A DOCUMENTARY focusing on a massive strike in Nigeria has been banned by the country’s officials. Entitled Fuelling Poverty, the 30-minute film was said by politicians to be at risk of sparking violence and potentially threaten national security.
Sponsored by the Soros Foundation's Open Society Justice Initiative for West Africa, the movie exposes the government’s gasoline subsidy that saw billions of dollars stolen by greedy companies and the nation's elite.
When President Goodluck Jonathan decided to remove subsidies on gasoline in January 2012, it caused mass workers’ protests.
Lawmakers eventually demanded businesses and government agencies to return $6.7 billion.
Despite the footage being present online for the last few months, Nigerian officials have now decided to refuse the film’s director Ishaya Bako the right to show it publicly.
In a letter dated April 8, Nigeria's National Film and Video Censors Board told Bako that the documentary was "prohibited for exhibition in Nigeria."
"I am further to inform you that this decision is due to the fact that the contents of the film are highly provocative and likely to incite or encourage public disorder and undermine national security," the letter signed by board lawyer Effiong Inwang states.
"Please you are strongly advised not to distribute or exhibit the documentary film. All relevant national security agencies are on the alert."
The decision has received substantial flak from the public and journalists, who claim it’s an infringement of free speech.
"Instead of banning the documentary Fuelling Poverty, authorities should look into the important questions it raises about corruption and impunity in the country's oil sector and at the highest levels of government," Mohamed Keita, an official with the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement.
"We urge Nigeria's National Film and Video Censors Board to overturn this censorship order."
Culled from TheVoice
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