomplices whom are already on the run.

Also, not long after the infamous Aunti Maiduguri Affair a video sex scandal involving one of the most popular Hausa actresses compelled the authorities to have a second thought on Hausa filmmaking and Hausa filmmakers not to mention a promiscuous music video released by one Adam Zango a background singer which leads to his detention for a prescribed period of time. What follows was a complete shutdown of filmmaking activities in Kano State for about a year now and the detention of the Hamisu Lamido Iyantama (a producer), Adam Zango (background singer), Rabilu Musa IBRO (a popular comedian) among others by Kano State Films and Videos Censors Board.

The leak of a sex video involving popular celebrities may prove a good omen to celebrities in the Western world, but from the harsh treatment received by the leak of the Hausa celebrity's sex video; it is obvious that the reverse is very true for celebrities in northern Nigeria.

Most of the stakeholders, especially the filmmakers, actors and actresses condemned the actions of the Kano State government alleging that it was the wrong decision for the government to take considering that most of the people, young and old that are having a means of livelihood via Hausa filmmaking process are rendered jobless and penniless by the government's action, worst they claimed, the government has failed to provide jobs for these people and has shown little interest in the Hausa filmmaking business which leads to its lackluster attitude towards Hausa filmmaking and Hausa Filmmakers.

In the midst of all these controversies this writer deemed it fit to get to the source of the matter and to achieve that he went all the way to interview the Director General of the Kano State Films and Videos Censors Board. The following is the outcome of our interview with Malam Rabo Abdulkareem which was initially meant for a national daily that requested for it but after reviewing the content and weighting the importance of the information embedded in it, I deemed it wise to distribute it via a medium that can allow for wider readership which is why the online platform is chosen.

A Brief on the Director General, Kano State Film and Video Censors Board.

Rabo Abdulkareem: Abubakar Rabo Abdulkareem are my names, I am the Director General Kano State Censorship Board, I am 35 years old and hail from Chiromawa of Garun Malam Local Government of Kano State. Earlier before my appointment here, I was the Deputy Commander of the Kano State Hisbah Board, much earlier I was a school teacher but of course I have my first and second degree in humanities.

What Specialization or area of study to be a little specific?

R. A: My first degree has been in Mass Communications- Special Honors (Broadcast) and my second degree is in Developmental Studies all from Bayero University, here in Kano.

What little can you say authoritatively about the history of and rationale behind the setting up of Kano State Censorship Board?

R. A: Historically and globally censorship is not a new thing, and of course it is because of the need in every responsible society or community to have moral values been upheld and things done the right way to the taste of the uniqueness of the individual community or society that censorship is accorded a unique priority in the history of mankind, this is why you see Censorship Board in the history of the Greeks, you see it in the history of the Persian Empire, in that of Europe, and in that of the United States America in particular which emanates from the need to build a 'hays code'. Coming back to Africa, I believe as Africans revered as the custodians of some of the worlds' most treasured and respected cultures we cannot be an exception, most particularly in Nigeria going by our populous nature and standing in the world. Here in Kano, particularly in the year 2001, there was this law established by the State Assembly and accented to and endorsed by the then executive arm of the government of Kano State and of course what informed the decision of the then government to come up with the law was a confusion, or rather mix-up of cultural values which was largely attributed to foreign influence and the weird culture of blind copy-cating of foreign cultures by most of the Hausa filmmakers which results to public outcry in the 1999-2000 of then Kano, and of course that was how the then administration sanctioned activities of filmmakers in the state. In fact, most of the filmmakers were suspended and entire cinematographic activities were suspended, of course after that very suspension there was the idea of coming up with a regulatory body and that was how the Kano State government then came up with the present Kano State Censorship Board Law 2001. And the interesting thing was the power giving to the state governments in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria whereby state governments are regarded or rather are given the leverage to go ahead and establish their respective state Censorship Bodies on film making and other thearitical activities and section 16 of the 1999 constitution of the concurrent legislative list is the main bedrock which result to this very kind of state Censorship Board Law, meaning that what we are doing is in consonant with the constitution of the federal republic and of course in it we can see some virtues, we can also see some positive results out of what we have so far established, because at least, the social responsibility expected of a government in ensuring and above all the outcome and output of the film project is becoming this time around very professional in nature, ethical and of course there is quality, quality in the content and quality in the critique of what is churn out for the viewership of the general public. Being a federating unit here, we are empowered and we have every right to have a very unique mechanism of governance, to have our uniqueness and peculiarity very well accommodated and reflected in the way we do our things in the state. We are trying to conform with the arrangement of the federation, been a federating unit, we want to have our own unique good governance, our unique security and of course, not undermining the constitution, not undermining national interest, but above all, we want to contribute to the growth of our GDP, this time around economically to tally with the vision 2020 of the present administration.

