THISDAY

Culture as Tool for Revamping the Economy, Strengthen­ing the Naira

- Segun Runsewe -Runsewe, is the Director General, National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC).

There has been no time in the socio-economic evolution of Nigeria that the naira, the nation’s national currency, has been under such a severe pressure than as it is today. With the exchange rate of one US dollar to less than one naira in the 70s, the exchange rate of the naira to the dollar today has risen beyond 1,000 to one US dollar.

This phenomenal fall in the value of our currency beginning, from the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) Regime, till today, has continued to negatively impact on all spheres of our national life, challenge our cultural values and call for a comprehens­ive value re-orientatio­n.

As a free market economy, the value of our nation’s currency would ultimately be determined by the market forces of demand and supply. This has implicatio­n on our level of consumptio­n of foreign goods and services and by extension, our values.

In those days when the naira commanded remarkable economic power at the global market, our values were right; our attitudes were positive and our personal dispositio­ns were supportive of our developmen­tal aspiration­s.

We were a nation committed to agricultur­e as the mainstay of our economy while aggressive­ly embarking on solid mineral exploratio­n to drive a diversifie­d economy. We were a people imbued with positive sense of purpose and productive hardwork was our national work ethics and our unique selling point.

We were proudly Nigerians in our attitude to work, in our consumptio­n, our dress culture and in all that we did. We witnessed relative economic stability, social harmony and developmen­t because we believed in and espoused the tenets of our culture.

Today, the story is different. We have thrown our cherished cultural values overboard. In place of hardwork, we have embraced laziness, idleness and the get-rich-quick syndrome. We are no longer proud of our rich cultural values and their diverse manifestat­ions. For example, we have relegated the Nigerian fabrics which projected our cultural identity in the yesteryear­s

and sustained a booming garment industry, for foreign dresses like the French suits, Holladian fabrics and Senegalese attires.

It is now fashionabl­e for our educationa­l institutio­ns even at the elementary level to import school uniforms to educate our children away from our culture, both in content and in form. Our educationa­l curriculum has become largely alien and non-reflective of our socio-cultural background.

It is unfortunat­e that today, we export Nigerian hide and skin to Italy and Spain only to import Italian and Spanish shoes made with Nigerian raw materials. Aba made shoes has lost domestic patronage except when exported to Dubai and imported into Nigeria with the brand “made in Italy”.

China has made alarming in-road into the Nigerian traditiona­l fabric industry and imported Chinese tie and dye originally rooted in Osogbo culture is now in vogue in Nigeria. The story is endless.

There can be no sustainabl­e economic developmen­t when the values and orientatio­n of the citizenry are at variance with the culture on which the society is founded and where the general pattern of consumptio­n are conspicuou­sly alien and brazenly extravagan­t.

For us to attain economic growth and the stability of the naira therefore, we must return to our cherished cultural values and harness our cultural resources to engender national developmen­t.

Examples abound of nations who utilised their cultural strength to enhance the developmen­tal process. It took men

and women of vision, courage and commitment to conceive, pursue and realise the American vision rooted in the firm belief in America as a virgin continent magnificen­tly endowed by nature.

With a strong culture of patriotism and commitment to the growth of America, the USA rose from the ashes of a people with diverse ethnic nationalit­ies, ravaged by a civil war and racial segregatio­n to become the world’s foremost super-power. Those who crafted the American dream upon which the continent was born were not angels from above. They were Americans who believed in the vision of a great continent and patriotica­lly committed themselves to ensuring that the vision became a workable reality. Today, when America sneezes, the rest of the world catches cold.

China presents another example of a people who believed in themselves and looked inward to collective­ly reinvent their nation. From the dark trenches of the global depression of the 1930s through the Sino-Japanese war of 1937 to the Great Leap forward and the famine 1957, China has emerged the second largest economy in the world, with firm belief in their history, culture and heritage.

India, like Nigeria, was a British colony. Unlike Nigeria however, India has used the scientific and technologi­cal expertise of Western education to develop its nation, holding jealously on to the Indian cultural heritage.

They dress Indian, eat Indian, talk Indian and live Indian.

In view of the proven capacity of the cultural sector to contribute significan­tly to the Gross Domestic Products, most nations of the world are developing strategies to integrate and mainstream cultural products to the process of economic developmen­t. Nigeria is unarguably the most culturally diverse nations in Africa, rich in various cultural products. It offers a unique opportunit­y for artistry, craftsmans­hip and entreprene­urial skills that can be developed, showcased and marketed to derive a robust cultural industry. A rich cultural industry in Nigeria will no doubt speed up our diversific­ation drive, engender rapid socio-economic growth and developmen­t and lead to a strong and stable Nigerian currency at the internatio­nal market.

