Sesame Square is now running on the NTA. Sesame Square is a Nigerian version of Sesame Street. The news was even on the front page of Nairaland. I was happy when I first heard the news. Many of us were happy about the development. Then I took a step back to look at the bigger picture.

I don’t think we should be celebrating when other’s do what we can do ourselves. Or what we SHOULD do ourselves. I have nothing against Sesame Street Workshop for producing the show. In fact a friend worked on the show because a local production company was used for some of the work. The funding for the show comes from the American tax payer via USAID which is the US Agency for International Development. It’s funded to the tune of about $ 3,800,000.00 . I have gone more in depth into the project and my general thoughts about it on my blog here.http://binoandfino./2011/05/24/sesame-street-in-nigeria-good-or-bad/ It’s quite long and I didn’t want to clog up Nairaland.

But as animators who have the ability to produce children’s programmes, don’t you find it strange that the U.S. can donate that amount of money to produce a children’s show in another country but our own government via the NTA can’t be bothered to notice it’s own local talent and harness it?

Now who’s fault is it? Is it us as an industry? Should we be lobbying government and broadcasters harder? Is it the government and our broadcasters fault. Can you imagine if the NTA just made available just 0.1 % of the Sesame Square budget (about N5 million naira) to some of the animators on this forum to come up with various pilot episodes for cartoons and children’s shows? Maybe we need to shout louder.

@ AdamuW
good thought provoking post.

The followin r my opinions born outta my experience(s).
Most nigerian firms, even if given funding still lack d discipline 2 deliver consistent quality. Our work ethics still lacks professionalism, money doesnt change dat!

Sesame street/ Childrens Television Workshop have been around for decades, n have paid massive dues- so as a brand, its bankable. Few studios here enjoy similar status.

Theres bound 2 b spillover to our local studios, so in dat sense its a good thing. It also serves as a wake up call of some sort.

As we keep putting out our stuff, recognition will come, as will increased funding. I fear it will be a slow process tho

@OKX
Hi Man . Long time. I hear your points and agree to a degree. But I think you are underestimating some of us in the sector. I know you're not unprofessional, I know we're not, I know @zpixel isn't, and the list goes on and on. Also the NTA has the mandate and is not profit driven. I know some good people in NTA but there seems to be some sort of bottle neck somewhere. With the right vision they can help this sector grow just like the BBC and Channel 4 helped the animation sector grow in the U.K.

That's why I was wondering whether it was our fault for not lobbying hard enough or making enough noise. It's a chicken and egg situation. I know we have a lot of work to do on our side but can't the broadcasters reach out? I know it's probably expecting too much! But you never know. Maybe they've reached out and I didn't even know about it.

Also didn't Sesame Street start life on America's public station PBS?

Both foreign and local shows can co-exist without any bad blood, The important thing is the education it delivers to our kids. Why should airing Sesame Street send me into a hissy fit when I know just how good the show is for kids based on my experience growing up?

I cannot honestly say I'm sympathetic with your points when your very own animation has been released for sale solely in climes outside Africa and certainly outside Nigeria.

So yes, I'd say to a large extent that it IS your fault as an industry. People are able to air crappy, godawful home videos in Silverbird Cinemas (even to the extent of premiering such crapware). What are they doing that you aren't doing?

@Texazzpete
I never said there should be any bad blood. I also stated in my post that I have no ill feeling towards USAID or Sesame Street workshop for producing the series and education program. Let’s get that clear. My issue is with our side and getting a correct balance.

You raised a fair point about what have we done and why is our cartoon only available outside of Nigeria if every rubbish piece of content can be run on Silverbird. I’ll try to answer that for you. It’s to do with access and return of revenue. I have approached the NTA and will continue to do so until they buckle. I’ve been kept waiting in DG’s waiting rooms for months on end, literally. And still did not see them. Trust me when USAID say they want to see the DG of NTA with the backing of the US embassy and a budget of $3,800,000 waving in the air, trust me they will see because he will give them audience and receive them differently. Fine, I expect that will deal with it. But I just wanted to point that out to you. Politics and power are at play and can help.