Can you please shed more light on your board's modus operandi?

R. A: The modus operandi or rather the goal is to ensure that things are done the right way. Considering film making as a profession just like journalism and accountancy, we don’t want to believe that illiteracy can bring the needed security into the filmmaking fold, rather the skill, and the knowledge. We are emphasizing on skill acquisition, this is our primary responsibility, and this is why all professional crew are mandated to have the basic training, to have the basic knowledge of filmmaking before they are certified to either direct, to produce, or act a professional role in a film. Of course there are artists that have abundant talent, and some can be special artistes, but notwithstanding how talented somebody is or gifted by the Almighty if he is taken to a film school where he will be groomed, if he is well shaped by the professionales that knows the film business bette, he will fare better in the film making business compared to when he or she is on her own. Be it may, what we are now saying is professionalism is emphasized in our modus operandi. The context, essence and the fundamental aspects of censorship, are to ensure that the younger ones, the future generation are not misguided or rather are not feed-up with destructive items (values).

What can you say about the success your board recorded so far?

R. A: What we’ve achieved by our own majors so far is a very good way forward because we are now censoring films and we are now correcting things not ours. Notwithstanding, other cultures must be seen in own films, because we are not living in isolation, but they are to be portrayed the way they are, we wouldn’t allow other cultures to be belittled in any way in the process of censoring, we also wouldn’t allow other ethnics or religions to be belittled because it is duty bound on government, especially the Nigerian government which has a multi-religious and multi-ethnic society to rationally and wisely manage. This is why I say by God’s grace, sooner or later, we would have what is called maximum output.

The recent visit of the duos of the Managing Director, Nigeria Film Corporations Jos and the Director General National Film and Videos Censors Board marked the beginning of the spread of the prevailing rumor that your board is gradually attracting national attention. What can you say about these visits?

R. A: Much earlier before the visit of the DG NFVCB, there was that of the MD Nigeria Film Corporation, Mr. Afolabi Adesanya. When he was here, he pleaded with the board on a lot of things, and of course, out of our stakeholders meetings, we resolved to went back and start censoring films, while been very considerate of our contemporary regulations and guidance or rather guidelines, because we will not undermine what we believe is the best solution to that public outcry that I stated to you earlier. When the DG NFVCB was here, we came up with a very good and formidable position; in fact, he is a very good representation of the nation because he was emphasizing on locality and the positive side of local content generation and integration while also insisting on originality in film projects. Above all, he was saying that every public servant must be like what we are in the state, acting as a guardian, or rather custodians of national legislations and state legislations. So, he was trying to make a point to the filmmakers, that if they find ease in belittling the law, if they see no harm in belittling the state legislations, that means they are not helping matters, above all, they will continue to be at logger leads with authorities and of course by so doing, they are but becoming deviant elements of the Nigerian society. So, I respected his submission or rather proposition, not withstanding his appeal that we should be very considerate of the baby industry, a.k.a Kanywood in trying to relax some measures that might be employed in the next ten years not now, for instance, on the issue of digitization, he is not saying we should relax our stance on digitization, but that we should try to revisit our measures so that we will not make filmmakers close shops needlessly and prematurely. We are emphasizing on erecting and maintenance of excellent and equally professional facilities; what we are saying now is that all production companies must be registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission like any other business entity or rather body, but to ask them to do this, they say is a stringent measure. But the reality is, you ought to be registered, because you are in a business, and film making is an investment with its attendant risks and prospects. Also, the issue of a production firm to have the basic office accommodation where at least a computer system is there with a Secretary ought to be considered and checkmated. Most of the companies before we are here are nominal, nominal in the sense that they are nowhere to be found. Most of the so-called production companies believe you me, are mobile and they are not there. Believe you me, we would by God’s grace try to standardize things, and we can only do that with the cooperation and understanding of the stakeholders, that we are out for their betterment, and if they cannot appreciate that, then that’s their problem. Most of them exist without the knowledge of their local authorities; their respective local government authorities don’t even know them, because they don’t have office accommodation. What we are now insisting on is that, you must go back to the local government where you are located, be registered, and be introduced to us by your local government authority before we register you, that’s the best way for us to help the government fetch the required tax from the companies and that’s why we are saying that a tax clearance certificate must accompany your application, and the most astonishing thing to us is that all these to them are stringents, they consider every measure to sanitize and breed order to the system, a stringent measure. That’s why they complain and I don’t think we will compromise on this.

