he Nigerian movie industry: Any moral lessons?

BY ROSE EMINUE

Gone are the days when Africa’s number one movie giant’s nollywood used to be at the
    hearts of the people. Gone are the days when movie audiences looked forward to the nollywood movies as a veritable tool for moral decency in the country and the world at large. 

The moral standard in Nollywood has greatly been eroded and has crumbled within the space of time due to the increment in the number of highly indecent movies by the industry in recent times.

Before now, there has been a record of decency in putting messages across to the populace. Its actors were never nude-crazy as we find in the up and coming actors these days. It is not out of place to say that this weird desire to appear almost nude in most movie platforms evolved from the desire of actors to impress viewers of such movies. This fractured mentality is turning our movies into a near pornography stage.

Little wonder, every young folk of today thinks about getting into the movie industry in order to have truckloads of money overnight. This makes them fall for the antics of the producers who sometimes ask to sleep with them before giving them roles.

The moral decadence in Nollywood can be traced down to the producers who have sacrificed morality and decency for their selfish ends. This is why they parade actors/actresses who go about interpreting scripts almost in total nudity. 

The craze for nudity in Nollywood have heightened due to the high percentage ofimmoral movies proliferated by other movie industries that have thrown morality to the winds. It is quite obvious that the Nollywood producers feel intimidated by other film producers whose morally deficient movies seems to be making waves in the entertainment market. The local producers have jumped on the bandwagon thereby negatively influencing countless youths.

The overall vision has been lost, of which was to make to make a better society of us by teaching life’s lesson and exposing the mounting ills of the society. It is discouraging that instead of learning lessons, one ends up having the moral reservoir emptied. Too bad!

     What the human eye sees influences the mind, this is why we cannot nail Nigerian young men who easily imitate actor models of their dress sense and hairs, neither can we hail the divasof the industry that repeatedly expose their tempting voluptuous breast and curved hips. The hard truth is that most Nollywood movies are near pornographic movies and teaches little or nothing.

Interestingly, the moral laxity in Nollywood has far reaching effects on the society, specifically in the family.  People no longer see any sense in dressing modestly. What some ladies put on while at home in the name of clothes is highly sensitive as they reveal sensitive parts of their bodies.

This phony fashion sense which is now common in the homes make one lose respect for the woman’s body due to excessive exposure. The men and women are not left out here, even at their offices; the immoral influence people get from the Nollywood movies makes a lot of people especially the female counterparts dress so indecently.

Our campuses are not spared either fromthismoral degeneracy. In the campuses, we find young girls (students) put on revealing and tightly fitted attires which accentuate their sensitive body parts. No wonder they easily fall into the waiting hands of immoral lecturers. What a pity!

Regrettably, our churches have been seen to turn into a warehouse accommodating indecent dressing. People no more take long to replicate the near nude dress sense of the Nollywood actor/ actresses which has found its way into the church, after all many pastors preach “God does not look at dressing but the heart” in numerous denominations.

The consequences of immorality in Nollywood are innumerable. The increased rate of immorality amongst youth is caused by the incessant pornographic scenes in nollywood movies.Imagine what happens in the minds of an aroused Youngman after seeing such scenes. The answer is simple; he hastily scouts for any girl close to sleep with or possibly rape. It cannot be argued that these practices have made our youths vulnerable and poor copy cats of the western world. Perhaps,this is why rape-cases have gone viral. This resultant effect cannot be overlooked because while the women delight in flaunting, the men are bold to possess either forcibly or surreptitiously.

Nollywood producers must imbibe decency and learn to cultivate some sense of modesty in the way actors/actressesdress and interpret their roles since the youth look up to them as role models. They should put up a stage for moral decency andpornographic scenes expunged from Nollywood.

Nigerian home movie producers have failed to make any strong comment against social ills in the society instead use them in their messages without realizing that the art can be viewed as having the unpleasant effect that can both mirror and heal the society of its perceived ills. One question that have failed to be answered is that, whosejob is it when youth watch movies and often times get influenced by what is recorded on their minds? Is it the parents, regulators or the youth themselves?

I recommend that the producers of video films shouldknow that they owe the larger society a duty to promote greater good of the society and should realize that the ennobling virtues which the society covets should find expression in the video productions.

Also parents should however pay attention to the kind of movies their wards are exposed to in order to prevent them from messing up their lives, at the long run. The movie producers should trade with caution especially when packaging messages since it affect those that are exposed to it.

At this point, the pending question is “what moral values accompany these movies, if moral bankruptcy continues in Nollywood.