Enhancing arts and culture industries

Senator Gassol expressed conviction that if properly positioned, the culture sector could contribute meaningfully to economic development. “The Committee started with Makurdi in 2007 and has served four years. Within this time, we have been able to establish that the festival could be used as a platform to change the economic situation of the country.” […]

Senator Gassol expressed conviction that if properly positioned, the culture sector could contribute meaningfully to economic development. “The Committee started with Makurdi in 2007 and has served four years. Within this time, we have been able to establish that the festival could be used as a platform to change the economic situation of the country.”

In his presentation, the Executive Director, Programmes, Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Mr. Bello Sule spoke in favour of documentation of the audiovisual products. He highlighted the gains, roles and challenges inherent in, associated with and faced by the industry in documenting the processes and products of Nigeria’s cultural industries.

Sule said some of the gains obtainable from the audiovisual industry while documenting cultural products include a gradual build up of audiovisual resource base and tools. “The most impressive gain is the annual monetary turnover generated by three sets of artists – the performing artistes: who appear on the screen, the creative artists such as writers and directors as well as technicians, who operate gadgets in order to produce result with ease.”

He also enumerated the limited promotion of the nation’s cultural value as another challenge, adding that other areas such as monuments and sites ought to be listed among products for export which he said are much more than activities.

According to him, “monuments and sites such as those in the states of Taraba and Osun, already declared as World Heritage Sites, the ones waiting to be so declared like City Walls in ancient cities like Benin and several others in the north. These and many more should serve as locations, backdrops and subjects for the industry to project for Nigerians and for the world.”

Professor Ben Ekanem speaking on Finishing, Packaging and Presentation of Nigeria’s Cultural Products in a Global Village, dwelt on the importance of education in transmission of culture. He opined that cultural education go beyond the formal school system. “It must permeate the traditional institutions, especially through the apprenticeship system.”

He charged Nollywood to look beyond fast money and invest in developing the standard of the actors and the industry itself. “Cheap one-man-show productions should be discouraged. Producers should pool resources for more effective finishing, packaging and presentation of Nigeria’s films.”