Is it true that your board is given the opportunity to censor films that are not made in Kano?

R. A: You see, we have a very good point here and I want them to stick to their promise. I told you much earlier that in Nigeria we are a federating unit; there are customary laws in the west and in the south; there is the Shari’a penal code in the north and above all there is the constitution. The issue is this, if national agencies or organizations will accord recognition, respect and certain privileges to specific agencies like ours on the area that we are more primaric, then this we can say is a very positive development. Let's assume, in the NFVCB's Preview/Screening Committee there is no, single typical Hausa-Fulani there representing the people? But if we do it here, I mean if we censor Hausa films here, and at the end our certificates are presented to NFVCB during a submission of a Hausa films projects for their own preview, it will be easy for them to censor and nationalize the film project.

What can you say about the controversies surrounding the recent court cases between your board and the film makers in Kano?

R. A: I hope our stakeholders are not mistaking by seeing the KFCB as a home of punitive measures, as if we are the only one. Punitive measures taken by a censorship board globally is the tradition, even NFCVB use to take defaulters before a court of law, High Court of justice for that matter; our is ordinary Magistrate Courts where the provision of the law is very light and mild. Now what I will like people to appreciate our own measures as excellent nd is better than that which is obtainable in the US for instance; the logic is this, employment preventive measures is far better than curative, because it is our tradition, it's our religion to guide stakeholders, preventing him/her from defaulting or erring. Now, what we are doing is before you are allowed to go ahead and kick start the shooting you are required to first of all submit to consultants the proposed script for the film for their vetting, so after been vetted by the consultant, tell me who will complain on it on merit? Unlike allowing somebody accomplished the project, and allowing him to release it into the market and then when some foul are found in it, you then effect an arrest or ban order, is this wise? And believe me that’s what is obtainable in the US, that’s their version of censoring. Our preventive measures can be regarded as Shari’ah and also the tradition of the Hausa Fulani. In our tradition, you don’t allow somebody to breach a law, rather guide him, educate him and saying this thing you are trying to do is consequential, illegally, anti-religious, economically and culturally implicative. By so doing, you are making it less damaging; you are making it less difficult for someone. If you are told on how 3-5 minutes clips are made in a film, you won't be happy asking someone to remove it after he or she is done with the project and we don’t want our stakeholders to be in this big loss, that’s why we are preaching the preventive approach to censorship. What I am now saying in that, these known of controversies has maliciously emanated from people that feel they are above the law, and we believe that nobody is above the law (a principle of democracy 'rule of law'). So our so-called punitive measures, is meant for NFVCB. So what we are saying in essence here is that we will make sure that anybody who feel like he or she is arrogant, or he or she is above the law, face the wrath of the law.

Irrespective of your caliber and status in Kanywood, I am sorry for you, if you breach the law. As per as my own style leadership is concerned, I believe nobody is above the law and above all the most respected element among the stakeholders in our eyes is he who obey the law religiously; somebody who will respect the law however minimal, however insignificant, and however basic he is in the industry, believe you me he is a very big person, but he who sees little harm in breaching the law, however well placed, however influential he is, be he a marketer, be he or she a producer, I am sorry for that person, because, he will find us very uncompromising.

We are on a professional and legal mission, not on political or related issues; I can assure you here and now that there is no any sentiment attached to our activities.

