NICO boss 3-day traditional attire week
By Abubakar Adam Ibrahim The Executive Secretary of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), Dr. Barclays Ayakoroma has reaffirmed his commitment to make Nigerians appreciate their cultural heritage by ensuring that they wear traditional outfits more often. This was disclosed on Thursday last week when the NICO boss visited the Daily Trust headquarters in […]
By Abubakar Adam Ibrahim
The Executive Secretary of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), Dr. Barclays Ayakoroma has reaffirmed his commitment to make Nigerians appreciate their cultural heritage by ensuring that they wear traditional outfits more often.
This was disclosed on Thursday last week when the NICO boss visited the Daily Trust headquarters in Abuja.
Dr. Ayakoroma, who was accompanied by the management staff of the institute, said that they have already made it a policy that in three out of the five working days of the week, staff of the institute report to duty in traditional attires and they are pushing for this policy to be adopted by the federal government for its workers.
“As I am speaking now, we have submitted a memo to the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism and it is at the executive level. This is to encourage Nigerians to dress traditionally for three days in a week. This will not only boost our identity as a people with proud cultures but it will also revive the textile industry,” he said.
Dr. Ayakoroma said he longs for the days when the textile industry was a main stay of the economy, providing employment for thousands of Nigerians as well as important social services like sponsoring football clubs.
He also disclosed that his institute has concluded plans to host a National Roundtable for Indigenous Language newspapers in a bid to promote local languages and revive the publication of some newspapers in local languages.
“Nigeria has about 20 newspapers in indigenous languages even though some of them are moribund. We aim to invite the publishers to this roundtable in a bid to revive them,” he said.
In the same vein, Dr Ayakoroma also lamented the institute’s budgetary constraints that have prevented the institute from hosting its annual workshop for culture journalists in the last two years, something he said he is keen to revive.
He however mentioned that NICO is, for the second year running, hosting the National Conference of Traditional Rulers, in conjunction with UNESCO in order to determine what roles the traditional institution can play in national growth and security.
Responding on behalf of Daily Trust, Mr Aliu Akoshile, Associate Director Business and Strategy of the company said that the Daily Trust will fully partner with NICO in organizing the round table for indigenous newspapers, saying that it is one area the company is keen to support.