Dan McCain
Well-known member
I work in Nigeria often and I am concerned about a situation happening to filmmakers in the Northern Nigeria city of Kano. Recently, a filmmaker Hamisu Lamido Iyan Tama, who has won a national award for his film Tsintsiya, has been given a 1 year jail sentence by a judge for supposedly not passing his film through the local state censorship board. This is the latest in a string of arrests.
If anyone knows of an organization or individuals who would be interested in helping these Nigerian filmmakers please contact me.
Background:
-----
Nigeria's northern city of Kano was until last year the home of a thriving film industry in the Hausa language. Hausa language "video-films" are part of the larger "Nollywood" Nigerian film industry but are stylistically different from their southern cousins, being much more influenced by Bollywood with most films including a song and dance numbers. In August 2007, a sex scandal involving a cell phone video of a Hausa film actress having sex with her boyfriend caused a change in the leadership of the Kano State Censorship Board. The board had been instituted in 2001 after the implementation of Islamic shari'a law as a compromise measure between the filmmakers and the government, which enabled the films to continue being made but with some restrictions on dress and interaction between male and female actors. The Kano State Censorship is a seperate entity from the National Film and Video Censor's Board which files and gives ratings to all films made in Nigeria.
Following the sex scandal, a new director general of the Kano State Censorship Board Abubakar Rabo Abdulkareem was appointed in August 2007. From that time, there have been multiple arrests and acts of intimidation against the film industry in Kano. Actor, musician, and director Adam Zango was arrested and imprisoned in September 2007 for three months for releasing a music video cd without first submitting it to the Kano State censorship board. In October 2008, wildly popular Hausa comedian Rabilu Musa ('dan Ibro) was arrested and sentenced to two months in prison (all in one day) by a mobile court for 1) "indecent dancing" in a film that had been released two years earlier and had a certificate of approval from the Censorship board and 2) for supposedly operating a production company without registering with the board. (Ibro and his manager claim that he had no such production company) Hamisu Lamido Iyan Tama, one of the pioneers of the Hausa film industry, was arrested in May 2008 after his film Tsintisya, sponsored by the U.S. embassy, won an award for best "Social Issue" film at the Zuma Film Festival in Abuja. The actor, director, producer, and one time gubanatorial candidate was accused of not registering his company with the Kano State censorship board and for releasing the film Tsintsiya in Kano without passing it through the state censorship board. Iyan-Tama has receipts for his registration with the board and had publically stated that the film was not for sale in Kano State, although one copy of the film was confiscated in a police raid from a desk drawer in a video shop. Although on bail while the court case was ongoing, he was again arrested for a week in August. Most recently, on January 1, Iyan Tama was finally sentenced to 15 months of imprisonment and a fine by a judge who refused to allow additional witnesses and said, according to Leadership reporter Abdulaziz Ahmad Abdulaziz, that "justice delayed is justice denied. Justice is three way traffic; justice to the accused, justice to the state and justice to the prosecution."
In addition to these prison sentences, there have been many other acts of intimidation against studios and lower profile film industry workers, including a requirement that each participant in the film industry, from actor to editor, register individually with the censorship board. In November, there was a sweep of arrests of industry workers. Following a mass protest by film actresses who publically changed political affiliation from the party of the governor ANPP to the majority political party PDP, police raided studios along Zoo Road, where most studios are located and arrested studio managers of studios not registered with the Censorship Board.