What can you say about support or otherwise that your board is receiving from international bodies?

R. A: Immaterially, we do have support from NGOs and foreign bodies because we use to have intellectual fora, sometimes organized here locally and sometimes we are invited outside the country and sometimes we invite resources persons who are not Nigerians to give transfer skills and modern discoveries to production, just like what happened in the SHOOT 2008 (Jos), which we are there in numbers that not a single state of the federation can match. What I am trying to say is this, as par basic working tools, we are very grateful to this administration of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau. We also have a very good pledge, in fact we make the government to believe that it is high time for the government to invest money in filmmaking and to impact knowledge through seminars, workshops, training, and to sponsor various stakeholders to courses in Nigeria and abroad; all this things we are doing is to complement government accomplish its social responsibilities to the industry.

What about problems?

We don’t have any believe you me. I am not saying we don’t have any in the context that really there are not problems but what I am saying in essence is that the problems we are facing are tolerable. The problem of non-confidence by the general public in the products churned out by our crops of filmmakers is a central problem, and if confidence is lost, everything is lost, and that confidence is what we are assiduously working towards restoring. The crux of the matter is and will be the pursuit of excellence and professionalism in film making and that’s why we are all out to see to it that we will not leave stakeholders that are fond of dishing out all rubbish for the viewership of the teeming public unturned or alone, we will touch you, the way you molest the law; we will deal with you, the way you negatively dealt with the law; in a nutshell this is my prayer, this is my call and in as much you will do it, the way we are urging you to do it, you will have our support.

Indeed, Hausa Movie Industry has its own teething problems- but as Professor Abdalla put it; “that is natural, because it is (still) in its infancy. However, it has the potential of a giant buried in a tiny acorn.”

Iyan-Tama: Another Case Of Injustice

AN OPEN LETTER TO GOVERNOR IBRAHIM SHEKARAU

Your Excellency,
I am sending this letter to you through an open forum because I believe it will get to you faster than through the formal ones, given the urgency the matter requires. If I had to submit the letter at your office it could take days, or even months, before it could reach you, and by that time you might not have been fully briefed by an independent source on the gargantuan injustice some of your appointees are committing on your behalf.

Secondly, the matter has since been in the public domain, generating such a storm of negative publicity in the last few months. Now it appears to have been settled through a dubious process of adjudication, which some self-serving zealots have pinned on the canvass of your administration’ s well publicized mantra of humanism, non-deceit and Islamic values. Moreover, writing publically would give anyone interested in the issue an insight into what is happening in a key aspect of your government.

Sir, I am very conversant with this case, not only because I have been following it up in the magistrate’s court in Kano where it was exhausted but also because I am an insider in the Hausa filmmaking business. I do not have to stress here that Kano has been the hub of Hausa filmmaking for the over 10 years since the trade began.

I am very certain that you are not totally unaware of the court case between the Kano State Censorship Board (KSCB) and a movie producer, Alhaji Hamisu Lamido Iyan-Tama. The latter, Your Excellency, is an indigene of your state who played a key role in the development of Hausa filmmaking, doubling as an A-list actor. Indeed, he was the first elected national president of Arewa Film Producers Association. It is a well known fact that he has never produced or acted in a movie that ran counter to the cultural and religious beliefs of Kano people. His roles have consistently been mature; he insists on quality of production, sensitivity in the representation of culture in the movies, and he is always law-abiding. His movies have won top awards.

Your Excellency, if you are opportune to read this letter today, Iyan-Tama has spent two days in Kano Prison so far, having been indicted on Tuesday on two offences by a magistrate court that had played adabracadbra with his case for the past few months. By the court’s ruling, he is going to spend three months in jail without an option of fine. In addition, he is to pay a huge fine or spend an additional year in jail.

Many of us observers would not have batted an eyelid over this verdict if the offences had truly been committed. I for one believe in the rule of law, knowing that it is the cardinal principle of any workable democracy. Nobody should be above the law. Observing this rule is one of the requirements for the survival of democracy and a guarantee for the well-being of the nation. The truth, however, is that the offences for which Iyan-Tama was “found guilty” were cooked up by the Censorship Board and the guilty verdict passed by a compromised judge best known for jailing anyone dragged before him even if innocent. The not-so-funny thing is that this atrocity is perpetrated under your name and the hallowed provisions of the Islamic Shari’ah law. From my reading of your pronouncements and personal attitude, I am yet to be convinced that you would support injustice in whichever mode or allow anyone to play politics with the Islamic law in order to settle some personal score.