I have invested all my company’s profits, sold my personal investments and put in years to realise this project. This project has given employment to a few people on Nairaland. It was paramount that the production was done entirely in Nigeria and we succeeded. So we have in a small way built a human capital resource pool.

Animation takes a long time to produce. Hence we can’t just throw it on Silverbird like some of the ’crappy’ home movies you mentioned. They can produce them in weeks and most of those make no money at all. I have studied that model trust me. My company wants to make a sustainable business out of this plus make the best products we can. That’s the only way we can provide jobs whilst producing good content for children. It pained me that it was easier to set up distribution outside Nigeria that would protect our investment than in Nigeria. But we will be having our launch in Silverbird in the coming months.

Another reason why I flagged up the Sesame Square project is that it is odd that the U.S. Tax payer and their Aid organisation sets the agenda for what our children see on the primetime slot on our flagship national broadcaster. That is wrong. But we are the ones giving them the vacuum to fill. Also it’s important to point out that Sesame Street got popular via broadcasting on PBS which is publicly funded. We all have to start somewhere with the help of broadcasters.

You don’t have to be sympathetic to my cause at all as you put it. I have accepted my and our sector’s responsibility in the equation and we are doing something about it. We can always do more but other sectors have their role to play too.

I have often wonderd why no single Nigerian tv station has taken the time, resources etc to learn how to do animation properly. A simple concept would be to animate all the old Tales by Moonlight stories, with local centric animation and sell the rights/content to other African tv,sattelite stations, etc.

But given the Nigerian way of doing things, the animation will be poorly done, using the worst instead of the best equipment etc.

I recall watching a super eagles match that NTA covered recently and I almost threw up. The picture quality was poor (despite being shown on DSTV, AIT though), the camera angles were horrible - non for offside calls, the commentary was crap and often times the camera lost sight of the ball!! All this in 2011!!!? This is how NTA has been for the last 20years, in fact NTA of 20 years ago telivised matches better than that!!!

Majority of Nigerians have a poor work ethic, are incompetent, are unprofessional and cannot be bothered to do the right thing!!

@Texazzpete
I never said there should be any bad blood. I also stated in my post that I have no ill feeling towards USAID or Sesame Street workshop for producing the series and education program. Let’s get that clear. My issue is with our side and getting a correct balance.

You raised a fair point about what have we done and why is our cartoon only available outside of Nigeria if every rubbish piece of content can be run on Silverbird. I’ll try to answer that for you. It’s to do with access and return of revenue. I have approached the NTA and will continue to do so until they buckle. I’ve been kept waiting in DG’s waiting rooms for months on end, literally. And still did not see them. Trust me when USAID say they want to see the DG of NTA with the backing of the US embassy and a budget of $3,800,000 waving in the air, trust me they will see because he will give them audience and receive them differently. Fine, I expect that will deal with it. But I just wanted to point that out to you. Politics and power are at play and can help.

I have invested all my company’s profits, sold my personal investments and put in years to realise this project. This project has given employment to a few people on Nairaland. It was paramount that the production was done entirely in Nigeria and we succeeded. So we have in a small way built a human capital resource pool.

Animation takes a long time to produce. Hence we can’t just throw it on Silverbird like some of the ’crappy’ home movies you mentioned. They can produce them in weeks and most of those make no money at all. I have studied that model trust me. My company wants to make a sustainable business out of this plus make the best products we can. That’s the only way we can provide jobs whilst producing good content for children. It pained me that it was easier to set up distribution outside Nigeria that would protect our investment than in Nigeria. But we will be having our launch in Silverbird in the coming months.

Another reason why I flagged up the Sesame Square project is that it is odd that the U.S. Tax payer and their Aid organisation sets the agenda for what our children see on the primetime slot on our flagship national broadcaster. That is wrong. But we are the ones giving them the vacuum to fill. Also it’s important to point out that Sesame Street got popular via broadcasting on PBS which is publicly funded. We all have to start somewhere with the help of broadcasters.

