FG to ban Money Rituals and Smoking in Nollywood Movies

The federal government has directed filmmakers to drop money ritual content from their movies, following recent reports most Nollywood Movies influenced youths to engage in ritual killings.

The announcement was made by Information and Culture minister, Lai Mohammed during a media visit in Abuja. He said some of the suspected ritual killers claim they learned the act of ritual killings on social media and this has prompted the Federal Government to sanitize the system.

He said, “Many have also blamed Nollywood for featuring money rituals in some of its movies, saying this has negatively influenced the vulnerable youth.

To mitigate this, I have directed the National Film and Video Censors Board, the body set up to regulate the film and video industry in Nigeria, to take this issue into consideration while performing its role of censoring and classifying films and videos.

I have also directed NFVCB to engage with stakeholders in the film industry in order to express the concerns of the government and Nigerians on the need to eschew money ritual content in their movies”.

Some Nigerians have reacted to this directive by welcoming the directive online.

The film censors’ board also recently announced a move to prohibit smoking in movies.

The board’s director, Adedayo Thomas revealed that the move follows evidence of the entertainment industry’s influence on tobacco use and the impact on public health.

Adedayo further revealed that the board will toughen awareness among film stakeholders as it moves to enforce the non- classification of Nollywood movies depicting the use of tobacco.