Let me summarise the case for you, Sir. Iyan-Tama was arrested in his office in Kano by members of a task force from the KSCB and taken to the mobile court established to adjudicate on matters of filmmaking and book writing (widened to include all forms of publications) . Curiously, the court is the only one of its kind; there are no special courts for achaba, prostitution, gambling, homosexuality, etc. Iyan-Tama was charged on two “offences”:

1. Releasing his movie, “Tsintsiya” (meaning Broom) in Kano without having it vetted by the KSCB as required by law;

2. Operating a production company, Iyan-Tama Multimedia, without government registration.

Now all these counts are false and his attorney did work hard to convince the senior magistrate, Alhaji Mukhtar Ahmed, to believe so. It took months before the verdict, which has shocked most residents of Kano State and beyond, was passed.

Let’s begin with the second charge. Iyan-Tama Multimedia was duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), which is vested with the responsibility of registering all companies in Nigeria. KSCB insists that Iyan-Tama did not renew his annual registration with the Board. Again, this was proved to be false as he had filed an application on that months before his arrest and obtained the relevant receipts. Having made that move while operating a federally approved business venture did not speak of a lawless business man eager to flout the provisions of running a filmmaking venture in Kano.

The first charge was even more absurd. Your Excellency, Iyan-Tama did not release the said movie in Kano State. He even ran advertorials and did radio and newspaper interviews prior to the movie’s premiere in Abuja, in which he stated unequivocally that “Tsintsiya” would not be distributed in Kano State.

When the KSCB decided to “deal with Iyan-Tama”, members of its task force broke a shop, HRB, in Tarauni quarters of Kano and obtained a CD of the movie, hidden inside a desk drawer by an actor who says he bought it in Kaduna and wanted to give it to a fan. The CD was not displayed for sale. Its presence in Kano was not linked to Hamisu Iyan-Tama. If you read the transcript of the cross-examination of the KSCB’s two witnesses (the task force members) in court, you will believe without any doubt that they could not link Hamisu to the presence of that CD in that shop.

Clearly, the case against Iyan-Tama was a vendetta. It was a part of the “get him at all cost” campaign which the KSCB seems to be running against some selected film industry operators. KSCB’s warped thinking is that through this campaign it could help wipe out the whole idea of movie -making in the Hausa language. It uses crude propaganda, trades in misinformation, unleashes a deliberate misinterpretation of the 2002 Censorship Law, and brandishes the name of Islam in its entirely unIslamic approach to reforming the entertainment arena in Kano. Your Excellency, all this is against your avowed commitment to social justice. And it comes with a high price, which I will, with all due respect, Sir, tell you.

Your Excellency,

The war against filmmaking in Kano is wearing the toga of Shariah, however it is anything but Islamic. Those waging it are fellow conspirators mouthing the words of the holy Qur’an and the Sunnah but acting the script of Hitler. There is nothing in their actions that proves a commitment to the hallowed blandishments of the holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW). As I said last week, the systematic, violent strangulation of the movie industry is coming at great cost, not only to the industry’s operators but also to the Kano State government. I shall enumerate some of the high prices being paid:

1. Thousands of self-employed youths have been thrown out of work, with all the attendant difficulties faced by them and their families. They have not been provided with alternative means of earning a livelihood. “To hell with them,” your warriors would say, “half of them are not Kano indigenes!” But it goes against the grain of your administration’s stated commitment to providing jobs to the multitude of Kano youths.

2. The war is a drag on Kano’s already dismal economy. With the collapse of most of the manufacturing industries in the state, the movie industry should have been harnessed towards a viable, self-sustaining enterprise within acceptable moral and legal bounds. Instead, the strangled baby is being thrown out with the bath water.
3. A dark cloud of fear and uncertainty has enveloped the youths, with stakeholders turned into virtual beggars (’yan maula).

