
The Nigerian Army has charged the Nigerian entertainment industry known as Nollywood, to beam its lights on the war against insurgency in the country, adding that the military is ready to in fund any of such initiative.
Major General Rogers Ibe Nicholas, the Chief of Civil/Military Affairs, Nigerian Army Headquarters, who made the call during the unveiling of the movie titled ‘76’, a tale of love, trust and family in Lagos, stated that the Nigerian army will be open to collaborations with Nollywood filmmakers on movies that will endear the military to the people, including a possible story about war against Islamist extremist group, Boko Haram.
Major General Nicholas said that the call was part of the focus of the military in the new dispensation under the leadership of Lieutenant-General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, the Chief of Army Staff, to mend the relational gap between civilians and the military and also to engender more collaborative efforts from the people in tackling current and further insurgency in the country.
“With every regime,” he stated, “comes different concepts and ideas. With the coming of Lieutenant-General T.Y Buratai as Chief of Army Staff, comes a vision which is to have a professionally responsive Nigerian Army in discharge of its constitutional mandate. And part of that is to develop a military/civil relationship that will close the gap between the military and the civilians. That is what we are trying to do. The issues of people not having channels to complain are now a thing of the past. Right now we have a human rights desk in our office. We are collaborating with the National Human Rights Commission and the Nigerian Bar Association.
“Also, we want to welcome and encourage any filmmaker who wants to do a movie on the insurgency war as long as it is within the confines of the law. Interested participants can come up with their ideas and we will look into then and collaborate.”
“When we are collaborating with a filmmaker, it means that there is counterpart funding for it. This means that it is a two-way traffic, not that the Nigerian Army alone will fund such movies. If you come up with a proposal and you think that it will be beneficial to the Nigerian Army and indeed, Nigerians as a whole, then we will be ready to look into it,” he stated.