For more information, about this case and others, see the following articles:
"No Justice: Iyan-Tama Jailed by Corrupt Officials" On the Free Iyan-Tama blog, http://freeiyantama.blogspot.com/2008/12/no-justice-iyan-tama-jailed-by-corrupt.html
"Iyan-Tama: Another Case of Injustice: An Open Letter to Governor Ibrahim Shekarau" by Ibrahim Sheme, editor of Leadership Newspaper and publisher of Fim Magazine, http://ibrahim-sheme.blogspot.com/2009/01/another-case-of-injustice.html
"Filmmaker, Iyantama Sentenced to 15-month Imprisonment," by Leadership reporter Abdulaziz Ahmad Abdulaziz, 31 December 2008, http://abdulazizfagge.blogspot.com/2008/12/filmmaker-iyantama-sentenced-to-15.html
"Nigeria: Hausa Actor, Ibro Sentenced to Two Month Imprisonment" by Mansur Sani Malam in Leadership Newspaper: http://allafrica.com/stories/200810070348.html
"Writers, Film-makers Defy Censors" by Amina Koki Gizo on IPS News, 12 September 2008,http://ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=43857
Some Nigerian agencies that can be contacted with complaints:
Minister John Ogar Odey
Ministry of Communications Federal Secretariat Complex, Shehu Shagari Way, P.M.B 12578
Abuja
Nigeria
Phone 09-5237183, 52338232
Fax 09-5237303
Email ceeo.adebayo@nigtel.com
Website www.nigeria.gov.ng/fed_min_communications.aspx
Michael Kaase Aondokaa, Attorney General
Federal Ministry of Justice Federal Secretariat Towers (5th & 10thfloors),Shehu Shagari Way, Central Area, P.M.B. 192, Garki Abuja Nigeria
Tel: 09-5235208, 09-5237676. 09-5235194. http://www.nigerianbar.com/
Actor's Guild of Nigeria
National Council for Arts and Culture,
Artiste Village, National Theatre,
Iganmu, Lagos
Web: http://www.actorsguildofnigeria.org
Email:
info@actorsguildofnigeria.org
agnnational@yahoo.com
National Film and Video Censors Board
Corporate Office Address:
NFVCB Plot 730, Alexandria Crescent,
Wuse II, Zone A7, Abuja
P.M.B. 5053 Wuse, Abuja FCT.
Tel/Fax 09/4139039
E-Mail: info@nfvcb.gov.ng
Website: www.nfvcb.gov.ng
MR. BERNARD GOYIT
KANO ZONAL OFFICE
NARCDB BUILDING COMPLEX CENTRE, PLOT PLOT
PLOT 31/34 FARM CENTER , KANO
2348036227333
Mr. Afolabi Adesanya, Director General
NIGERIAN FILM CORPORATION,
218T LIBERTY DAM ROAD,
P. O. BOX 693, JOS,
PLATEAU STATE.
930001.
If anyone knows of an organization or individuals who would be interested in helping these Nigerian filmmakers please contact me.
Background:
-----
Nigeria's northern city of Kano was until last year the home of a thriving film industry in the Hausa language. Hausa language "video-films" are part of the larger "Nollywood" Nigerian film industry but are stylistically different from their southern cousins, being much more influenced by Bollywood with most films including a song and dance numbers. In August 2007, a sex scandal involving a cell phone video of a Hausa film actress having sex with her boyfriend caused a change in the leadership of the Kano State Censorship Board. The board had been instituted in 2001 after the implementation of Islamic shari'a law as a compromise measure between the filmmakers and the government, which enabled the films to continue being made but with some restrictions on dress and interaction between male and female actors. The Kano State Censorship is a seperate entity from the National Film and Video Censor's Board which files and gives ratings to all films made in Nigeria.
Following the sex scandal, a new director general of the Kano State Censorship Board Abubakar Rabo Abdulkareem was appointed in August 2007. From that time, there have been multiple arrests and acts of intimidation against the film industry in Kano. Actor, musician, and director Adam Zango was arrested and imprisoned in September 2007 for three months for releasing a music video cd without first submitting it to the Kano State censorship board. In October 2008, wildly popular Hausa comedian Rabilu Musa ('dan Ibro) was arrested and sentenced to two months in prison (all in one day) by a mobile court for 1) "indecent dancing" in a film that had been released two years earlier and had a certificate of approval from the Censorship board and 2) for supposedly operating a production company without registering with the board. (Ibro and his manager claim that he had no such production company) Hamisu Lamido Iyan Tama, one of the pioneers of the Hausa film industry, was arrested in May 2008 after his film Tsintisya, sponsored by the U.S. embassy, won an award for best "Social Issue" film at the Zuma Film Festival in Abuja. The actor, director, producer, and one time gubanatorial candidate was accused of not registering his company with the Kano State censorship board and for releasing the film Tsintsiya in Kano without passing it through the state censorship board. Iyan-Tama has receipts for his registration with the board and had publically stated that the film was not for sale in Kano State, although one copy of the film was confiscated in a police raid from a desk drawer in a video shop. Although on bail while the court case was ongoing, he was again arrested for a week in August. Most recently, on January 1, Iyan Tama was finally sentenced to 15 months of imprisonment and a fine by a judge who refused to allow additional witnesses and said, according to Leadership reporter Abdulaziz Ahmad Abdulaziz, that "justice delayed is justice denied. Justice is three way traffic; justice to the accused, justice to the state and justice to the prosecution."
