By Joshua Olomu

Sen. Shehu Sani, author and human rights activist, has called on government at all levels to harness the potential of the creative and entertainment industry to create jobs and generate income.

He made the call during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on the sidelines of the 2025 Creative and Entertainment Industry Summit and Awards (CEISA) on Wednesday in Abuja.

The theme of the summit is “Gender Inclusiveness Intellectual Property Protection, Digital Economy.”

It brought together industry stakeholders, including filmmakers, showbiz entrepreneurs, policy makers and members of the academic world to chart a common front towards repositioning the sector.

According to Sani, the Nigerian creative and entertainment sector is a goldmine that can turn around the economic fortune of the nation if given the right support.

He said as the nation seeks to diversify its economic mainstay from oil, its vast creative sector which include film, music, fashion, visual arts and other industries, are a veritable alternative, if properly harnessed.

Sani urged both the federal, state and local governments to provide an enabling environment, in the form of financial support, infrastructure and talent development platforms for teeming youths.

“It is not wrong and it is not incorrect when people say that the creative and entertainment industry is the new oil.

“This oil we’re talking about in some years to come will dry up, but what will not dry up is the idea, the resourcefulness of Nigerians.

“If all the resources stolen from this country had been channelled to the creative and entertainment industry, we could have gone very far from where we are at this very moment.

“Government funds at all levels must come into it if we want the sector to yield needed fruits for our national economic growth,” he said.

Sani lauded Nigerian artistes for their ingenuity, hard work and courage, which endeared them to global audiences.

He noted that Nigeria’s film industry and its music genre are two of Africa’s most successful creative and cultural exports, receiving widespread acceptance on the global stage.

According to him, Afrobeat has emerged as one of the most popular music genres across the globe, with artists such as Burna Boy and Wizkid, Tems and others clinching the highly coveted Grammy award.

“It is a fact that Nigeria has established itself on the map of the global community in matters of creativity and entertainment.

“You don’t know how we felt in the last FIFA World Cup to see a Nigerian artist perform, and the pride it brings to us when a Nigerian wins the Grammy or other awards.

“This is a country that is so demonised in terms of being labelled and stigmatised as a nation of fraudsters and corrupt people.

“Today, you can see the narrative has been countered by the achievements of our hard-working men and women in the creative and entertainment industry,” he said.

Earlier, Prof. May Nwoye, Dean, Faculty of Management Sciences, Nile University of Nigeria, called for more women’s involvement in the creative and entertainment sector.

She said that although many women were breaking barriers and making their marks in the film and music industries, they were still being stereotyped and given little or no opportunity.

“You know, society is a patriarchal society, and the men are in the commanding heights of everything going on, and women are relegated to the background.

“When Nollywood started, they were mainly men, and now the women are just coming up, and then the men are in charge.

“Today we have female producers, directors, apart from actresses, because of their talents, efforts and resilience, but they are still having challenges because of funds,” she said.

Ikechukwu Agbaegbu, Convener of CEISA, said the event was to celebrate the creative ingenuity of Nigerians and to bring their common challenges to the fore.

According to him, the summit is also a platform to challenge negative stereotypes inherent in the creative industry and to address issues of funding and piracy.

“The creative and entertainment industry summit and awards is a vision that is born out of the passion to celebrate excellence in the creative industry.

“In the course of the summit, I discovered that a lot of creatives are labouring, but they are not really able to get rewards for their work because of piracy.

“Also, the world has gone virtually digital, and we need to talk about how to engage digital tools and platforms.

“We now have streaming channels, and in the comfort of your room, at the comfort of your office, you can create content and make a lot of money from it,” he said.

Agbaegbu said the CEISA 2025 was organised in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, United Nations World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), Nigerian Copyright Commission and other stakeholders.

The high point of the event was the public presentation of 10 books centred on the Nigerian creative industry.

NEWS AGENCY OF NIGERIA