Nigeria Calls for Ban of ‘District 9’

You’d think if there was to be a call to arms against ‘District 9,’ it would have come from the prawn community.   That small group of Decapods are sure to have been insulted by the usage of their names to classify the alien race that take refuge in South Africa.

But, no, a ban against the film is in order, but it’s not from the shrimp community, it’s from Nigeria whose information minister, Dora Akunyili, has asked movie houses in the country’s capital of Abuja to cease screenings of the film.   The minister believes the film puts Nigeria in a bad light and does not approve of the depiction of the people of Nigeria as gangsters and cannibals.   This news comes to us today from the Associated Press by way of Hitfix.

Akunyili had this to say about the call to ban:

We have directed that they should stop public screening of the film.   We are not happy about it because it portrays Nigeria in bad light.

We have written to the producer and distributor of the film, Sony Entertainment, expressing our displeasure and demanded an apology.   We have asked that the areas where Nigeria and Obasanjo are mentioned should be edited from the film.

The “Obasanjo” in question refers to the film’s main, Nigerian villain and gangster, Obesandjo, whose name closely resembles that of former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.   Akunyili and other Nigerian government officials first saw the film last Wednesday in a private screening.

Neither the Sony head office nor a representative of the prawn community have commented.