The Need to Revamp the Nigerian Entertainment Industry -By Usama Abdullahi

It’s extremely frustrating that music is swiftly dominating this country. Now, music is given much more consideration than any other thing, particularly by the Nigerian teenagers. Musicians/actors are seen as role models despite the indecency and vulgarity they display in most of their videos.

One hardly watch a music video that’s free from impurity or indecency in today’s society. This is not seen only in the music industry, but it has become the norm in the entertainment industry. Take for instance our film industry, Nollywood. Unsurprisingly, the movies which are being recorded and released every year are mostly not good for the sanity of the Nigerian adults, let alone the children.

Yet children sit comfortably to watch this together with their parents—their so-called responsible parents. The comedy skits are much worse. Women who get featured in those comedy skits are usually inelegant vixens. They derive joy in flashing their nudities before the audience. And the audience are often vulnerable kids. They are kids who barely think on their own, so they learn whatsoever they see.

What’s more disgusting is, the vulgar languages in these skits and movies are not being filtered or edited by the supposed editors. This is proof of willful neglect of the future of young adults. But who do we blame for this? The blame lies with the supposed editors, reckless actors, irresponsible parents, vulnerable children or the whole entertainment industry for its fatal disregard for prevailing indecency? Well, I won’t fault anyone for this because the society at large is surely blamable.

I’m writing this because I’m also a victim. I watch some comedy shows when I feel bored sometimes. But what I used to watch in the past few years is quite different from what I watch today. There’s unfortunate compromise in our entertainment industry. Some contents are not merely nasty, but they are rather invective. Swearwords and vulgar languages are excessively being used. For this reason, watching it diminishes the good moral which parents had infused in their children.

This is evidenced by children’s increasing disrespect and utter preferences for filthy films other than film with educative contents. They imitate what they see in these movies, hence the overwhelming rate of juvenile crimes. And they are too quick to download newly released songs or movies, but they fail to install PDFs for free books. Moreover, they could mime words of multiple songs, yet they barely memories even a single line from their books. This is why there’s continuous decline in the education sector.

It didn’t surprise me when I heard a seven-year-old lad miming “Coming”, a song by Naira Marley featuring Busiswa. I can’t deny his talent for miming but the thing is, the song is grossly inappropriate for his hearing—in consideration of his age. That is it! Arguably, there are a lot of children who had mastered numerous songs. You know what, this mere cell phone has flawed the reputation of many children and has as well corrupt their behaviours.

You find it hard to believe me? Please, do create a time of your own and glimpse through TikTok. I bet you can’t believe what your eyes would see. The most important question is, how do we build a better future for the upcoming or unborn generations? With all these “unavoidable” indecencies can we actualise this vision?

Although the damages done seem hopeless, still we can lessen it through the help of the National Film and Video Censor Board. Let’s appeal to the NFVCB to double their effort in seeing that songs with foul lyrics, X-rated movies, video clips and comedies should either be filtered or banned unhesitatingly from the cinemas or social media.

Usama Abdullahi wrote from Abuja, Nigeria. He can be reached at usamagayyi@gmail.com