To curtail the increase of money ritual in Nigeria, the Federal Government has charged Nollywood filmmakers to be sensitive in their outputs.
As reported on BizWatch Nigeria, members of the public blamed increasing money ritual activities on Nollywood films.
Acknowledging that films are influential and can motivate one to do money ritual, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed revealed that some money ritual suspects, who confessed to the heinous act, claimed that they were motivated by Nollywood and other entertaining content on social media.
His words: “Many have also blamed Nollywood for featuring money rituals in some of its movies, saying this has negatively influenced the vulnerable youth. To mitigate this, I have directed the National Film and Video Censors Board, the body set up to regulate the film and video industry in Nigeria, to take this issue into consideration while performing its role of censoring and classifying films and videos.
“I have also directed NFVCB to engage with stakeholders in the film industry in order to express the concerns of the government and Nigerians on the need to eschew money ritual content in their movies.”
Nollywood filmmakers react to money ritual allegation
Prior to this development, some Nollywood filmmakers like Femi Durojaiye, Monalisa Stephen, and Biodun Okeowo, sensitised critics of the Nigerian filmmaking industry, who took to social media to accuse them of enabling money ritual with their character projections and storyline.
In separate interviews with BizWatch Nigeria, the thespians unanimously stated that the critics are ignorant of how Nollywood has positively impacted Nigerian society.
According to them, in view of how Nollywood has brought to fore societal ills by exposing the evils victimising many Nigerians, it is unfair to now blame actors for increasing ritual activities in the country.
