NaijaTalkTalk- Art, craft can become Nigeria’s goldmine

Nicraft

The National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) was established in 1975 with a mandate to preserve and promote Nigeria’s living art and culture. Forty years after, the Council’s Director General, Dayo Keshi, says the art and culture sector is ready to replace oil as Nigeria’s cash cow. Excerpts:

You have been quoted as saying the art and culture sector is Nigeria’s goldmine. Can you throw light into what you mean?

Against the backdrop of the falling oil price and the growing concerns over the vulnerability of Nigeria’s economy, it is imperative to draw attention to the potentials of our cultural sector and the contributions it can make and is making to Nigeria’s economic development especially in job and wealth creation. We must bear in mind that all over the world, nations strive to preserve and promote their cultural heritage and explore its potentials. We must do the same because our culture holds so much potential.

 

 Culture can contribute a lot to Nigeria’s economic development, especially in tourism and in building a strong rural economy that benefits women and youths. In developing our culture, we give tourists reasons to visit our country and as we all know, all over the world tourism thrives on many aspects of a nation’s culture especially through its creative industries.

How has NCAC fared since its establishment?
Over the last forty years, the National Council for Arts and Culture has continued to leverage on Nigeria’s arts and crafts to serve as veritable resources for promoting national unity and integration, as well as a catalyst for job and wealth creation.

 

  This, it has achieved through its many programmes and activities especially  with its  flagship programme, the annual National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFEST) involving all the States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory. Since its launch in 1970 after the civil war, NAFEST has been a platform for the preservation and propagation of our cultural heritage, and a forum for uniting Nigerians. It has remained the nation’s major cultural activity with participations from all the States and the FCT.

How can this platform become a cash cow?
Going forward, we plan to make NAFEST bigger, better organized and more interesting by opening it up to private sector participation in marketing the festival as a tourist attraction. This way, we can energize and contribute to domestic tourism. 

What other programmes are in place to form this goldmine?
We have the African Arts and Crafts (AFAC) Expo, National Culture Quiz Competition for Secondary Schools, Honours Lecture/Awards Series, promotion of indigenous games such as traditional wrestling, ayo, langa, and circus display; indigenous cuisines, and local and international Arts and Craft exhibitions. We also have the National Herbal Garden Project, Crafts Development and Skill acquisition centres, as well as national research centres on specialized cultural manifestation such as textiles/abric traditions in Osogbo, Osun State; Durbar traditions in Kaduna, masquerade traditions in Enugu and the boat regatta traditions in Uyo Akwa Ibom State.

How can NCAC take advantage of the continuous slide in global oil prices to improve earnings from the cutlure sector?
 We are consolidating and charting a new course that will expose the potentials of the culture sector. The 40th anniversary of the NCAC gives us the opportunity to showcase the economic values of our cultural industries and draw public attention especially that of the private sector to the numerous economic opportunities that abound in Nigeria’s cultural industries. To do this, we selected several events to showcase the inevitable role of culture in national development and economic diversification.

Could you list these events?
Yes. They include an International Arts and Crafts Fair, a round-table forum on the theme of the celebration, school drama and children cultural extravaganza to encourage the development of the creative instinct of the young ones, and an International Cultural Variety Night.

What does the cultural industry require to grow into a position where it contributes significantly to our economic growth?
What is needed is a solid foundation for a future where the cultural and creative industries are projected as economic goldmines. This process will involve a number of creative and innovative steps to propel the market and increase demand. It will require government encouragement and intervention to chart a new vision for the development and promotion of our cultural industries in a manner that ensures the competitiveness of its products at home and in the global market.

In specific terms, what do you recommend should be done?
Specifically, Nigeria needs the emplacement of a deliberate state policy that insists that all official gifts are the product of Nigeria’s cultural industry. Secondly, we need to stage at least three International Arts and Crafts Expo in a year to be held in different cities of Nigeria.  This will create the much needed market for our creative products, thereby generating a beehive of economic activities. 

 

Also, we need to encourage the display and sale of art and crafts products at all major state events and conferences held in Nigeria. Similarly, we should encourage the imprint of cultural motif in all postcards and government invitation cards to events. We should establish more theatres and cultural centres, galleries and other monuments of historical significance to attract tourists with the attendant foreign exchange benefits.

Where’s the place of youths in all of these?
First, there should be a deliberate policy aimed at creating markets for cultural products such as the use of Adire (a local fabric), for the production of school uniforms nationally. Secondly, we are encouraging and engaging more youths in the creative industries, especially crafts related, through competitions with the aim to equal the kind of youth participation that we currently have in the film, music and fashion industries.

What is the level of patronage of Nigeria’s art?
There is need for our local and international airports as well as our major hotels to have well-established and properly organized arts and crafts shops. Arts and Crafts Villages or clusters should be established in all State Councils, as all states have a comparative cultural product that can be harnessed and drawn from all its Local Government Areas. Conscious efforts should be made to immortalize accomplished Nigerian artists as well as to display their works as decoration items in government offices in Nigeria.

Does the NCAC have plans for public-private collaboration?
Yes. We have begun the process of seeking partners as we look to commence the construction of a multi-storey iconic building for Art at the NCAC permanent site in Abuja, and establishment of an Art and Crafts Dome to serve as an outlet for the marketing and sale of finished cultural products that would enhance the economic value of our cultural industries.

 In addition, we plan to properly equip and strengthen our Arts and Crafts Skills Acquisition Centres across Nigeria to serve as vocational training centres for youths and women at the grass-root level in Art and Crafts production, finishing, packaging and marketing, and establish an Art Bank that would promote regular sales of artworks. This will create more jobs and wealth for practitioners.

Does NCAC plan to have a national calender for the various cultural festivals in Nigeria?
We are promoting regional cultural festivals all year round to compliment and consolidate the gains of NAFEST and stimulate grass-root participation in cultural activities for economic benefits.  In this regard, we plan to open discussions for developing National Durbar festival for Northern States, National Masquerade festival for the South East together with other States that have Masquerades, National Boat Regatta in the riverine States, and National exhibitions of Indigenous fabrics and fashion.

What’s your advice to Nigerians on the value of Nigerian art?
Nigerians must appreciate the need to promote and propagate our culture, especially products of our creative industries. I implore Nigerians to recognise the imperatives of developing and promoting our cultural heritage as a means of preserving it for prosperity. More importantly, Nigerians should explore the full potential of the sector to our economic advantage. Any nation that fails to promote, preserve and encourage the growth of its living culture does so at its peril.