You don’t have to be sympathetic to my cause at all as you put it. I have accepted my and our sector’s responsibility in the equation and we are doing something about it. We can always do more but other sectors have their role to play too.

We simply do not have well trained animators else Tales by Moonlight would have been a monster hit.

AdamuW:

Maybe we need to shout louder.

Maybe

But going by Compaq's post this industry is bereft of good hands. What hands abound are apparently mediocre and unprofessional.

But as animators who have the ability to produce children’s programmes, don’t you find it strange that the U.S. can donate that amount of money to produce a children’s show in another country

The only reason America fund these programmes around the world is to Amerikanize your murtha freaking a$$. Lol!!! hahaha!!!
Niggaz never learn. hahaha!!!!!!

@texazzpete
How much do you recieve from the CIA a month to promote the American cause in Nigeria? You should get a stipend for being the US mouth piece on Nairaland.

Egbe Nak:

The only reason America fund these programmes around the world is to Amerikanize your murtha freaking a$$. Lol!!! hahaha!!!
Niggaz never learn. hahaha!!!!!!

@texazzpete
How much do you recieve from the CIA a month to promote the American cause in Nigeria? You should get a stipend for being the US mouth piece on Nairaland.

Like Nigeria has done a better job

Abeg, bring Sesame street on, the early exposure is good for our youth, have you ever stopped to compare your average 5 year old in Nigeria to those in the states. BIG DIFFERENCE

Egbe Nak:

The only reason America fund these programmes around the world is to Amerikanize your murtha freaking a$$. Lol!!! hahaha!!!
Niggaz never learn. hahaha!!!!!!

@texazzpete
How much do you recieve from the CIA a month to promote the American cause in Nigeria? You should get a stipend for being the US mouth piece on Nairaland.

Roughly twice the amount the Nigerian Council of Imbecilic Oafs (NCIO) pay you to be their nairaland mouthpiece.

I must say you're doing a far better job than I am, though. The idiocy drips from your every word.

COMPAQ:

I have often wonderd why no single Nigerian tv station has taken the time, resources etc to learn how to do animation properly. A simple concept would be to animate all the old Tales by Moonlight stories, with local centric animation and sell the rights/content to other African tv,sattelite stations, etc.

Dude, its been done. Lets just say you hit the nail squarely on the head with that one blow. The show is such garbage, roaches crawled out of it on live TV.

AdamuW:

Sesame Square is now running on the NTA. Sesame Square is a Nigerian version of Sesame Street. The news was even on the front page of Nairaland. I was happy when I first heard the news. Many of us were happy about the development. Then I took a step back to look at the bigger picture.

I don’t think we should be celebrating when other’s do what we can do ourselves. Or what we SHOULD do ourselves. I have nothing against Sesame Street Workshop for producing the show. In fact a friend worked on the show because a local production company was used for some of the work. The funding for the show comes from the American tax payer via USAID which is the US Agency for International Development.  It’s funded to the tune of about $ 3,800,000.00 . I have gone more in depth into the project and my general thoughts about it on my blog here.http://binoandfino./2011/05/24/sesame-street-in-nigeria-good-or-bad/ It’s quite long and I didn’t want to clog up Nairaland.

But as animators who have the ability to produce children’s programmes, don’t you find it strange that the U.S. can donate that amount of money to produce a children’s show in another country but our own government via the NTA can’t be bothered to notice it’s own local talent and harness it?

Now who’s fault is it? Is it us as an industry? Should we be lobbying government and broadcasters harder? Is it the government and our broadcasters fault. Can you imagine if the NTA just made available just 0.1 % of the Sesame Square budget (about N5 million naira) to some of the animators on this forum to come up with various pilot episodes for cartoons and children’s shows? Maybe we need to shout louder.

It is FFFAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANTASTIC for Nigeria.

This is the way it will most likely work.

If Nigerian government has provided the funds to "harness" local talent as you suggested, it would most likely have been utter shambles.

First of all corruption.

Secondly, nepotism.

