The Director General of the National Film and Video Censors Board, NFVCB, Shaibu Husseini has clarified that the federal government did not ban smoking and ritual scenes in Nigerian movies.

It was widely reported that Husseini had during a national stakeholders’ engagement in Enugu, declared a ban on money rituals, smoking and promotion of crimes in Nigerian films.

However, reacting to the controversies generated by the report, Husseini stated that “there was no time when we even used the word ban.”

Speaking in an interview, he said “nobody banned smoking, ritual scenes in movies. There was no time when we even used the word ban.

“We only said that every promotion of it or the graphical depiction of those things will be restricted by giving them a classification that will make sure that young people do not watch it.

“The new board regulation 2024 is to prohibit the glamorisation and the promotion of tobacco, ritual killing and money ritual in movies, skits and musical videos in Nigeria.

“The new act is the way to go because we have found out that some tobacco companies haven’t been banned from advertising on television and on all kinds of media, and have now found films as a way to begin to promote tobacco.”

“All we are asking for is some form of responsibility for the sake of our young people who would think that these contents are as real as they were portrayed.

“We know that acting is make belief. We know that film making is the reflection of society. So it’s basically about us having a healthy screen.

“A screen that a father, a mother and the children can sit down and watch without skipping because of the harmful contents”, he stated.