What Next After Kano’s Proposed Film Village Is Out? -By Bello Sagir Imam

Speaker A: You seem to be on top of the world today, Did Man United win a match?

Speaker B: Not at all. Are you not abreast with the happenings around you?

Speaker A: There you are!

Speaker B: Oh sorry. The much criticised film village worth three billion naira has been cancelled by the president, as announced by his aide. We’re happy!

Speaker A: I think that shouldn’t be a cause for happiness as the state and particularly Kanywood has now lost a huge opportunity for progress.

Speaker B: Progress? In what sense?

Speaker A: The film village, if established would provide jobs for over ten thousand unemployed youths, most of who are from Kano. That will reduce the alarming rate of drug abuse in which the state has been at the top, according to official figures. Films are profitable ventures; can’t you see how India and America immensely tap from the juicy industry?

Speaker B: Agreed. But look at the moral harm such film industry afflicted on South Africa, Egypt and other countries we share more cultural and religious values with than the America and the India you are exemplifying. In such countries, their film villages ave have also served as hubs of prostitution, homosexuality, lesbianism, drug abuse, and all forms of illicit acts; such a village accommodates hostels and hotels.

Speaker A: How sure are you these acts, or illicit acts as you term them, will take place in Kano? And if at all they do, what’s then the work of the Sharia police (Hisba) and the state Censorship Board? Aren’t they saddled with the responsibility of sanitising filming and making hotels free of all forms of immorality? Can’t they have offices in the village for their jobs?

Speaker B: Yes is the answer; but do you think the targeted stakeholders would patronise the village, with Hisba and the Board in place?

Speaker A: Frankly, they won’t.

Speaker B: Then the village will be a waste of scarce public resources.

Speaker A: Don’t you think that the cancellation of the village isn’t the best. Just remember the way the ban on filming by a former state government was useless. After the ban, the filmmakers migrated to Abuja and other states, from were the same films were then produced, brought back into the state, and voraciously consumed by the people, in a manner much more than it was prior to the ban.

Speaker B: That example doesn’t hold water. I’m talking of the cancellation of a brothel and you are talking about the circulation of films.

Speaker A: More so, even without a film village, what sort of immorality is not committed in Kano? Those equally kicking against the film village participate in one sin or the other behind closed doors. They are hypocrites, pretenders, enemies of progress and extremists! Where were the extremist when Elaganti and Minjibir park were established?

Speaker B: You can’t get a sinless state on earth on this eve of the last day. What’s your concern with what one commits in private, unless it is exposed? The constitution guarantees the right to privacy. The religion of the people of the state, Islam, points to the same principle. There’s no extremism in protecting one’s religious and cultural values. People become more animal than animals without religious and cultural values.

Speaker A: You’re just being selfish. Now, let the film village be relocated to the South, as the Southerners are calling upon the president to do so. Let him offer the same listening ear to the Southerners, who even have a more serene environment.

Speaker B: The President can do so, but if he does so, we the people of Kano, the most populous voting state in the country who cast him an impressive vote in the election that brought him to office, will conclude that, he’s not after the advancement of the state but only after the establishment of the film village.

Speaker A: Then what next is expected of the president after the cancellation of the film village that you agitated for to him?

Speaker B: Many things. Let him divert the intended funds to the revival of the dyeing or shoe making industry. The state is blessed with dyeing pits and local leather shoe making that are increasingly obliterating, because of the threat posed by the Chinese manufacturers and other factors. Similarly, such money can be utilised to revive the already collapsed textile manufacturing in the state. Or above all the money can be diverted to farming which forms one of the cardinal agenda of the president. These are the priorities for Kano people, and not a film village.

Finally, we emphasise that the money already budgeted for Kano people should be benefited by them, in a way that suits them. We’re optimistic that the president will amend the budget and invest the money in one of the areas mentioned, particularly agriculture, looking at the assertion by expert that the oil will soon disappear, something that will never happen to agriculture.

Bello Sagir Imam is a member, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Kano Branch.