Nigeria: Our Heritage Project kicks off in Abuja

The programme, Nigeria: Our Heritage Project (NOHP) is a public-private partnership, the project coordinator and former Nigerian ambassador to the United States Professor George Obiazor said during the inauguration of the project.He said the project would overhaul the nation’s global image and promote tourism for the patriotic purposes of creating wealth for national development and […]

The programme, Nigeria: Our Heritage Project (NOHP) is a public-private partnership, the project coordinator and former Nigerian ambassador to the United States Professor George Obiazor said during the inauguration of the project.
He said the project would overhaul the nation’s global image and promote tourism for the patriotic purposes of creating wealth for national development and securing international trust for foreign investment.
He said the project “is about engendering a new but positive global perception of Nigeria such that Nigeria would be enabled internally and externally to realise her full potentials.  It is about what and where Nigeria should be one hundred years from now.”
He said the NOHP’s “first initiative would be participation at the forthcoming US-Africa Summit to be hosted by President Barack Obama for select group of African leaders. We intend to use this platform to begin to project Nigeria in a positive light globally.”
The project will produce two landmark publications:  “Nigeria: Oil Heritage – From Oloibiri to local content” and “Nigeria: Our Heritage – The Past. The Present. The Promise.”
NOHP will produce a documentary entitle “Nigeria:  Our Heritage – The Past.  The Present,” which will be shown on local and international television channels, Obiazor said.
He said there is going to be a special fund, Nigeria Our Heritage Initiative Fund (NOHIF), which will be invested in all aspects of the arts, media and entertainment industry both globally and locally.  
“NOHIF will pool investments together for access to arts, media and entertainment markets. It is expected to take advantage of economies of scale to be derived from larger ticket trades and spread the risk levels for partner organisations,” he said.
The fund will provide short and medium term liquidity, on a low to medium risk terms, to stakeholders in target industries by way of loans secured against a variety of assets.
NOHP will set up a foundation, which is an education and leadership development initiative developed to institutionalise and actualise the project legacies.
 “We are planning to institute an immersion programme entitled the “Next Century Nigerian Forum, which will be an annual gathering of top 100 Nigerian MBA students and undergraduates from top 40 global universities,” Obiazor said.
The inaugural meeting was attended by Minister of Tourism and National Orientation Chief Edwin Duke, and former Minister of Education Prof. Tunde Adeniran, among other stakeholders.