The Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) has courted controversy by halting the screening of the film adaptation of the Nigerian Civil War novel, Half of a Yellow Sun. The novel which was written by the young, famous, brilliant and controversial award-wining novelist, from the eastern Nigeria extraction, Chinamanda Adichie, was originally scheduled to be premiered in Nigeria on Friday, April 25.

But a statement from the spokesman of the censors board, said there were “regulatory issues” that had necessitated the delay in the release of the movie in Nigeria till May 2. The fact of the matter is that the suits at the board are uncomfortable with the vivid pictures of the horrors of the Nigerian Civil War, and the fear is that at this time of socio-political tension ravaging the land, films like Half of a Yellow Sun could stoke up the fires of inter-ethnic suspicions and, worse still, lead to an upsurge in violence in the country. Recently, a social critic in Nigeria accused the film’s plot of telling a one-sided story by focusing on the fatal travails of the Igbo ethnic group during the grim days of the civil war.

It is this line of thinking (whether they agree or not) that influences the NFVCB’s decision to manipulate and dilute the original make-up of the movie. But it must be said that the board’s move represents an affront to freedom of expression. Right-thinking people must demand that the right of a film producer to tell his story the way he deems fit is respected, and that the right of Nigerians to hear and see a story must be sacrosanct, no matter who is offended

There is nothing in the movie that is a call for violence, so the fears that the movie will so stir the emotions of people as to lead to violence, while not unfounded completely, must not be used as a yardstick to insult our freedom to express ourselves, see a work of art, and judge its contents by ourselves.

History is full of stories which involved the shutting out of unwelcome news by those in authority, and when we look back at these times we shake our head in embarrassment for those who tried to suppress then unpopular opinions. I’m reminded of celebrated free speech cases which involved the argument by the powers that be that some things cannot be said or heard. The case of Socrates comes to mind, and how he was accused of making young people not to believe the gods by his way of thinking. Galileo was subjected to house arrest because of his breakthrough in astronomy which contradicted the dogma of the church that held that the earth was the centre of and object of creation. And today in Nigeria we see some not too particularly religious (even though not entirely unrelated to religion) state-sanctioned abridgment of free speech in laws that banish people from talking about “uncomfortable things” like the right of people to control and express their sexual destinies as they see it. The NFVCB’s move is a further nail on the freedom of expression.

From human experience, I can say something with certainty about countries like Nigeria which suffer from hardship and inter-ethnic tensions. And I will paraphrase a late a famous speaker and writer: “Wherever the light of free debate and expression is extinguished, the darkness is very much deeper, more palpable and more protracted.” But the urge to shut out bad news or unwelcome opinion will always be a strong one, which is why the battle to reaffirm freedom of speech needs to be refougtht in every generation.

•Nelson Dafe is a jputnalist with News Express and BUSINESS EXPRESS. He can be reached via muvidaff@gmail.com