In a recent radio conversation on Mainland FM 98.3, Dr. Shaibu Husseini, Executive Director of the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), has shared the secrets behind his remarkable achievements in under a year at the helm.
Dr. Husseini attributes his success to divine guidance and praises his team’s dedication and expertise. He highlights the importance of staff welfare and involvement, ensuring a highly engaged team.
Accompanied by the Director of Corporate Affairs, Ogbonna Onwumere, and Jesse Okoroafor of the Lagos Office Corporate Affairs Unit, Dr Husseini opened up to the Village Square Team of Frank Meke and Bunmi Adenji.
During the chat, the Executive Director was asked, ‘What does the NFVCB do?’
Going down memory lane, Dr. Shaibu maintained that it is a global convention for government institutions to set up a structure to regulate the film industry, knowing that as an act of work, film has a massive influence on people and society.
He said the NFVCB was set up to censor and classify films and video works imported or produced in the Country to ensure that vulnerable children are protected from watching films that could be harmful to them, among other things.
Speaking further, he said he has a friend who never visited any part of Europe or America but dresses and speaks like them because of the influence of their films on him. He also referred to another woman who also dresses and speaks like Indians because she watches their films. According to Dr Shaibu, most of the violence some children exhibit are influenced by the films they watch.
He stated that the NFVCB was set up in 1993 to classify films and video works, to license a person to exhibit films and video works, license premises for the purposes of exhibiting films and video works, regulate and prescribe safety precautions to be observed in licensed premises, ensure we have a safe and healthy screen among others.
Dr Shaibu also explained that though the Board has been existing since the colonial era it has been lying fallow over the years that so many people are unaware of its existence.
“On assuming office, I launched the safe screen campaigns, healthy screen campaigns and many others to enable people to understand the type of film to watch based on the rating,” he said.
Husseini used the opportunity to restate that the Board no longer censors films, but only classifies. This, he opined, necessitated engaging filmmakers to appeal to them to make clean films by managing their contents very well to make the NFVCB job easier.
On why he went to engage with the stakeholders after his appointment, he said that it was critical for him to do that to make his work easier as well.
He said it is very difficult to achieve proper enforcement without having an excellent understanding with the stakeholders because they would resist every effort that goes against them. Besides, most stakeholders believe that he is one of them, and he felt the need to seek their support.
“I explore every opportunity available to engage them for better understanding. I have been encouraging my staff to have a good understanding also with the stakeholders in the film industry,” he said.
On staff welfare, Dr. Husseini said that he is a firm believer of the system that gives priority to the staff welfare and their training. The Executive Director was full of commendation for the staff.
The Executive Director disclosed that Nollywood was so blessed in December 2024 that there were five blockbuster films running concurrently in the cinemas. He disclosed that it is interesting to note that the Nollywood films were having more box office numbers compared to foreign films running at the cinemas.
