REINVIGORATING NIGERIA 'S CULTURAL SECTOR FOR IMPROVED INCOME-GENERATION

By Gloria Essien

 

Culture is often described as a people's way of life, the way in which people do things and how this affects their lives' concepts and styles. The world over, there are varieties of cultures. Different as they maybe, these cultures are well known and respected by people.

As countries today mark World Culture Day, a day set aside to celebrate the cultures of the people throughout the world; calls have been renewed for the cultural sectors to seek ways of generating revenues for their individual nations. While the global theme for this year's celebration is World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development , Nigeria is commemorating the day with the sub theme, Cultural Reconciliation among Communities: a Panacea for Peaceful Co-existence.

It would be recalled that on November second, 2001, the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity in Paris , France . Although the declaration was the culmination of years of work, it was adopted in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the USA on September 11, 2001 and reaffirmed the need for intercultural dialogue to prevent segregation and fundamentalism.

In 2002, the United Nations marked the very first UN Year for Cultural Heritage. At the end of that year, on December 20, 2002, the UN General Assembly at its 57 th session and in its 249 th resolution, declared May 21 as the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. The General Assembly emphasized links between the protection of cultural diversity and the importance of dialogue between civilizations in the modern world. The day was subsequently observed for the first time in 2003, with the aim of drawing greater attention to the cultural sectors of the world's economy.

While a number of countries have taken steps to harness the sector's inherent values, most nations continue to grapple with engendering wider enthusiasm in the socio-economic potentials of culture.

In Nigeria for example, the huge potentials in the cultural sector are yet to be tapped, despite the fact that the country has a lot of cultural festivals and ceremonies, with just a handful of such events generating any tangible revenue for the country.

Nigeria's new Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Mr Abubakar Sadiq Muhammad, has rightly argued that the country's cultural sector has enormous potentials of becoming a major revenue earning avenue, if properly positioned, planned and managed.

Most analysts have blamed the lack-lustre status of the cultural sector on poor funding, with government being the sole sponsor of most cultural events. This obviously hinders the growth and development of the sector.

As Nigeria again joins in this celebration, it is increasingly becoming obvious that the sector needs to be repositioned to serve as an income-generating sector, rather than an income-gulping avenue.

In this regard, carnivals like the annual Argungu Fishing Festival in the North West, Nwonyo Fishing Festival in the North East, Abuja Carnival in the country's Federal Capital, Ojude-Oba Carnival in the South West, New Yam Festivals in the South East and the Calabar Carnival in the South-south geo-political zones, need to be restructured, reinvigorated and in order to fast-track their income-generating potentials for the country and host states.

This is perhaps the only way that the UNESCO dream of transforming cultures into major revenue earner can be achieved. This way also, Nigeria 's aim of achieving peaceful coexistence amongst its heterogeneous communities through cultural reconciliation could become a reality.