As the nation celebrates
democracy day on May 29th, an appeal by HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF
NIGERIA (HURIWA) has gone to President Goodluck Jonathan to lift the suspension
imposed on the new film adaptation of half of a Yellow Sun.
The Rights group said the
failure of the central government to allow Nigerians enjoy the freedom to watch
the creative work of a vastly talented Nigerian- Ms. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
on very nebulous, grotesque and incoherent excuses offered by the Nigerian
Films and Video Censors Board in Abuja, is the greatest breach of the
democratic and fundamental human rights which are universal, inalienable and
sacrosanct.
Specifically, the film
adaptation of half of a Yellow Sun a book done by Miss. Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie was directed by the Nigerian-born but United Kingdom-based movie
director Mr. Biyi Bandele Thomas and has been shown on international movie
screens in New York, Toronto, Canada; The United Kingdom and several other
international venues.
HURIWA recalled that the
Nigerian films and video censors board has reportedly suspended the showing of
the preview of the movie in Nigerian cities citing the uncertainties of our
contemporary times in Nigeria not unrelated to the insecurity across Nigeria.
The democracy inclined
non-governmental organization in a statement to mark the 2014 democracy day has
dismissed the suspension of the broadcasting of Half of a yellow Sun film
adaptation in Nigeria as primitive, unconstitutional, illegal and highly
anti-intellectual even as the Rights group has asked President Jonathan to
apologize for this show of shame by the director General of the Nigerian films
and video censors board in suspending ad infinitum the film in question.
HURIWA through a joint
statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the
National Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf reminded the Nigerian government
that the Constitution allows for right to freedom of expression and the Press.
It further reminded the Nigerian government that it is unwise to seek to deny
Nigerians resident within the country the right to view the entire movie of
half of a yellow sun when the rest of the World have already started pouring
encomiums for the unprecedented creativity that the film adaptation of an
important period of Nigeria’s political history represents.
“In the strongest possible
term, we condemn and reject the inexcusable suspension of the broadcast in
Nigerian cities of the newly introduced Half of a Yellow Sun movie. This
draconian directive from the Nigerian films and Censors Board is an attempt to
deny the historicity of the Nigerian-Biafran civil war and by so doing
significantly annulling the constitutional right guaranteed by the Universal Declaration
of human rights, African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and importantly
section 39(1) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999
(as amended) which unambiguously provides that “every person shall be entitled
to freedom of expression including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and
impart ideas and information without interference”.
HURIWA said the backward
and reactionary measure of suspending and or directing the producers of Half of
Yellow Sun to delete aspects of the movie as a condition precedent before
certification could be issued to show it in Nigeria amounted to “genocide
denial” reminiscent of dictatorial regimes and therefore remains undemocratic
and non-civil. HURIWA has therefore asked the Nigerian Government to reverse
this decision immediately.
Besides, HURIWA warned
government not to create the impression that Nigeria still lives in the
medieval dark ages since the film that has already being viewed around the
world is being withheld by an agency of the Nigerian government for
non-justifiable reason other than the official apprehension about the
truth.
28/5/2014
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