I was just looking through Mr President's facebook page and his latest status proudly announced the investment of 200million dollars in our entertainment industry? I'm shocked!!! here is the post below:

During my series of notes in the run up to Nigeria's fiftieth independence anniversary, I expressed a desire to grow Nigeria's entertainment industry into a world class one where we would see Nollywood movies being played in theatres and grossing hundreds of millions of Naira as well as have recording artists like Tuface Idibia, Dbanj, Banky W, P-Square, Timi Dakolo, Weird MC and co selling millions of records and generating wealth for themselves, their record companies, marketers and tour promoters and by so doing expanding the non oil sector of the economy. Now in furtherance of this, I have just attended the 30th anniversary celebrations of the Silverbird group where I announced a Federal investment of 200 million dollars (about 30 billion naira) as a direct intervention lifeline for the exclusive purpose of supporting artist and developing our entertainment industry. This may not be a lot of money, but it is a beginning. In seeking to diversify Nigeria's revenue base, we must think outside the box and I am expectant that this fund will make Nigeria the African entertainment capital in the not too distant future. It is my vision that every producer whether in the film or music industry, every actor or actress, fashion designers or artist must have opportunity to access cheap, long-term funding to grow their business: make movies, write hit songs, build malls, build cinemas, provide jobs and give hope to our people!GEJ

http://www.facebook.com/notes/goodluck-jonathan/investing-in-the-entertainment-industry/169665536394423

Talk about misplaced priorities!!! ASUU is gearing up for a strike, NLC is doing the same over the wage increment he stupidly announced and never implemented, our power sector is in shambles, we are still importing the fuel we use, Nigerians are dying everyday on the Benin-Ore road, and this man is giving away $200mil!!! GEJ keeps shooting himself in the foot! I was glad to see that it was not the usual blind followers commenting on his fb page. This time, they were all skeptical about this new development and were openly critical about it. Methinks this man is not capable of managing a pair of toddlers talkless of a whole nation! God help us!

When will this leaders learn that everything is not about money. Just create the enabling environment and everything will fall into place.

afam4eva:

When will this leaders learn that everything is not about money. Just create the enabling environment and everything will fall into place.

GGBAM!!!!

The entertainment industry is our only wholly indegenious growth story and one of GEJ's stated goals is to diversify our economy.

As a growth area with tremendous promise, it is only right that the entertainment industry is encouraged, invested in and financed. Music and Nollywood have been great job providers, but there is still a long way to go. The US has Hollywood, why can't we build toward something similar? Hollywood generates much more than oil will ever give us (and thats not including the US music industry etc).

Not all growth will come from manufacturing, some will come from other sectors. I don't see why we should try to shoot it down as not worthy of recieving govt help.

The ASUU strike is something that will be dealt with by negotiation and laws, same as NLC; these are things that need time, patience and understanding, not the flick of a pen. In the meantime, the country needs to invest in areas outside oil, which is proving not to be enough to meet ASUU, NLC and other costs.

What are you really asking for?

Beaf:


What are you really asking for?

What are you not asking for. Tell me what the money will do for the entertainment industry.

Beaf:

The entertainment industry is our only wholly indegenious growth story and one of GEJ's stated goals is to diversify our economy.

As a growth area with tremendous promise, it is only right that the entertainment industry is encouraged, invested in and financed. Music and Nollywood have been great job providers, but there is still a long way to go. The US has Hollywood, why can't we build toward something similar? Hollywood generates much more than oil will ever give us (and thats not including the US music industry etc).

Not all growth will come from manufacturing, some will come from other sectors. I don't see why we should try to shoot it down as not worthy of recieving govt help.

The ASUU strike is something that will be dealt with by negotiation and laws, same as NLC; these are things that need time, patience and understanding, not the flick of a pen. In the meantime, the country needs to invest in areas outside oil, which is proving not to be enough to meet ASUU, NLC and other costs.

What are you really asking for?

NO! Some of ASUU demands are better universities facilities for good education, NLC is working hard to depend the interest of all Nigerian workers, sometime to even go beyond that (by preventing government to increase fuel prices).

Areas outside oil for government to intervene is Industries, Agriculture, Technology (lets look at reality not mere entertainment). Abeg, how many people will benefit from the entertainment industry, how many people are in the entertainment industry (less than 1 million combined together). Farmers in Nigeria are up to 70% of the population. Hmm, I wonder ooo,

Anyway, AREWA is getting OFF soon!, Let you have the WORLD'S BEST R&B, ROCK, RAPPER, ACTOR, ACTRESS, what ever!

