The Executive Director and CEO of National Film and Video Censors Board, NFVCB, Alhaji Adedayo Thomas has explained why the board can hardly take any action against the movie, “Gangs of Lagos”, for now.
The NFVCB, he opined, has no legal backing to regulate what is being exhibited on the online platform because “it’s not part of the mandate of the Board”.
He explained further that I don’t know why people are referring to the Censors Board to take action. We have a bill before the National Assembly seeking to empower the Board to regulate online platforms and any other platforms where movies are exhibited. Online platform is difficult to regulate and it’s not part of our mandate.”
The NFVCB’s explanation became pertinent as Lagos indigenes particularly those under the auspices of Isale Eko Descendants’ Union (IDU) recently petitioned the Censors Board.
Lagos State Government has also described the movie as a cultural misrepresentation for portraying the culture of the state in a derogatory manner as reported on this platform last week.
The Government of Lagos State opines that Gangs of Lagos’ depiction of Isale-Eko as an enclave of crime and violence is not only in bad taste but a desperate attempt to rewrite the history of a people and their culture. From the start, the Eyo Festival which was wrongly depicted in the movie as a gang is a Lagos pride, of not only Isale-Eko people but the entire Lagos Island people. The film’s greatest mistake is that Eyo groups are gangs.
Generally, the opinion is that the movie took off from a wrong beginning with the monologue by the principal character, who in his attempt to chronicle his life described the noble Eyo Festival as the first Gang of Lagos. Whereas, Eyo was never a Gang. It’s such a bad start, concocted by the principal character.