Why Nigerian films don’t win international awards – Oscar committee member

Shaibu Husseini, a member of the Nigerian Oscar Selection Committee, has attributed failure of Nigerian movies to win international awards to poor quality of production and bad subtitles

Husseini told the News Agency of Nigeria on Friday in Lagos that the Oscar award was meant for films produced in foreign language.

He said the Nigerian films produced in English and in local languages never meet the standard for nomination since the introduction of the foreign language category of Oscar award.

He said: “Nigeria has not been lucky to have entries there because we don’t produce targeting those kinds of awards.

“We just produce to send DVD into the market. There is no conscious effort to produce for Oscars.

“All these films that you see getting into Oscar, whether in the main category, even the language categories, once they start producing it, they are targeting those Oscar awards.

“They are targeting Globe (awards), they are targeting big awards because whether we like it or not, those awards have a way of helping publicity for the film, they have a way of marketing for the film.

“And what does the Oscar Foreign Language Category entail?

“It entails that you must do a film in your local language, in a language that is local to you and in a language that is considered a foreign language.

“And it must be like 70 per cent of your local language and if you must use English at all, it must be like 30 per cent.

“Apart from that, it must be well subtitled and it must be of quality.

“The committee now is like four years old but we have not been able to have entries that will qualify.”

Husseini also commented on the recent outrage trailing the 2016 Oscar nominations where no black actors were nominated in the major categories.

He said in the past, blacks received nominations, but added that this year they had not participated in any major movies that would earn nominations.

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President Muhammadu Buhari is repeating an economic error he made as dictator 30 years ago?

 “GIVE me lucky generals,” Napoleon is supposed to have said, preferring them to talented ones. Muhammadu Buhari, a former general, has not had much luck when it comes to the oil price. Between 1983 and 1985 he was Nigeria’s military ruler. Just before he took over, oil prices began a lengthy collapse; the country’s export earnings fell by more than half. The economy went into a deep recession and Mr Buhari, unable to cope, was overthrown in a coup.  

Now he is president again. (He won a fair election last year against a woeful opponent; The Economist endorsed him.) And once again, oil prices have slumped, from $64 a barrel on the day he was sworn in to $32 eight months later. Growth probably fell by half in 2015, from 6.3% to little more than 3% (see article). Oil accounts for 70% of the government’s revenues and 95% of export earnings. The government deficit will widen this year to about 3.5% of GDP. The currency, the naira, is under pressure. The central bank insists on an exchange rate of 197-199 naira to the dollar. On the black market, dollars sell for 300 naira or more.

Instead of letting the naira depreciate to reflect the country’s loss of purchasing power, Mr Buhari’s government is trying to keep it aloft. The central bank has restricted the supply of dollars and banned the import of a long list of goods, from shovels and rice to toothpicks. It hopes that this will maintain reserves and stimulate domestic production.

When the currency is devalued, all imports become more expensive. But under Mr Buhari’s system the restrictions on imports are by government fiat. Factory bosses complain they cannot import raw materials such as chemicals and fret that, if this continues, they may have to shut down. Many have turned to the black market to obtain dollars, and are doubtless smuggling in some of the goods that have been banned.

Nigerians have heard this tune before. Indeed, Mr Buhari tried something similar the last time he was president. Then, as now, he resisted what he called the “bitter pill” of devaluation. When, as a result, foreign currency ran short, he rationed it and slashed imports by more than half. When Nigerians turned to the black market he sealed the country’s borders. When unemployment surged he expelled 700,000 migrants.

Barking orders at markets did not work then, and it will not work now. Mr Buhari is right that devaluation will lead to inflation—as it has in other commodity exporters. But Nigeria’s policy of limiting imports and creating scarcity will be even more inflationary. A weaker currency would spur domestic production more than import bans can and, in the long run, hurt consumers less. The country needs foreign capital to finance its deficits but, under today’s policies, it will struggle to get any. Foreign investors assume that any Nigerian asset they buy in naira now will cost less later, after the currency has devalued. So they wait.

Those who fail to learn from history...

Mr Buhari’s tenure has in some ways been impressive. He has restored a semblance of security to swathes of northern Nigeria that were overrun by schoolgirl-abducting jihadists. He has won some early battles against corruption. Some of his economic policies are sound, too. He has indicated that he will stop subsidising fuel and selling it at below-market prices. This is brave, since the subsidies are popular, even though they have been a disaster (the cheap fuel was often sold abroad and petrol stations frequently ran dry). If Mr Buhari can find the courage to let fuel cost what the market says it should, why not the currency, too? You can forgive the general for being unlucky; but not for failing to learn from past mistakes.

Source: The Economist