With Justin Akpovi- Esade

TEETH 4 TEETH

was watching a Yoruba movie titled Afala Ojo on Friday, July 3, 2020, around 6. am. The movie starred Femi Adebayo ( show me any Yoruba movie that does not star Femi Adebayo anyway, not many).

I was sharing watching the flick and working on the home computer at the same time, so I hardly could take note of an obvious flaw, until Mrs Teeth 4 Teeth, who was walking to the kitchen, asked, “Is this a Yoruba or English movie?”

That was when the nickel dropped. The movie was actually being aired on DSTV’S Yoruba movies channel, but all the actors spoke 90 per cent of English language throughout the over one hour duration! That the Content Manager of the Pay TV outfit accepted that obvious English movie as Yoruba shows he or she actually ‘ knows’ his job and deserves a medal, no, Oscars award for movie genre selection.

If you watch Yoruba or Africa Magic channel, which airs Nollywood movies, you will be forced to conclude that DSTV has something against God.

Do you know that in Africa Magic channel, if a Nigerian actor exclaims “Oh My God!”, the last word, God is blurted out? Then, let me shock you further, in the Africa Magic Yoruba channel, the word God in the subtitle is blacked out.

So, I am forced to ask, does the Pay TV outfit have anything against God? When did it become an offence for an actor to exclaim with the name of God? Is the word God offensive and or obscene and so, the NBC code stipulates it should be censored?

If you know anybody who knows somebody at the helm of affairs at DSTV, can that Oga please tell us why there is a subtle censorship on the use of the name of God in dialogue in Nigerian movies?

Teeth 4 Teeth watches our local movie channels on DSTV, especially the Yoruba channel. I connect with the Yoruba stories more than the long, winding so called English Nollywood movies where their theme is always about a king looking for an heir and somebody plotting to take over the throne until a slave in the palace will be impregnated by the king after a night of drinking caused by frustration, bla bla bla. I call them ‘ watch one, watch all’.

That was a digression and I apologise.

Now, back to the issue. DSTV has so repeated movies on the Yoruba channel that I do not need to look at the title anymore to find out I’m viewing a movie I may have seen over 40 times in the last two years.

Let me give you a typical example for the avoidance of doubt: I checked the list of movies on display on Saturday, July 4 on Africa Magic Yoruba and from morning till late in the night, all the movies are ones the Pay TV channel had shown repeatedly over 50 times in the last two years. So that anyone don’t accuse me of mischief, here are the movie titles: Shola Arikusa, Omotoni, Ewademi, Ohun Abemi, Durosimi... etc.

This brings one to ask, what kind of agreement does DSTV enter into with Yoruba movie producers that allows the Pay TV outfit to have the rights to show their movies 100 times over a period of two or three years? That agreement needs serious review.

By the way, if what DSTV is doing is not short changing its subscribers, then, help me find another word for it because how can I cough out that kind of money every month to watch repeated movies? And to think they even increased their subscription recently, yet they can’t get new content? Somebody wake up the NBC, I mean National Broadcasting Commission for me.

Teeth Teeth was amused and at the same time aghast on Friday, July 3, when he tuned to Africa Magic ( English), that was after getting tired of watching Afala Ojo, a supposed Yoruba movie that was actually an English one.

It was a Nollywood movie titled Parish Women starring Ngozi Ezeonu and Rita Edochie among others. The flick was directed by Vincent D Anointed.

Why was I amused and aghast? Find out. There was a church crusade scene where two Rev Fathers were preaching to some villagers. A young man standing very close to the priests, that every time the camera focuses on them, he appears in full view, was spotting a T Shirt with a bold inscription in front: ‘ F* ck Finger’!

I was amused because somebody wearing that kind of T- shirt was at a crusade ground and was even standing very close to the priests and aghast that DSTV that prides itself in censoring any exclamation that has the name of God in it, failed to see that.