Emmanuel Ukudolo l Monday, April 04, 2022
LAGOS, Nigeria – No doubt, the Indian cable television channel, Zee World has become very prominent in Nigerian homes to such an extent that many teenagers, adolescents and young adults view it as a channel of choice due to enticing soap operas and series that have become the hallmark of the channel.
In the list are Married Again, Twist of Fate, Gangaa, Ring of Fire, Snatched, Deception, Jodha and Akbar, Young Dreams, King of Hearts, The Vow and Our Perfect Place among others. Ironically, these soaps, and many to come have attracted so much of corporate patronage in terms of endorsement, even more than Nigerian soaps, based on their slogan, ‘extraordinary’.
Just like the slogans, the series have actually become very extraordinary in terms of storylines, plot, authenticity and reality. Nevertheless, they seems to have found love in Nigerian homes, with sad tales by housewives just by the gripping nature of the storylines.
Some of these stories don’t actually make sense and would hardly sell to the average Nigerian producer. Most of the stories are told only from the viewpoint of the producer in terms of what he wants and not necessarily what is real and believable or what the viewers think is right, compounded by the willingness to forgive the treacherous person that is more than often not caught and punished to serve as a deterrent.
Basically, most of these storylines are based on the expanded culture of the Indian families and culture that believes in living together and accommodating siblings and brothers under the same roof and in the process bringing to the fore treacherous intrigues, and in most cases deadly to the detriment of the Nigerian culture.
In each of the series, there must be protagonist and a vile antagonist, that projects all the negative deeds, i.e food poisoning, suffocation, killings, tampering with brakes to cause deadly accidents, paving expressway with nails and other sharp objects, insult of the elderly, oiling staircases to cause accidents in the home, cutting down chandeliers for the purpose of causing maximum injuries, even death, attempted suicide and all the dirty vices variously unknown to the Nigerian public, especially the naïve children.
These are the vices constantly visited on Nigerian homes by the hours to the detriments of the children who will grow up to become as vile as the characters projected by Zee World in their series and soaps.
This is where the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and the National Film and Video Censors Board(NFVCB), both agencies under the Ministry of Information and Culture led by Alhaji Lai Muhammed out to come in hard and save Nigeria from an impending doom.
The NFVCB ought to have censored these series before they are allowed on our airwaves to remove issues that are variance with the enabling laws, while the NBC is expected to ensure that what is broadcast does not violates the national broadcasting code in terms of culture of the Nigerian people.
For instance, one of the primary objectives enshrined in the broadcast code (2016) is to promote generally accepted social values and norms, especially civic and social responsibilities; forester the spirit of self-discipline, self-sacrifice, and self-reliance and encourage respect for the dignity of man.
Specifically, the National Broadcasting Code provides for the following cultural objectives.
Provide through programming, a service essential to the maintenance and enhancement of national identity and cultural sovereignty; serve to safeguard, enrich and strengthen the cultural, political, social and economic fabrics of Nigeria; seek, identify, preserve and promote Nigerian diverse culture; develop and promote the application of indigenous aesthetic values; foster generally acceptable moral, ennobling and spiritual values, among others.
But instead of pursuing these objectives, the NBC seems only concerned about protecting government instead of protecting what is gradually eroding our culture as a peaceful and loving people.
The censors board on the other hand, which is set up to censor and classify film, has an overriding mission “to contribute to the positive transformation of the Nigerian society through censorship of film and video works, whilst balancing the need to preserve freedom of expression within the law, and limit social harm caused by films”.
It is obvious that both the NFVCB and the NBC are sleeping and need to wake up from slumber before foreign cultures overrun what is left of the beautiful culture of the Nigerian people.