Beaf:

The entertainment industry is our only wholly indegenious growth story and one of GEJ's stated goals is to diversify our economy.

As a growth area with tremendous promise, it is only right that the entertainment industry is encouraged, invested in and financed. Music and Nollywood have been great job providers, but there is still a long way to go. The US has Hollywood, why can't we build toward something similar? Hollywood generates much more than oil will ever give us (and thats not including the US music industry etc).

Not all growth will come from manufacturing, some will come from other sectors. I don't see why we should try to shoot it down as not worthy of recieving govt help.

The ASUU strike is something that will be dealt with by negotiation and laws, same as NLC; these are things that need time, patience and understanding, not the flick of a pen. In the meantime, the country needs to invest in areas outside oil, which is proving not to be enough to meet ASUU, NLC and other costs.

What are you really asking for?

I used ASUU and NLC to demonstrate the fact that the country has a thousand and one sectors that are in dire need of attention, I'm not saying he shouldn't pour money into the entertainment industry, but he should please solve the obvious problems first!

@Beaf,



Priorities my friend, we have more pressing priorites. The Benin - ore road is the single most important road in this country. countless lives have been lost there, not to mention the total insecurity on that road. is it more important than investing in Nollywood? the answer is a Big Yes.

$200M  well spent on that road will transform it, and have far reaching consequences than this wasteful. What about $200m invested into our Unity schools, which used to be centres of excellence in our country.

Oga has got it very wrong again, and you are here trying to defend him. Well done

@Chuks84,

My Brother, the entertainment industry is in far better shape than most other sectors in the country, infact I have often argued that the only sector that has moved forward somewhat is this industry. They are not strapped for cash.

Look at the Unity schools that used to be the pride and joy of this country, people struggled to get thier kids in there (rich or poor), for you were guaranteed some sort of good education. They are dead today, and this man is prepared to invest that sort of money or rubbish in my opinion.

I have ofetn argued in here that he is well cluesless, I am glad he is exposing himself well before the elections, so the wise amogst us can make well informed decisions and not be blindly led by Nyash lickers

should we expect any better - tis is payback for the round endorsement of gej by those prostitutes

unsurprisingly,  some people who attempt to pass themselves off as intellectuals are defending handouts to an industry that will not move nigeria forward in anyway.

awon mtv generation

Omo eran ni GEJ yi oo.


G . . . . . . . . .

E . . . . . . . . .

J . . . . . . . . .


  ****fill in the gap****


@Beaf will kill me if I fill in the gap.

ola olabiy:

Omo eran ni GEJ yi oo.


G . . . . . . . . .

E . . . . . . . . .

J . . . . . . . . .


****fill in the gap****


@Beaf will kill me if I fill in the gap.

Funny.
Dude its a free World o! Why I go kill you wen I no de chop pesin?

Beaf:

Funny.
Dude its a free World o! Why I go kill you wen I no de chop pesin?

I no think sey I get the nerve to take you on, sir. But, u dey strong o.

This makes a lot of sense!

Lets put more money in the entertainment sector, our already overpaid musicians and actors need more money.

We shouldn't bother about piracy laws, all we need to do is simply to put more money. . .ah!.

Something tells me Jonathan might just disburse another 10 billion to light firecrackers on Christmas. . .the kids deserve some form of amusement too

auwal87:

NO! Some of ASUU demands are better universities facilities for good education, NLC is working hard to depend the interest of all Nigerian workers, sometime to even go beyond that (by preventing government to increase fuel prices).

Areas outside oil for government to intervene is Industries, Agriculture, Technology (lets look at reality not mere entertainment). Abeg, how many people will benefit from the entertainment industry, how many people are in the entertainment industry (less than 1 million combined together). Farmers in Nigeria are up to 70% of the population. Hmm, I wonder ooo,

Anyway, AREWA is getting OFF soon!, Let you have the WORLD'S BEST R&B, ROCK, RAPPER, ACTOR, ACTRESS, what ever!

Up Arewa!

Anyways. . . Every area you have mentioned has been mismanaged for decades and cannot be remedied with plan less investment. These are areas that need brain power at this time not money. It will take at least a few months to plan and act on any policies on technology, agriculture etc; whereas, the entertainment industry knows which way it is going and any monies put in will not disappear into a chaotic abyss.

