Homosexuality: FG board ‘sets up panels’ over Bobrisky’s movie

The National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) has reportedly initiated three panels to look into ‘Bobrisky in Love’, a Nollywood movie, which features Okuneye Idris Olarenwaju.

Olarenwaju, popularly known as Bobrisky, is an internet personality and cross dresser, who is well known on Snapchat and often referred to as male Barbie doll, for being highly controversial on social media.

In the movie, which was produced by Nollywood Namaste production company and directed by Ken Steve Anuka, Bobrisky played the role of a transgender woman named Cherechi.

Cherechi left the country as a man only to return to his village as a woman to the ire of his family members.

The movie has since attracted quite a number of negative feedbacks in the country’s industry after the promotional posters were released to the public.

PUNCH quoted a top official of the board as saying that three separate panels have been set up at the zonal levels to analyse and classify the film.

The official noted that if the movie contravenes the laws in the country, which prohibit homosexuality, it would be banned.

“We have set up three different panels to view the movie which was given to us by the producers for classification and review,” the official was quoted to have said.

“For the purpose of fairness and objectivity, we will not give specific details since evaluation is still ongoing but note that any movie that promotes homosexuality in contravention of our laws cannot be endorsed.

“Latest by next week we will deliver a verdict on the movie. If the movie is banned, it would be communicated to the producers and our enforcement team would mop up all copies of the film on the market and defaulters would be apprehended and fined appropriately.

“When classifying movies, we consider its cultural value, we check whether it is divisive given the fault lines of Nigeria as regards religion and tribe.

“We check its message, whether it promotes things that we find repugnant in our nation; we check the level of violence portrayed in the movie as well as sexual content and other things.

“Usually, it takes a minimum of one week and a maximum of two weeks for a movie submitted to us to be classified. But the online phenomenon is changing things and there is a need for us to adapt to new realities.”

The NFCB is the regulatory body set up by Act No.85 of 1993 to regulate films and video industry in Nigeria. It is saddled with the responsibility to classify all films and videos whether imported or produced locally.