Kaduna’s 40-yearold museum now shadow of former self
Opposite the Emir of Zazzau’s palace along Ali Akilu Road in Kaduna, is the National Museum, one of the many historical monuments the city inherited for being the capital of the defunct Northern Region. Established in 1975, the museum had witnessed some remarkable improvements in the last few years. Now, the old dilapidated building has been pulled down and new one is being built, but progress of work is slow.
The museum was initially made of mud blocks, portraying the ancient northern Nigeria like the residence of the late Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, in Kaduna. It was later rebuilt with cement blocks as the structure was getting dilapidated. However, the artisanal shops making the building’s façade are still the same structures of 40 years ago.
Some of the oldest artefacts that were on display at the museum before they were dismantled due to the ongoing renovation came from the six geopolitical. They included the Nok culture or Terracotta, the IgboUkwu culture, the classical Ife sculptures and the Benin court arts, representing the pre-historic section.
In the ethnological section, which covered other ethnic group, had, masquerades, figurines and metal works among others. It also had collections of Nigerian currency after trade by batter, the Nigerian pound replaced with the naira in 1973. In the third section there were Qur’anic writings, brass works, pottery, ornaments for adornment leather works and so on.
Following the donation of the old Northern People’s Congress (NPC) building by the former North Central State government, the National Museum Kaduna housed a substantial collection of archaeological, ethnographic and crafts exhibitions and still has a live crafts centre
in which traditional craftsmen and women can be observed working.
Though other artisans like women who plait hair, brass men and the museum kitchen are still going about their normal day to day business, the actual museum has been a shadow of itself since the renovation work started in 2013, as people do not visit it like they used to when the gallery was open. The museum’s workers go to work every day but there is no work for them to do since the place is not functioning, a development that is affecting their morale. When the museum was functioning,
gathered that staff used to go on advocacy tours to communities and schools. They even arranged workshops and seminars to sensitise people about the museum, as well as organised competitions, especially in arts, for secondary schools, which brought the patronage as high as 33, 000 people in 2012.
“After the civil war, there was need to come up with certain programmes and activities that would foster unity among Nigerians, one of the deliberate steps taken to foster that unity was to establish a museum of national unity here in Kaduna. Before then, there was no museum in the state, but as the need arose for a museum of national unity to be established here, the commission then known as Federal Department of Antiquity, decided to start skeletal services in 1972 and then later, the museum was opened to the public on 20th March, 1975 and since then, the office in Kaduna has been in existence, serving the Kaduna community,” Mr. Sunday Kantiyok, the Assistant Chief Museum Education Officer, said while conducting this correspondent round the museum.
“The patronage has not been bad at all, in fact, each year it keeps increasing, even though I was not here when it started, but from the time I joined this commission in 1989 to date, every year, the graph keeps on plotting higher due to the patronage and especially here in the education department our work is to go on outreaches to inform the public about the museum by sensitizing the general public and by that, every time we have a programme, it always sells the museum and there will be higher turnout of visitors,” he added.
Kantiyok added however that the patronage has dipped due to security concerns in the state: “As at 2012, we had the highest patronage of over 33, 000 people visiting the museum, the highest number we have ever had. The insecurity … (has) affected the individuals that used to visit the museum. Before individuals or families would just take time out to visit the museum, but they do not do that anymore, but as per collective visits, we call it ‘organised visits,’ where a group of people or schools visit the museum, we had a higher turnout of those types of visitors.”
Highlighting some of the challenges the museum is facing, he said: “The major challenge right now is the renovation of the gallery and the museum in general that is why when I was giving you the statistics of patronage I stopped at 2012 because around April 2014 we had to dismantle the exhibition because the German government were willing to release some of these artefacts the country has been crying for to be returned to indigenous countries, so, the Germen government were so kind to release some objects that were peculiar to Kaduna State, especially as in Nok terracotta. We felt that by the time these objects come to the museum, we should show case them because what we had already long overdue and the populace had started complaining and mounting pressure on us to change the exhibitions because some people, right from 1975 when they were children they came to the museum and now they are adults bringing their children and the same exhibitions are still on display, so the management though this was an opportunity to change the whole place and it is in progress.”
Kantiyok urged government to make funds available for speedy completion of the ongoing renovation of the museum: “I personally am looking forward to when these exhibitions are finally mounted, to see families patronising the museum. It has always embarrassed me that when we are giving lectures, people that are highly placed will tell you that they have never visited the museum and when foreigners come, they are always more keen in the museum than Nigerians themselves.”
On how the museum generates revenue, he said: “We charge a token amount of money at the gallery, I know that by the time we mount these exhibitions, the price will change, but initially, students and pupils, we charge N20 each, tertiary, N50, other adults is N100 and foreigners, N200, but surprisingly, the foreigners, if they come and we say its N200, they say it’s too cheap while Nigerians are unsatisfied with the token amount and some of them forfeit seeing the exhibitions because of the token amount.”