In addition to these prison sentences, there have been many other acts of intimidation against studios and lower profile film industry workers, including a requirement that each participant in the film industry, from actor to editor, register individually with the censorship board. In November, there was a sweep of arrests of industry workers. Following a mass protest by film actresses who publically changed political affiliation from the party of the governor ANPP to the majority political party PDP, police raided studios along Zoo Road, where most studios are located and arrested studio managers of studios not registered with the Censorship Board.
For more information, about this case and others, see the following articles:
"No Justice: Iyan-Tama Jailed by Corrupt Officials" On the Free Iyan-Tama blog, http://freeiyantama.blogspot.com/2008/12/no-justice-iyan-tama-jailed-by-corrupt.html
"Iyan-Tama: Another Case of Injustice: An Open Letter to Governor Ibrahim Shekarau" by Ibrahim Sheme, editor of Leadership Newspaper and publisher of Fim Magazine, http://ibrahim-sheme.blogspot.com/2009/01/another-case-of-injustice.html
"Filmmaker, Iyantama Sentenced to 15-month Imprisonment," by Leadership reporter Abdulaziz Ahmad Abdulaziz, 31 December 2008, http://abdulazizfagge.blogspot.com/2008/12/filmmaker-iyantama-sentenced-to-15.html
"Nigeria: Hausa Actor, Ibro Sentenced to Two Month Imprisonment" by Mansur Sani Malam in Leadership Newspaper: http://allafrica.com/stories/200810070348.html
"Writers, Film-makers Defy Censors" by Amina Koki Gizo on IPS News, 12 September 2008,http://ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=43857
Some Nigerian agencies that can be contacted with complaints:
Minister John Ogar Odey
Ministry of Communications Federal Secretariat Complex, Shehu Shagari Way, P.M.B 12578
Abuja
Nigeria
Phone 09-5237183, 52338232
Fax 09-5237303
Email ceeo.adebayo@nigtel.com
Website www.nigeria.gov.ng/fed_min_communications.aspx
Michael Kaase Aondokaa, Attorney General
Federal Ministry of Justice Federal Secretariat Towers (5th & 10thfloors),Shehu Shagari Way, Central Area, P.M.B. 192, Garki Abuja Nigeria
Tel: 09-5235208, 09-5237676. 09-5235194. http://www.nigerianbar.com/
Actor's Guild of Nigeria
National Council for Arts and Culture,
Artiste Village, National Theatre,
Iganmu, Lagos
Web: http://www.actorsguildofnigeria.org
Email:
info@actorsguildofnigeria.org
agnnational@yahoo.com
National Film and Video Censors Board
Corporate Office Address:
NFVCB Plot 730, Alexandria Crescent,
Wuse II, Zone A7, Abuja
P.M.B. 5053 Wuse, Abuja FCT.
Tel/Fax 09/4139039
E-Mail: info@nfvcb.gov.ng
Website: www.nfvcb.gov.ng
MR. BERNARD GOYIT
KANO ZONAL OFFICE
NARCDB BUILDING COMPLEX CENTRE, PLOT PLOT
PLOT 31/34 FARM CENTER , KANO
2348036227333
Mr. Afolabi Adesanya, Director General
NIGERIAN FILM CORPORATION,
218T LIBERTY DAM ROAD,
P. O. BOX 693, JOS,
PLATEAU STATE.
930001.