Thirdly, thrash of "e don do, we don try" Nigerian standards of production.

With it being funded and guided by the foreign originators and experts, they will bring the expertise and STRUCTURE of working to harness local talent in a meritous environment.

Take a look at most of our local originated products and businesses and see what I am talking about.

@ all
i think d topic may b abit misleading. I think d poster is talking of d impact from d point of view of fellow animators not consumers. (i stand 2 b corrected, Adamu)

as consumers, as long as it benefits our kids it could be made in Tibet for all i care. As fellow practitioners tho, its a different matter.

@

AdamuW

as an individual- im professional
as a studio- i am not.
Dis doesnt mean i cannot produce output, but d process is rarely as professional as it should or could be.

As u know, the industry requires various support services to produce d final output. Our work ethics r such that at some point down d pipeline, u will definitely encounter some sloppy chap(s) dat screw ur schedule.

If u r fortunate enuf 2 have moulded a blend of professionals in ur studio, then u r d exception. I havent been as fortunate and several projects have suffered as a result.

I still think, d rub off of seasoned professionals working in our environment and utilising local talent, while a blow 2 our artistic pride, will benefit us.

Egbe Nak:

The only reason America fund these programmes around the world is to Amerikanize your murtha freaking a$$. Lol!!! hahaha!!!
Niggaz never learn. hahaha!!!!!!

@texazzpete
How much do you recieve from the CIA a month to promote the American cause in Nigeria? You should get a stipend for being the US mouth piece on Nairaland.

I totally agree - there is a reason why countries like China operates strict censorship of its internet and tv programming -because it doesnt want its people to imbibe western values which ultimately undermine and destroy the indigenous chinese culture and values.  

The nigerian govt on the other hand does the exact opposite - it grants access to all these imported foreign programmes whilst neglecting the development of its own programmes, its the duty of a govt to invest money in good programming aimed at promoting the cultural values of its own people not allow foreigners to come in and hijack your tv programmes and brainwash future generations with american children's programmes.

People may look at this as just a harmless children's tv programme but these programmes instill western cultural values and perceptions which shape the mindset of young children,ultimately leading to the abandonment of nigerian cultural values no wonder the average nigerian worships anything to do with america - why wouldnt they when from a young age they have been condjitioned to admire and idolise american values.
I often wondered why many nigerians suffer from inferiority complex now i know where it stems from - years and years of social conditioning and brainwashing from a very early age watching these type of programmes.

Wow. So much to reply to. It looks like we as animators need to step up our game. No problem. It will happen.

@OKX you are correct I did originally aim the post at the graphics section to ask what we could do to make ourselves heard and to put ourselves in a position to get the NTA to take our sector seriously. But it's fine to broaden the debate.I hear you on the professional angle. But you see Sesame Street or Disney etc didn't start out as professional as they are now. I don't feel you have to wait until you are perfect before you call yourself or your company professional. You just have to strive to be the best and to keep learning. It's a tough call and it's all relative. I guess. Also I'm not going to claim that my studio is the most professional etc.

@Texazzpete You raised some fiar points which I will try to answer. I've actually tried but Nairaland keeps thinking my posts are spam.So it's difficult to reply. If this goes through then I'll send my reply to you.

@Texazzpete
I never said there should be any bad blood. I also stated in my post that I have no ill feeling towards USAID or Sesame Street workshop for producing the series and education program. Let’s get that clear. My issue is with our side allowing it to happen and getting a correct balance. That's all.

You raised a fair point about what have we done and why is our cartoon only available outside of Nigeria if every rubbish piece of content can be run on Silverbird. I’ll try to answer that for you. It’s to do with access and return of revenue. I have approached the NTA and will continue to do so until they buckle. I’ve been kept waiting in DG’s waiting rooms for months on end, literally. And still did not see them. Trust me when USAID say they want to see the DG of NTA with the backing of the US embassy and a budget of $3,800,000 waving in the air, trust me they will see because he will give them audience and receive them differently. Fine, I expect that will deal with it. But I just wanted to point that out to you. Politics and power are at play and can help.