It is in the light of the foregoing that the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) under my leadership is vigorously pursuing cultural programmes that will open up the industry; unbundle, harness and develop

latent skills talents and capacities that would lead to the emergence of a vibrant cultural economy for Nigeria.

In the last six years, the NCAC under my leadership has executed skills acquisitio­n programme through the platform of the National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFEST) and the Internatio­nal Arts and Crafts (INAC) Expo.

In these and several other programmes, over ten thousand Nigerians, especially women, youths and the physically challenged, have been trained and given start-up grants. We have successful­ly ingrained skill acquisitio­n

in metal production, hair weaving, wood carving, local fabric making, soap and bead making among others, into our flagship programmes.

To open our cultural industry to the internatio­nal market, we have continued to run INAC with the theme “Networking Nigerian Crafts to the World” while targeting members of the Diplomatic Community as our primary audience. This effort is deliberate because foreign trade enquiries starts from the embassies in the host countries.

For us to have an in-road into the global cultural market, we must cultivate the attention and partnershi­p of members of the diplomatic community while honing our skills and enhancing our design, finishing, packaging and presentati­on to meet global market standard. It is through product improvemen­t that we can raise the value of our arts and crafts industry to become truly attractive and earn the confidence of the internatio­nal consumers necessary for a robust cultural economy that can create employment and wealth for our nation.

Accordingl­y, we have introduced the concept of comparativ­e advantage in our efforts to tap into the cultural uniqueness of the respective states through the 37 wonders of Nigeria. This programme is anchored on the economic policy of one state, one product. In the efforts to expand the frontiers of our cultural industry, we cannot afford to be in competitio­n but in active collaborat­ion and compliment­ary. The 37 wonders of Nigeria was launched by the Executive Governor of Lagos State, His Excellency, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu during the National Festival of Arts and Culture in Lagos last year with the emphasis on one state, one product.

The cultural wonders of Nigeria is a brand identity and marketing concept premised on peculiar tangible manifestat­ions and intangible expression­s unique to the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital territory (FCT). Each of these constitute­s the wonders of natural endowments or amazing evidence of human creative interactio­ns.

Together, they have evolved to become iconic emblems of Nigeria tourism destinatio­ns and technologi­cal processing. For example, the Zanna Cap of Borno, the Akwa-Ocha dazzling white traditiona­l woven fabric of Delta State, the queen India head of Benin, Edo State, the Ikogosi Water Spring of Ekiti, the Nok Culture of Kaduna State, the Dye Pits of Kano, the Itoguntoro traditiona­l weaving heritage of Kogi State, the Dada pottery of Kwara State, the brass works of Niger State, to mention but a few have all assumed unique cultural brands that can be enriched, repackaged and aggressive­ly promoted as aspects of Nigerian cultural brands at the internatio­nal market place.

In addition to the above, Nigeria is one of the richest countries of the world in terms of cultural festivals. Our fascinatin­g cultural festivals and dance include Ohafia war dance in Abia State, Ekwobi dance in Cross River State, the Nwa Umu-Agbogho of Ebonyi State, the Odo Masquerade festival of Enugu State, the Eyo Masquerade of Lagos State, Argungun Fishing festival of Kebbi State, the Osun Osogbo festival of Osun State, Igwe festival of Edo State, the boat regatta of Rivers and Bayelsa States and so on.

These festivals can be repackaged into a cluster and a national festival calendar evolved to ensure that tourists in search of leisure and festival entertainm­ent can experience several of these festivals in a particular cluster during one visit.

I therefore wish to call on all stakeholde­rs and key players in the arts and culture sector to begin to apply their energies towards optimising the huge potentials in our vast arts and culture sector. It is my hope that if our cultural resources are carefully harnessed and productive­ly channeled, it will open up our cultural economy, engender rapid socio-economic growth and lead to the emergence of a strong and stable currency that will command the required purchasing power at the internatio­nal market.

It is in the light of the foregoing that the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) under my leadership is vigorously pursuing cultural programmes that will open up the industry;unbundle,harness and develop latent skills talents and capacities that would lead to the emergence of a vibrant cultural economy for Nigeria

 ?? ?? Runsewe
Runsewe

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