Factors for the decline of Cinema in Nigeria

Written in September, 2006
Typed in June, 2008

Film began with photographic experiments in the laboratories of Thomas Edison and later the Lumieré brothers in France, many other pioneers and scientists undertook research into the development and making of the film making machine, the camera. These many complex experiments culminated in what we regard today as film.
The art of filmmaking is over 200 years old and countries where films are made have been able to protect, project and promote their cultural values as well as affect the culture of other countries. Today, we talk of major film tradition such as Hollywood (USA), Bollywood (India) and Nollywood (Nigeria) film cultures today. Of these three the Nollywood is the only culture that is dominated largely by home video, however this was not the case previously, Nigeria used to have a very rich cinema film culture, one which was not proliferated with home video as we have it today.
There were notable filmmakers who shot with celluloid and cinema houses who exhibited the works and distribution companies who marketed their works. Such filmmakers include Hubert Ogunde, Ade Afolayan, Baba Sala, Adebayo Salami, Eddie Ogbonah and cinema houses include Queen Cinema (Yaba), Casino Cinema (Alagómejí), Pen Cinema (Agege), Metro Cinema (Onipanu), Cinema De BabaSala(Agbowo, Ibadan). What we have today is a situation where the few good films made are not even well distributed let alone exhibit them in cinemas.

Factors responsible for the decline of cinema in Nigeria include:
Inadequate funding and the neglect by the government. Previous administration in Nigeria did not understand the place of film in national development and those that realized it did very little to facilitate its growth, nonetheless there was one regime that created an framework to aid its development was the Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB) government. IBB’s administration convened the first ever National Film Conference in Nigeria in 1991 to promote film and the profession, established the National Film Censors Board, the National Film Institute (NFI), Jos, Nigeria, but all of these activities did not have much impact on the development of industry in Nigeria as filmmakers still had to raise funds by themselves and put in place the structures that makes the industry today.

The above scenario also learned support to the non-existence of a valid and appropriate film policy, film laws, a film fund and an organized industry structure. It was basically of case of a lost course; a journey that failed ever before the first step was taken. In countries where the film industry is developed such as India, the government supports, funds and facilitate the production, distribution and exhibition of films.

The proliferation of the Nigerian entertainment sector with foreign movies and television programme is another notable factor that aided the demise of the cinema culture in Nigeria.
In the 1980s, 1990s and even now an integral percentage of broadcast programming in Nigeria are foreign. It is apparent that televisions in Nigeria find it easier and cost effective to beam foreign programmes than to produce local programmes and homegrown content. The reasons for that is a topic for another discourse. When the production of films by independents ebbed, foreign programmes took the fore; we began a whole new process of “westerning” apart from the formal education been given in schools and our culture was at the risk of erosion.

The decline in education due to poor funding and a faulty education policy is another issue. By the mid 8os and early 1990s, there was a slump in the literacy level in the country; students were dropping out of school en masse and many of them were taking to drugs, vices and decadence, one of the reasons for this is because the free education policy of the Late Obafemi Awolowo had fizzled out. Cinema buildings became the secretariat of these new school of NFAs (No Future Ambition(s) and Wanna-Be Urchins, thus cinemas became a centre of ills- rape, drug peddling and abuse, torture, extortion, theft etc. Cinema goers were attacked, raped, extorted and all of these were happening simultaneously in different parts of the country and gradually people become weary of going to the cinema. Cinema owners could not expunge this growing scourge of Agbero/Area boys because of the inadequate security personnel on ground and the organized nature of these touts
Cinema proprietors were not making as much returns as previously, slowly the business became unprofitable coupled with the fact that fewer films were being produced for exhibition and harsh economic conditions, facility owners resulted to leasing their cinemas out for parties, church services etc

Technical limitation is another factor that lead to the decline of cinema in Nigeria. In the cinema era , filmmakers shoot in Lagos and developed the pictures in London, there was not a single celluloid film development laboratory in Nigeria until 1991 as a result, the cost of filmmaking was too expensive , only a few can afford it also there was the risk of piracy. In the cinema era, piracy was so high that no sooner has a work being completed that it is pirated. Moses Olaiya (BabaSala) went bankrupt because his films, Mosebolatan and Orun Morun were pirated before they could be shown at the cinemas.

The introduction of home video as an alternative to cinema also stalled the development of cinema. No sooner had Super VHS Cameras and VHS Camera became popular that it became widespread, with this development more people could engage in film production. The M9000 and M3500 Video Cameras were cheaper to buy, easier to handle and does not require developing , printing and or cutting like celluloid thus it became an important key to making films when cinema finally died.

The growth of churches and mosques also contributed to the decline of the cinema in Nigeria. Pastors and Imams preached against cinema going. They made people believe that film is evil, that going to the cinema is sinful and a hindrance to the worship of God.

Another component to the fall of film in Nigeria was insufficient skill and technical know-
how in celluloid filmmaking. In the 1970s and up till now there are very few people who are
skilled in the art of cinematography and the manipulation of the celluloid machine for
capturing stinking and sublime artistic expressions. Most of the film crews that produced
Nigeria’s epic films were foreigners; check out the end credits of Mr Johnson (Hubert
Ogunde), Kongi’s Harvest, Orun Morun to mention a few for confirmation.