Of course in a country as ours that is beleaguered by huge developmental problems it wld be difficult to justify such an amount going to the entertainment industry but in reality should we view this as money going down d drain?
Recently as part of our 50th independence anniversary, the BBC did a continent wide opinion sampling about how Ngr has affected d continent and in every single English and a few non-English speaking country, the major thing all the respondents spoke of were our movies, bad reputation, music, tenacity and dress sense in that other, but the one single thing that dominated opinions from SA to Gambia, Namibia to Uganda was clearly Nollywood!. I stopped watching Ngrn movies a long time ago so u can imagine how ashamed i felt to hear foreigners speak so glowingly of d same home made movies.
D truth is we undaestimate d power of the entertainment industry, and d ability it has to reach out to the ordinary Nigerian with nothing to hold on to but his talent. How else could a daytime rubbish scavenger (a la Vocal Slender of This is Lagos fame) dream of rubbing shoulders with the Big guns of d entertainment industry? D likes of Baba Fryo, Daddy Showkey, African China, Terry G etc were condemned to poverty until their talents came in handy. I know dozens of youths inspired by such stories and doing their bit to harness theirs also esp in a country with few better alternatives.
Not everyone has d connections or money to get a Bsc abroad dat wld guarantee u a shot at d few job vacancies available but what no one can deny anyone that has it is 'talent' but yet we line up to criticize an attempt to support and harness such talents. The challenge of bridging the gap bw d rich and d poor goes beyond GDP figures but also entails giving equal opportunities to both d rich and poor and d entertainment industry has a key role to play.
What we should be debating is how best to use d funds and implement a laudable initiative to stop it from being hijacked but definitely not these criticisms and name callin

Anything GEJ do na wahala, he went to silverbird's anniversary problem, he donated invested FG's money into entertainment another problem. Anyone that knows me on NL knows I am not a fan of GEJ but I see nothing wrong in the $200 million investment of GEJ. Do u know how much we spend on sports every year and we have achieved nothing, no body is talking about that. It is so bad that in our economy govt is the biggest spender so y shldnt he invest. Do know how many people will benefit indirectly from this? This will curb piracy. Take a look at siverbird do u know how many people they are employed? A state of carlifonia it is an entertainment state and makes proper revenue for america. People should try and be very objective in their opinions. My only problem is for the funds not to be mismanaged if not we have a lot to gain.

Get it right. It is not a donation to entertainment industry. Just as the government has intervention fund in textile, agriculture, industry and other areas of economy.
With more fund, nollywood will do better.
Create job for our teaming youth.
Open up more market for Nigerian entertainments.

We are all living witness to how we go to south africa to shoot musical videos and 1 minute adverts and what have you.
As we speak today there is no single world class studio in Nigeria.
No Nigeria film producer can single-handedly finance a film of N50M today, yet we are third largest industry.
If government decides not to intervene, Ghana may take over the market.
So it is welcome development.

And be reminded, it is loan to be administered by Banks.

And President's supporters on Nairaland tells us that all these bad judgment will just miraculously disappear if we just re-elect JEGA, Pathetic mode of think.

egift:

And President's supporters on Nairaland tells us that all these bad judgment will just miraculously disappear if we just re-elect JEGA, Pathetic mode of think.

Damn! People won't leave batu for becomerich!

Alxmyr:

Get it right. It is not a donation to entertainment industry. Just as the government has intervention fund in textile, agriculture, industry and other areas of economy.
With more fund, nollywood will do better.
Create job for our teaming youth.
Open up more market for Nigerian entertainments.

We are all living witness to how we go to south africa to shoot musical videos and 1 minute adverts and what have you.
As we speak today there is no single world class studio in Nigeria.
No Nigeria film producer can single-handedly finance a film of N50M today, yet we are third largest industry.
If government decides not to intervene, Ghana may take over the market.
So it is welcome development.

And be reminded, it  is loan to be administered by Banks.

Nollywood is probably Nigeria's only thriving industry and yes! It would be good for the government to invest in it, but there's a time for everything! What will pouring 200mil do for our battered economy? And seriously?! You worry about ghana overtaking nollywood? Ghana has surpassed 9ja in virtually every aspect! From electricity to healthcare to education to provision of basic infrastructures! And you worry about them taking over the film industry?!