4. A rash of anti-Shekarau sentiment has been unleashed among the youths. This is visible in folk songs being produced in movie studios in Kano, Zaria and Kaduna. Initially the songs were targeted at the Kano State Censorship Board (KSCB) but they are now including the governor in their attacks. The most popular of such songs was written, composed to music and published in a studio owned by a very close political confidante of yours, yet the KSCB did not find it necessary to act on this because the sponsor of the studio is an ‘untouchable’.

This anti-Shekarau sentiment is gaining momentum and could well translate into a liability for ANPP in the 2011 general elections in the state.

5. Questions are being asked on the purpose and direction of your Shariah campaign, which millions embraced. A leader preaching equity and moral rebirth should not deny thousands of the young ones their means of earning a meal.

Your Excellency, I am a believer in sanitisation of society and inculcation of moral values in tandem with the beliefs and customs of the people. Hence my full support of your government’s Societal Reorientation Programme (A Daidaita Sahu), which our good friend Malam Bala Muhammad has been heading most admirably and with tremendous success. But the censorship regime in Kano is undoing what A Daidaita Sahu has accomplished. Reeling precariously on a wrong track, its approach is malicious and personalised. It has derailed from any moral, practical yardstick.

Granted that the Hausa movie industry has had some disturbing excesses that needed to be checked. This was even more expedient after the Hiyana Affair. But the involvement of the genuine leaders of the industry was a necessity if any success was to be achieved. Instead, they were excommunicated by the KSCB, which went ahead to create enclaves of fake loyalists, host diversionary dinners and organise purposeless talk-shows. No wonder the divide and rule tactics, the bitter carrots and stick method and the Nazi-style propaganda executed by the board have only created cataclysms and woeful failures in the task of sanitising the industry.

Pornographic movies and posters are still on sale in Kano. Also, most of the trickle Hausa movies produced by the so-called loyalists of KSCB and approved by the board (to hide the lie that filmmaking isn’t being killed) cannot pass an independent assessment, using the board’s own yardstick. Pray, how many qualitative, morally “acceptable” movies were produced under KSCB’s watch since the Hiyana Affair?
Sir, you will agree with me that the idea of filmmaking itself is not an anathema and should, therefore, not be killed. Movies can be made on all sorts of themes in line with cultural norms. Moviemakers should be guided, not denigrated or hounded out of town.

Sir, Hamisu Iyan-Tama is a political prisoner: he opposed you in the 2007 polls by contesting your gubernatorial seat. He didn’t pose any significant threat to you. You were re-elected. Yet for his effrontery, your appointees are punishing him. They say he is a braggart, pompous, talks too much and criticizes your administration. Fine and good, are they not bigger braggarts and even more pompous, acting as if they are almighty? Don’t they consider anyone who questions their decisions as an enemy or even an unbeliever, disloyal, or a non-indigene ignorant of all the issues involved? How more supercilious could one be?

And even if Iyan-Tama was a braggart or was your political opponent, was that enough basis to punish him with a jail term when he did not break any law? Is he as damaging to you as those angry talking heads on Freedom Radio? Where is the democracy we are talking about? Would the Prophet (SAW) or any of his rightly guided caliphs or the sundry righteous men that trod on their path treat an opponent that way?

Your Excellency, you should probe the Iyan-Tama case, please, especially the role of the magistrate that handled it and other cases of injustice. Why should a court be working for a prosecuting government agency? Why should a single magistrate who has shown his bias more times than can be counted remain the only judge on each and every case the KSCB is prosecuting? Is the man a God-fearing adjudicator or a mere grumpy politician?

You should also use your good offices to free Iyan-Tama by entering a nolle prosequi in the appeal case he filed before a higher court. I know you have such a big heart because you acted that way in similar cases, including the one in which your wife was maligned. You should not allow your zesty hirelings to fight your opponents unjustly because on the Day of Reckoning they will answer their own cases separately from yours.

Sir, till we talk on this and some other cases again, I remain your most humble observer and adviser.

ABOVE IS THE TEXT OF MY WEEKLY COLUMN PUBLISHED IN LEADERSHIP NEWSPAPER, ABUJA, YESTERDAY (AND CONCLUDED THE FOLLOWING THURSDAY)