Nigerian veteran film producer, Uchenna Mbunabo, has revealed
to Mustapha Inusah that the way Ghanaian film producers are treating
Nigerian filmmakers in Ghana is a clear infringement of
ECOWAS treaties.
The
producer, who doubles as the CEO of One & Two film production
ventures, revealed that, there’s a positive side to some of the actions
and laws Ghanaian film producers are implementing against Nigerians,
although some of the other regulations are too stringent and not
appropriate for the ECOWAS treaty of free trade.
According to
him, he came to Ghana in 2008 because he thought Ghana had a friendly
and peaceful ambience to shoot movies. He narrated that, any time he
went on-set to shoot a movie, the Ghanaian film producers always came
around with their task force and policemen to maltreat him and prevent
him from shooting.
On one of such occasions, he claimed to have
paid an amount of $5000 to Ghanaian film makers, without being given any
receipt or document to show that he has paid a certain amount and the
reason for paying that amount.
On many occasions after shooting,
he has to change the movie credit into the names of some Ghanaian film
producers as the owners, before the movies allowed into the Ghanaian
market.
Talking about the positive aspect of the maltreatment, he
said that, it is a good thing if the Ghanaian film producers are doing
that to protect their industry, but they need to do it in a good and
professional way.
On the subject of Ghanaian film producers
shooting in Nigeria, he said that, Ghanaian producers he knows are all
shooting freely in Nigeria. “Ghanaian film producers always shoot in
Nigeria and they always shoot without any issues from their Nigerian
counterparts.
Maybe some of them are not popular here in Ghana
and much research has not been done that’s why Ghanaians don’t know
about them. You can shoot in Nigeria freely as far as you are not doing
anything discriminating,” Mr. Mbunabo said.
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