2017: For an effective culture sector

As the New Year begins, culture stakeholders in the country have high expectations as far as the sector is concerned. 

YOU can accuse the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed of many things but not having the zeal to succeed in the task President Muhammadu Buhari has assigned to him is not one of them.

“I want to leave a legacy as the Minister that came and transformed the creative industry to a creative economy. I want to come and leave as the Minister of Tourism that made Nigeria transit from just a country of tourism potential to a country of tourism economy,” he said early December in Abuja at a meeting with the International Tourism Adviser of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, Mr. Jim Flannery.

In November 2016, while receiving the report of the Review Committee of the Motion Picture Practitioners Council of Nigeria (MOPPICON) , he had said:  “We will critically look at the reviewed draft document, which you have handed over to us, and we will immediately kick-start the process of making MOPPICON  a reality for the benefit of the movie industry.”

At the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Federal Government and the Tony Elumelu Foundation to grow the culture sector, Mohammed explained that the areas of collaboration will “include the creation of an enabling business environment for the creative industries with such incentives as easy access to finance; the structuring of the creative industries to enable it generate independent revenues locally and also boost exports to increase Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings.”

Having spent the past year stating his vision, relating with stakeholders and laying the foundation for its actualisation, action is what players in the culture sector demand from the minister now. Having now spent a little over one year in the saddle, urgent, positive actions are what people in the sector require from the minister in this new year.

And like he had noted himself that: “Where we need to appoint, we shall appoint professionals/artistes as heads of relevant parastatals and they must come to the job with pragmatic approach, one that will add value to the lives of culture producers. Once we do that, we shall set up machinery for effective monitoring of all cultural agencies to ensure that they are well managed and performing to the best interest of the artists and the creative industry practitioners,” appointing goal-getters to man some of the key agencies that would help him achieve his dreams for the sector is paramount.

For example, appointing substantive heads for the National Theatre and the Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), following Mrs. Sally Mbanefo’s departure, should be done promptly.

There is also the need for the minister to hold a round-table discussion with the heads of parastatals under him with a view to making them aware that the task before them in this new year is not a child’s play.