From what I gathered at the last sitting of the committee where I was invited, the slow pace of work on the policy is due to the involvement of UNESCO which is keen on bringing up the policy to international standard.  However, as I pointed out at the said meeting, the delay in bringing out the policy remains a big set back to the much awaited endowment for the Arts.

This point was reiterated in my remark at the celebration the world Cultural day in Abuja on Saturday May 21 2005 where I represented the chairman House Committee on culture and Tourism.  As I put it during the event, “we are also looking forward to the much awaited policy on culture as well as the endowment for the arts; two very important innovations which we hope, will further improve the activities of the cultural sector.  From our investigations it is obvious that the relevant documents for these two innovations are still being fine-tuned by the ministry.  We want to plead with the Honourable Minister of Culture and Tourism to expedite action on these two documents in order to ensure their quick passage into laws.  As representatives of the people, Nigerians from all walks of life are daily bombarding us with requests for the quick passage of these policies into law.  Unfortunately, being executive Bills, there is nothing we can do until the ministry sends the documents to us”.

Up till the time the last National Assembly rounded up its activities in June 2007, the documents are still with the ministry.  My observation on this matter of the Cultural Policy is that if we as the arts community want a quick legislation, we need to take the policy out of the hands of the Federal Ministry of Culture and Tourism. 

Apart from the undue bureaucracy which is slowing down the policy, I have the feeling that there are some powerful forces in the executive arm of government behind the deliberate delay of the bill.  If we as members of the arts community can come together and properly strategize, the policy can be presented as a private member bill for a  much quicker passage into law instead of its current state as an executive bill.

3.      CONTENTIOUS GOVERNMENT POLICIES ON THE ARTS

i)        The Issue of the National Theatre.

The recent decision by the Federal government to hand over the National Theatre to a private arts community.  Government’s reason for taking this action was borne out of the feeling that the Theatre was grossly under utilized and as such needed to be commercialized.

Of course, artists have risen against this decision seeing it as negation of the whole idea behind having a public monument not solely for the purposes of making money but as the soul of the cultural activities in the country.  My own take on the matter is that we need to balance both sides of the argument.  The truth of the matter is that having been involved with over sighting government projects in the last four years, as a member of the National Assembly, I have a lot of sympathy for those saddled with administering public establishments.  Apart from the perennial problem of inadequate funding, haphazard government policies as well as official corruption are impediments towards a smooth running of some of these establishments.  Against the background of these factors, I do not see how such a big edifice as the National Theatre can solely depend on government subsidy without crumpling. I therefore strongly believe that for us to fully utilize the facilities at the National Theatre, we need   a sort of Private Public Initiative.  My  suggestion therefore is for us to allow government to cede part of the edifice especially the cinema  halls to a Private establishment sole while other organs such as the National Troupe, CBAAC among other can continue to play their artistic roles to the community.

ii)      The Abuja Carnival:

The other issue which I consider a contentious government policy is the recently introduced Abuja Carnival.  In his address on the occasion of the world Cultural Day in May 2005, the then Honourable Minister for Culture and Tourism Ambassador Frank Oguewu observed that the Abuja Carnival was established to show case our cultural diversity.  As he put it. ‘our mission of making Nigeria the preferred tourism destination could only be realized if Nigeria has a unique cultural “package” to offer the tourists’

After two appearances, the major criticism against the Abuja carnival is the absence of public participation in the one week event.  Whereas, other carnivals the world over have mass involvement, Abuja as a city is too elitist to showcase our proper culture.  Rather than dancing through the streets of Abuja with very little public participation, it has been suggested that future carnivals be decentralized.  This way, the durbar activities could take place in Kano, while the display of masquerades could be done in the western part of the country and the boat regatta in the riverine areas of the South South.

It is believed that this mass approach will not only reduce the fiesta’s over 800 million naira budget, it would also go a long way in bringing our cultural and tourism potentials to the people.

CONCLUSION:

It is very obvious that the issue of Culture and Tourism is very fundamental and important to the socio economic development of any country.  In view of this, it is my contention that such an important issue cannot be left solely to the government and politicians alone.  While it is government’s responsibility to provide the enabling environment for arts practitioners to practice their work, we as members of the arts community need to organize ourselves into a formidable and effective pressure group in order to guide our policy makers.

We also need to have a say in who is elected to important political positions.  This we can do by taking more than a cursory interest in politics.  One or two members of the art community in politics is not enough.  We need a critical mass before things can change.

We also need to actively and regularly engage our policy makers so that they can fulfill their electoral promises.   Equally important is the support of the private sector and philanthropists in the actualization of some of our demands.  It is regrettable that today most of the financiers and backers of artistic events are foreign embassies and foreign donor agencies.

We need to woo our philanthropists and successful business organizations to give more to the arts.

Finally, we need to encourage those of us who are courageous or     lucky enough to get elected into public office.  Having survived the last four years in what I refer to as Nigeria’s political jungle, I can say without any iota of doubt that to stay in politics without compromising your ethical and moral qualities is not easy. While it is important to keep our elected officials on their toes, it is equally important to give them all the support they need. In this regards, I wish to express my sincere and heartfelt thanks for  the warm support as well words of encouragement I received from members of the art community during my last four years in office. I don’t want to mention names, but I am constrained to especially thank the journalists who gave my activities very good coverage as well as Prof Duro Oni previously of CBAAC as well as Dr Ahmed Yerima of the National Theatre. Of course my colleagues in the Private sector and donor agencies such as Cadbury, British Council, Chevron among others have very supportive to me and the ANA. My final thanks goes to the members of ANA nationwide, My prayer is that the good lord will continue to bless and honor you.

Thank you for listening.