In making some few correction FG just approve N31bn for 9 power projects as a move to improve the power sector.it is in no doubt that benin-ore road need contuction,ASSU problem need serious brain work,etc but this move my the president to improve the entertainment industry is commendable.

if he doesn't make this investment you will say "the nigerian government doesn't support nollywood" and get mad
if he makes this investment you will say "the nigerians government supports nollywood" and get mad.

in the end of the day you people will be deported. and when you're deported you will be far enough from the internet to embarrass yourself with your online ignorance.

log off bruh.

afam4eva:

When will this leaders learn that everything is not about money. Just create the enabling environment and everything will fall into place.

Enabling environment na free?

GEJ's intervention here should be commended. what we should be asking is how this money is to be released and spent to actually impact the industry positively.

The South East universities has been on Strike since July and nothing is been said about it. This is terrible. kai. Steadily loosing votes,

ivydearie:

The South East universities has been on Strike since July and nothing is been said about it. This is terrible. kai. Steadily loosing votes,

And what is the connection between SE universities' strike and this government intervention in entertainment industry?

Ikengawo:

if he doesn't make this investment you will say "the nigerian government doesn't support nollywood" and get mad
if he makes this investment you will say "the nigerians government supports nollywood" and get mad.

in the end of the day you people will be deported. and when you're deported you will be far enough from the internet to embarrass yourself with your online ignorance.

log off bruh.

What are you talking about? So the best way support Nollywood is by investing $200mil? Its obvious from the emboldened part that you are just a dunce, for your information i am based in 9ja and the internet is readily available in the country, better go back to your cave and continue hibernating.

Chuks84:

What are you talking about? So the best way support Nollywood is by investing $200mil? Its obvious from the emboldened part that you are just a dunce, for your information i am based in 9ja and the internet is readily available in the country, better go back to your cave and continue hibernating.

My friend stop yapping! Before you start throwing insults, justify your criticisms and name calling.

Talk about misplaced priorities!!! ASUU is gearing up for a strike, NLC is doing the same over the wage increment he stupidly announced and never implemented, our power sector is in shambles, we are still importing the fuel we use, Nigerians are dying everyday on the Benin-Ore road, and this man is giving away $200mil!!! GEJ keeps shooting himself in the foot! I was glad to see that it was not the usual blind followers commenting on his fb page. This time, they were all skeptical about this new development and were openly critical about it. Methinks this man is not capable of managing a pair of toddlers talkless of a whole nation! God help us!

@poster,

What's misplaced about this, some of you just open your mouths and talk thrash, have you ever thought about the chain effects that would have on the economy, must everything be poured into the education sector before we get it right with the economy, if the US federal reserve bank just poured in money into the economy through quantitative easing to jump-start the US economy and get it out of the recession why shouldn't we also inject funds into various sector of the economy, I'm not saying the benin-ore road or the universities should be abandoned but other sectors have to be encouraged to grow and also earn revenue and create jobs for Nigeria. It shouldn't always be the formal sector also the informal sector should be encouraged.

wesley80:

My friend stop yapping! Before you start throwing insults, justify your criticisms and name calling.

my friend I didn't direct any comment to you so please shut your trap. As far I'm concerned I have already explained my  position and I wont repeat myself!

What are you talking about? So the best way support Nollywood is by investing $200mil? Its obvious from the emboldened part that you are just a dunce, for your information i am based in 9ja and the internet is readily available in the country, better go back to your cave and continue hibernating.

how much has been poured into the education sector and its still in shambles, how much has been poured into our roads and its still death traps, and how much has been poured into nollywood and its the 3rd highest movie industry in the world ?

monkeyleg:

@Beaf,



Priorities my friend, we have more pressing priorites. The Benin - ore road is the single most important road in this country. countless lives have been lost there, not to mention the total insecurity on that road. is it more important than investing in Nollywood? the answer is a Big Yes.

$200M  well spent on that road will transform it, and have far reaching consequences than this wasteful. What about $200m invested into our Unity schools, which used to be centres of excellence in our country.

Oga has got it very wrong again, and you are here trying to defend him. Well done

these are things that need time, patience and understanding, not the flick of a pen. In the meantime, the country needs to invest in areas outside oil, which is proving not to be enough to repair that road.After all, according to the logic of this govt, enough people have not died on that road yet.
It will be repaired but not yet.Just exercise patience.
Maybe after the contract for christmas fireworks is awarded (for which there will be a probe afterwards), a presidential panel will be formed to visit the road and ascertain the seriousness of its disrepair, maybe then a contract might be awarded.
My brother, exercise patience, after all that is the name of the first lady.These things are not done by the flick of a pen.    

GEJ for life!!!!!