Posted by From Kingsley Nwezeh and Clementina Olomu in Abuja on
President Olusegun Obasanjo said yesterday that the works of Nigerian producers and actors go a long way in boosting the nation's image as well as the "Image Nigeria" project embarked upon by the Federal Government.
President Olusegun Obasanjo said yesterday that the works of Nigerian producers and actors go a long way in boosting the nation's image as well as the "Image Nigeria" project embarked upon by the Federal Government.
Speaking yesterday at the presentation of the movie "Across the Niger" produced by Kingsley Ogoro Productions, (a notable home video producer) in Abuja, Obasanjo described the movie as "a creative superstructure" adding that the creative abilities of Nigerian artistes would strengthen the Image Nigeria project.
"The film is a testimony to the creative potentials that abound in Nigeria and it should be tailored to meet the Image Nigeria project so that we can start branding Nigeria", he said.
Obasanjo continued: "it is important to use our differences as shown in the film to show our greatness because we are as many as we are and as different as we are forms the basis for our differences which should be used to strengthen our country and our source of greatness."
In his speech, Minister of Information and National Orientation, Chief Chukwuemeka Chikelu said Nigerian movies had attained high technical standards and was on its way to competing with their counterparts in Hollywood.
"This story is important to Nigeria and indeed Africa, a continent that has been consistently devastated and ripped apart by ethnic strife and wars. The situation has continued to foster hunger, diseases, poverty and other forms of under-development on the continent.
The moral of the movie brings out the undesirable consequences of ethnic, religious and political conflicts at the expense of national development," he said.
He noted that if Nigerian producers had half of the resources available to their counterparts abroad, they would perform wonders just as he commended the producer, Mr Kingsley Ogoro Productions for his contribution to the phenominal growth of the movie industry in Nigeria.
Chikelu said in view of the foregoing, government would continue to support and encourage the film industry while maintaining that it was about recruiting a new chief executive officer for the Nigerian Film Corporation to continue the strategic plan for the development of the industry.