Nollywood and The New Thrill

Today, I saw another gory news of a young girl dismembered by her teenage boyfriend and I asked myself; what is going on? How did we get to this stage? Our teenagers are now engaging in this false belief called "money making rituals"!!! 

I am vexed and won't dwell on this issue. I won't go for the usual target; our near comatose government nor would I point accusing fingers at our failing family system. My focus will be on our dear Nollywood as a public educator.

Research has shown that Television, and other media devices, influence children and in extension, the society. Children who constantly view violent programs, movies or clips have a tendency to become more insensitive, violent, aggressive and most times, depressed.

In our society the effect is evidenced in the recent events and the increasing number of teenagers dabbling into crimes in the name of money rituals and other ignominious acts.  The glamorous depiction of violent tendencies, quest for wealth, lasciviousness and exhibition of wealth in these movies are now the new thrills being embraced.  Sadly, the younger generation are ignorantly and blindly sampling the perspectives viewed on the widescreens of their television sets or other electronic devices. 

Based on the above premise, I think the time is ripe for Nollywood to change the direction of our movies. We are tired of witnessing how these stories which are meant to entertain are now swaying young naive minds, influencing choices and negatively affecting our society. Simply put, we cannot afford to lose our future generation to this madness.  

You might argue that most of these movies usually end with the villain getting punished or that they are rated PG. Indeed, you are right but the reality is that morality has finally taken the backseat in our society and most parents hardly know their roles as guardians. Consequently, most of our children are not equipped to differentiate between fiction and reality. 

Does this mean that Nikky is dumping all the blame at the feet of our movie industry? NO! Is it a call to ban Nollywood movies? NO! Rather, I am advocating for an improvement in the quality and encouraging more positive movies and screenplays. 

Therefore, we say, enough of the movies on money-making and yahoo boys. Enough of the violence, blood letting, hacking and killing. Enough is enough.

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