Nollywood lovers across the country recently voiced out their frustration at the fact that the National Film and Video Censors Board, NFVCB announced that there was going to be a ban on smoking scenes and ritual scenes.

However, to clarify the Air, The Director General of the National Film and Video Censors Board, NFVCB, Shaibu Husseini, explains in details that it was not an outright ban contrary to public opinion, but instead a sensitization of the contents that everyone could watch with ease.

He clarified that during a recent interview with Daily Post, where he explained that the reason for the rule was not to put an end to such scenes in Nollywood, but to filter out companies who use movies to promote their hard drugs and also to reduce the wrong information that ritual scenes give.

He further revealed that the plan was to ensure that the movies are safe to watch by adults and children.

He said;
“Nobody banned smoking, ritual scenes in movies. There was no time when we even used the word ban.

“We only said that every promotion of it or the graphic depiction of those things will be restricted by giving them a classification that will make sure that young people do not watch it.

“The new board regulation 2024 is to prohibit the glamorisation and the promotion of tobacco, ritual killing and money ritual in movies, skits and musical videos in Nigeria.

“The new act is the way to go because we have found out that some tobacco companies haven’t been banned from advertising on television and on all kinds of media, and have now found films as a way to begin to promote tobacco.”

“All we are asking for is some form of responsibility for the sake of our young people who would think that these contents are as real as they were portrayed.

“We know that acting is make belief. We know that film making is the reflection of society. So it’s basically about us having a healthy screen.

“A screen that a father, a mother and the children can sit down and watch without skipping because of the harmful contents.”