My Dream for Nigeria’s Cultural Revolution
If you visit China and can’t speak English they’ll bring an interpreter. But the main person in that meeting understands English very well. China makes no apologies for who they are. When in the ministry of culture, one of my portfolios was to increase Nigerian cultural bilateral relations. It was a fantastic job I did for 12 years. I retired as Director, Bilateral Cultural Relations after over 30 years in the ministry. Nigeria’s culture can become its biggest infrastructural gift to its people. It will affect lives of the grass roots and the rich. The truth is that people don’t understand what the creative industry is all about. The language, photographs, food, music are all part of the creative industry. Life, creation and everything around us is creativity. The depth of our various cultures shows that Nigeria is one of the wealthiest nations on earth. But have we really tapped into that wealth? We need to put square pegs in square holes and round pegs in round holes. There must be passion to drive creativity. I believe strongly that the growth of creative industry in Nigeria must be multifaceted. I firmly believe that if we want the creative industry to become the goldmine that Nigeria can tap into, then there will be a general change in attitude towards creativity.
I won’t tell you I’m a creative artist because I don’t draw, paint or weave baskets. But my appreciation of the arts is highly infectious, and that is what we need. When I move around, I appreciate good works of arts and I’m so delighted about the passion they bring to the industry. By virtue of my husband’s job and my own personal interest, anywhere I travel to, I go to see what makes their own culture rich and strong. To date, I have found that Nigeria has the strongest culture in the world. Culture should be totally divorced from our politics. Because a person does not belong to the right political party, he or she cannot head that cultural institution. It’s not done. Again, Nigeria belongs to everybody and it must work. I feel there is going to be a big boom in this sector sooner than later, and for me I just wish that we have the structure in place so that the boom will make Nigeria greater. For anything to grow, you need infrastructure in place. The biggest museums and art institutions in America, England, France and Germany are all from the private sector.
Most of the time, people misconstrue what the creative industry is about. They limit it to entertainment. The misconception has stunted the growth in Nigeria, as most people relegate it to the background. I find that when you go to public places including the biggest office in the land, you don’t have the ambience of Nigerian works of art. Now people are beginning to appreciate it. If you walk into the Chinese embassy, you don’t need to be told you are there. We brought in the Nigerian ambience, whilst in the ministry titled, ‘Embellishment of Nigerian Missions Abroad’. We moved a lot of works of art to Nigerian embassies abroad. We didn’t cover all the embassies because of paucity of funds. In Nigeria, important offices should have works, books, and paintings talking about Nigeria. We should appreciate subtle Nigerian diplomacy instead of promoting Chinese diplomacy. It should involve private sectors and government. Once you work into a Nigerian office, you should see Nigerian creativity. Whilst I was in office, we opened two cultural centres in China and Brazil. A lot of work went into it. It was on that premise the Chinese got their cultural centre. Today, they have an existing culture in Abuja but ours is shut down in China – because due to lack of funding, political will, cultural diplomacy has been left out of the equation. But therein lies the future for people who are passionate about Nigeria’s creative industry. Government should create basic infrastructure and encourage public-private partnership.
This Industry needs a lot of passion because even those we are working with don’t care much about your feelings. You must be thick-skinned and your eyes must be on the prize. I’ve been called all sorts of names like goat, lion and/or a ‘woman-man’. Some say they feel sorry for my husband. My husband feels I’m the best person on earth for him and I feel same way about him. My children adore the ground I walk on. I find my diplomat and political analyst-husband reading the arts pages, gathering information on creative industry and that gives me fulfillment. Nigeria has the most remarkable cultures in the world.
The secret is being brought up by a man who was very caring about his looks. He would say that it’s true that the garment doesn’t make a man, but wrong garment gives a wrong impression about the man. Some people might not know me, but they will see the way I look when I walk into a place, look at how I’m dressed and draw conclusions.