I have invested all my company’s profits, sold my personal investments and put in years to realise the project we are working on. It doesn't mean it's the best and we'll let the audience decide on the quality. The feedback from sales so far have been positive overall.This project has given employment to a few people on Nairaland. It was paramount that the production was done entirely in Nigeria and we succeeded. So we have in a small way built a human capital resource pool. I'm not someone who's interested in complaining from the sidelines.

Animation takes a long time to produce. Hence we can’t just throw it on Silverbird like some of the ’crappy’ home movies you mentioned. They can produce them in weeks and most of those make no money at all via that route. I have studied that model trust me. My company wants to make a sustainable business out of this plus make the best products we can. That’s the only way we can provide jobs whilst producing good content for children. It pained me that it was easier to set up distribution outside Nigeria that would protect our investment than in Nigeria. But we will be having our launch in Silverbird in the coming months.

Another reason why I flagged up the Sesame Square project is that it is odd that the U.S. Tax payer and their Aid organisation sets the agenda for what our children see on the primetime slot on our flagship national broadcaster. That is wrong. But we are the ones giving them the vacuum to fill. Also it’s important to point out that Sesame Street got popular via broadcasting on PBS which is publicly funded. We all have to start somewhere with the help of broadcasters.

You don’t have to be sympathetic to my cause at all as you put it. I have accepted my and our sector’s responsibility in the equation and we are doing something about it. I understand your points. We can always do more but other sectors have their role to play too.

AdamuW:

Wow. So much to reply to. It looks like we as animators need to step up our game. No problem. It will happen.

@OKX you are correct I did originally aim the post at the graphics section to ask what we could do to make ourselves heard and to put ourselves in a position to get the NTA to take our sector seriously. But it's fine to broaden the debate.I hear you on the professional angle. But you see Sesame Street or Disney etc didn't start out as professional as they are now. I don't feel you have to wait until you are perfect before you call yourself or your company professional. You just have to strive to be the best and to keep learning. It's a tough call and it's all relative. I guess. Also I'm not going to claim that my studio is the most professional etc.

@Texazzpete You raised some fiar points which I will try to answer. I've actually tried but Nairaland keeps thinking my posts are spam.So it's difficult to reply. If this goes through then I'll send my reply to you.

I know, I've read your reply in your profile's 'recent posts' section.

The thing is, your show and Sesame street can co-exist. As consumers, Sesame street does a brilliant job of giving our kids some good educational material. I'd much rather they watched Sesame Street than teletubbies for example. And this deal will enable even poor kids to tune in.
As for the content, your blog makes it sound like some Western indoctrination of some sort. It isn't. It shouldn't be. There are Nigerian experts attached to the projects that should serve to ensure our cultural values are still projected in the show. Until Nigerian animations are ready for prime time, Sesame Street is a great stop gap measure.

Keep up the good work, though. History always shows that when Nigerian content is ready for primetime, nothing can stop it. Nollywood is booming in Nigeria, for example. Night clubs can go for weeks without playing any non-Nigerian song. Who ever thought we'd see this INSANE boom in the Nigerian music scene?

cap28:

I totally agree - there is a reason why countries like China operates strict censorship of its internet and tv programming -because it doesnt want its people to imbibe western values which ultimately undermine and destroy the indigenous chinese culture and values.  

No. it's to keep their citizenry repressed and thoroughly under the thumb of the Chinese Communist party.
It also helps to cheat foreign companies of their hard earned revenue at the expense of unscrupulous chinese businesses. They'll happily block facebook so that picture perfect clones can flourish in China. Facebook, twitter, Myspace all cloned to the letter in China while the Government happily looks the other way.

cap28:

The nigerian govt on the other hand does the exact opposite - it grants access to all these imported foreign programmes whilst neglecting the development of its own programmes, its the duty of a govt to invest money in good programming aimed at promoting the cultural values of its own people not allow foreigners to come in and hijack your tv programmes and brainwash future generations with american children's programmes.

