Chris Ihidero, a respected voice in Nigeria’s film scene, has called for urgent reforms in the country’s public broadcasting system, particularly the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), which he blames for stunting Nollywood’s growth.
In recent years, Nigeria’s movie industry has enjoyed success with its films getting critical acclaim across the world. Yet, Ihidero, a renowned filmmaker, has stated that the industry could benefit more from local investments from organisations like the NTA.
Ihidero, who has directed and produced numerous acclaimed works, emphasized that Nigeria once had a thriving TV culture fostered by NTA in the 1980s. “Almost all our classic TV dramas came from NTA,” he said, listing titles like Checkmate and Cockcrow at Dawn.
He argued that Nigeria’s inability to offer strong free-to-air alternatives has forced creatives to rely on volatile streaming platforms. “This is a systemic failure,” he wrote, pointing out that NTA has not evolved from its golden age of the 1980s, when it funded and aired beloved shows that shaped generations.
British comedies like Allo Allo, Some Mothers Do Ave Them, Rent-A-Ghost as well as Nigerian hit TV series like ‘The Village Headmaster,’ ‘The New Masquerade’, Cockcrow at Dawn, Behind The Clouds, Riddles & Hope, Checkmate, Fortune, Samanja and many others aired on the NTA in the 80s.
Similarly, the television authority also had stellar news coverage and aired live sporting events. It was also a pipeline for many media personalities, such as Cyril Stober, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Hammed Adio, and Sadiq Daba, to name a few.
NTA still has the biggest audience in Nigeria due to its vast network, but despite this advantage, it is far from its glory days, and Ihidero is emphasizing the need for public discourse and structural investment:
“Until free-to-air platforms like NTA meet their statutory obligations, Nollywood will continue to underperform on the global stage.”
In his widely shared opinion piece, Ihidero argued that NTA’s inability to invest in and support quality original programming has left a void in the country’s content ecosystem, comparing the inaction of the NTA to how public broadcasters like the BBC and South Africa’s SABC fund their local industries.
Imagine a world where the NTA spends as little as $ 10 million a year on original TV/Film content. The Kemi Adetibas, the Kunle Afolayans, the Bolanle Austen-Peters, the Niyi Akinmolayans of this world would not have needed Netflix or Amazon to bring us King of Boys, Anikulapo, Bashorun Gaa and House of Secrets.
The NTA would have been there to nurture and support their creativity from the outset of their careers, such that some of those works would have ended up on NTA for millions of Nigerians to watch. This reality is not far-fetched at all. This was what the NTA did just a few decades ago.
