FG urged to use cultural festivals to tackle poverty

This was stated by the  Executive Director National Council for Arts and Culture(NCAC) Mr. M.M Maidugu  at the official  opening ceremony of the 34th meeting of the chief executives of culture  of the federation  held recently in  Uyo, Akwa Ibom state. He disclosed that the choice of this year`s NIFEST theme; “Cultural Industries and Economic […]

This was stated by the  Executive Director National Council for Arts and Culture(NCAC) Mr. M.M Maidugu  at the official  opening ceremony of the 34th meeting of the chief executives of culture  of the federation  held recently in  Uyo, Akwa Ibom state.

He disclosed that the choice of this year`s NIFEST theme; “Cultural Industries and Economic Empowerment” is informed by the need to leverage our cultural endowment for economic development.  According to him this year   24th National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFEST) will be held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom between 9th -17th of October 2010.

Also speaking,  Akwa Ibom  State Governor,   Godswill Akpabio,  decried the inability of Nigeria  to utilize its abundant tourism potential , noting  that  the missing link  is  the inadequate knowledge on how to develop, package and market these potentials  to  the world.

“Nigeria has become to the world a nation of paradoxes- great in potentials, but small in achievement. This cannot be allowed to remain so. And one of the surest ways of reversing this negative trend is to look inwards into our ways of life and identifying those tendencies that tends to limits us,” he said.