People may look at this as just a harmless children's tv programme but these programmes instill western cultural values and perceptions which shape the mindset of young children,ultimately leading to the abandonment of nigerian cultural values no wonder the average nigerian worships anything to do with america - why wouldnt they when from a young age they have been condjitioned to admire and idolise american values.
I often wondered why many nigerians suffer from inferiority complex now i know where it stems from - years and years of social conditioning and brainwashing from a very early age watching these type of programmes.

'Western values'?
I can leave my Child to watch Sesame Street completely unsupervised. Watch Nollywood movies for 2 days and any young, impressionable mind is filled with tales of Witchcraft, juju, ritual murder and other fetish related issues. We also see lots of treasured 'values' like slavery (in the name of housegirls and houseboys) even from the 'good guys'.

Keep your paranoia to yourself. Many of my friends who are rabidly anti-west grew up on the same fare and still remember the days of Sesame Street, Voltron et al with nostalgia.

cool

they will probbaly put in a nigerian flavor into it; something that will teach our kids about our culture, tolerance etc

hope they are able to keep pushing it.

have plenty of downloaded sesame street stuff for my kids

wonder why those dstv twats dont air PBS - now that would be great - the only tv really good for kids on dstv is cbeebies

pls what is sesame square?

Toaskarity:

pls what is sesame square?

Sesame Square is the Nigerian version of Sesame Street. USAID teamed up with Sesame Street Workshop the non profit organisation behind Sesame Street and local media production house Ileke Media to produce it. It airs on NTA as part of an AIDS awareness and general education campaign that will go into schools touching the lives of 80,000 children.

We have enough culture to deal with,not another intrusion.

texazzpete:

I know, I've read your reply in your profile's 'recent posts' section.

The thing is, your show and Sesame street can co-exist. As consumers, Sesame street does a brilliant job of giving our kids some good educational material. I'd much rather they watched Sesame Street than teletubbies for example. And this deal will enable even poor kids to tune in.
As for the content, your blog makes it sound like some Western indoctrination of some sort. It isn't. It shouldn't be. There are Nigerian experts attached to the projects that should serve to ensure our cultural values are still projected in the show. Until Nigerian animations are ready for prime time, Sesame Street is a great stop gap measure.

Keep up the good work, though. History always shows that when Nigerian content is ready for primetime, nothing can stop it. Nollywood is booming in Nigeria, for example. Night clubs can go for weeks without playing any non-Nigerian song. Who ever thought we'd see this INSANE boom in the Nigerian music scene?

@Texazzpete Thanks. I'm not really here to argue with people but to air views and seek solutions. I just want to see a greater balance. I suppose since I'm behind the scenes and know the politics of this one it hits closer to home. I have nothing against Bert and Ernie and the Gang on Sesame Street!I grew up on them too. It's the mechanism behind the entry of the Nigerian Sesame Square . I have issue with. I have no doubt that a lot of it will be beneficial to our kids. The Sesame Street Brand do their best to make sure of that.

I'm just saying that it'd be nice to get the same access to the top dogs at the Ministry of Education and the NTA that USAID had because of their clout and money. That way I know we could develop our own content. I don't agree with the Chinese way of blocking content but I do agree with the French goverment's way. They said that 60% of all content was to be from France. That applied to children's programming. They then supported the arts to build up their capacity to produce quality content. So what happened was that the french animation houses became powerful,created jobs,generated revenue, and started exporting children's animations to the world or were handling outsourced jobs from the U.S. That's changing now with competition from Korea, China and India but I hope you get my point.

As for having Nigerians on the Sesame Square project meaning that our interests and culture will be protected. I'm not too sure on that front. It's a 50/50. You see if I'm paying for a message to be sent as USAID are, I would want it to be sent on my terms as I'm footing the bill. So I think USAID quite rightly will call the shots here on what Sesame Square will be about because this is American taxpayers money they're messing with. If they have a positive agenda it will go through if it's negative it'll go through. I'll reserve total judgement on that front until I watch the entire series. I know the strategy of the project is to promote AIDS awareness and general educational and social values. Let's see if the balance is right. 

