UNICAL lauds NFVCB for fight against illicit Nollywood films

The Vice Chancellor, University of Calabar (Unical), Prof. Florence Obi, has commended the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) for its fight against uncensored and unclassified films in Nigeria.

Obi gave the commendation on Wednesday when the Executive Director/CEO of NFVCB, Mr Adedayo Thomas, visited her at the University.

The visit was part of activities of its five-day capacity building on Censorship and Classification for Selected Students in the Department of Theatre and Media Studies of the Institution, which held from Sept. 4 to Sept. 8.

According to her, as the nation’s film industry was growing progressively, there was the urgent need to ensure that industry players upheld best practices, which the NFVCB, as a regulatory body, was ensuring effectively.

“You will agree with me that people watch our films across the world and that is why we must shun things that portray us negatively as a people in our films.

“From my understanding of censorship, it is primarily to ensure the protection of our children from unwholesome film content and to protect our values.

“I think the NFVCB is doing a fantastic job in sanitising our film industry and also educating Nigerians on the need for censorship and classification.

“As a University, we are always very happy to receive stakeholders for collaborations, especially regulatory bodies.

“It is, therefore, a great privilege for our students to be trained as Ambassadors of NFVCB on Film Censorship and Classification, and it is a great privilege to both the students and the University,” she said.

Earlier, Thomas said the visit was to thank the Vice Chancellor for embracing the training programme for the university students and to felicitate with her as the first female Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar.

“I want to thank you so much and let you know that the NFVCB is very willing to work towards further collaborations with the University of Calabar.

“We never study Censorship and Classification in the university, so this training is meant to bridge the gap between classroom knowledge and the field of practice,” he said.