I want African kids to get local content that relates to them  on a social / cultural level. So the kids see their own languages, food, accents etc in their media. It means a lot on so many levels. And there are so many talented young artists out there without jobs who would excel in a Nigerian animation industry. That's all. I accept that we as animators have to step it up. I know there are issues within our ranks. No problem. I'm not asking for handouts for the sake of it. Just to be met half way.

Anyway it'll be interesting to see how things develop.

I watched sesame street as a kid and i loved it. It helped me grow
in more ways than one. Forget the western world culture, we have
a lot of kiddies programme that are from the western world. For instance,
Barney and friends. The culture the children pick are basically from what
they're taught at home and schools cos thats where they get influenced
more. I'd love my children to watch sesame street and i really dont see
anything wrong in it being brought to Nigeria. Come to think of it, our
animations are wack!

OK this is interesting. The general consensus from the Nairaland public is that Nigerian animation is wack, crap, stinks, rubbish with cockroaches flying out of it!

I'm not going to argue with you as you are the public and you call the shots. As the owner of an animation studio in Nigeria I am interested in changing that status quo so that you the public who are parents would be happy for your children to watch homegrown local cartoons. Many of us animators do.

Now we've established that Nigerian animation is not at the standard you want. How do you suggest we change it? What would you like to see? What type of programs if done right would you let your kds watch? How do you propose we do it right? Would you pay to watch our cartoons in the cinema?

Give us suggestions and insight. Anything would be of help. Because the situation needs to change. We can't keep getting ONLY foreign content for children on our TV stations no matter how good or bad. That's unacceptable. So please provide suggestions and solutions, guidance, whatever.

I know some in the graphics section will be listening keenly. I am.

@all
we keep talking about our cultures and values, wot exactly r they?
how many of us, as parents have actively sought to instil those perceived values- beyond hauling our kids off to the village during festive seasons.
wot level of patronage do our musuems, historical sites enjoy?

in our techno age today, information has to be documented n processed appropriately for it to be passed on in any form.
bottomline is, our cultures/values as we call them rarely exist in a packaged and readily useable form.
try n seek a book that documents life in your rural area before the colonial era and u will understand my drift.
that is also a reason for the misrepresentation of africa in movies n stuff by the west- we havent effectively informed them.

hence, on a level we are ALL to blame.
government is a faceless entity more interested in propagating its own survival, woteva d cost,sadly.

as concerns this topic and the Childrens Television Workshop, now Sesame Workshop- since inception back in the 60's, Sesame Street has sought to promote multicultural values. it is one of their core aims and great care has been taken to live up to it.

it has been produced for over 20 countries and they always create new content for each region. note, i said 'produced', not just 'translated'.
a translation would have entailed selling the same content, irrespective of the local values- this goes against wot d show stands for.

those of us that talk of 'westernising' our kids, cmon- even our very democracy is fashioned after western models. we cant be guilty of double standards here, even 'progress' is measured by how much like the westerner we can live!
quit buying the pair of jeans n teeshirts for ya kids and revert to akwette and local wrappers (an inappropriate joke, i know).

ignoring other cultures doesnt really guarantee development/knowledge of your own culture, especially when the culture u r trying to downplay happens to be the pioneering force in global development.

we definitely need a balance, and time will tell if this is a source of western indoctrination, but i know that, as a show it definitely teaches kids a lot of non-culturally biased stuff, so the risks r acceptable to me.

@AdamuW
well said.
i too, will be interested in opinions to ur questions.

my thots, repeated frequently (lol), r simply that when we start to turn out good stuff- the public will notice and private sector participation will increase.
as animators, few of us are known nationally or internationally- hence, are unacceptable risks to investors, as at yet.
we can change that by either affiliation to known bodies, or by putting out our work out there n letting it do the work of attesting to our skills!

if ppl pay to watch some nollywood movies, then i think any well packaged edutainment program will be a hit. reception to your Bino & Fino series shoulda answered that one.lol

@mr cork
enough to correct your tenses and spelling.