What the Culture Minister must do to succeed in 2017

Having impressed with his open door policy and initiatives since his appointment, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, needs to start walking his talk in the New Year

YOU can accuse 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.

Earlier in November 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 [to] 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, especially if he doesn’t want to end up like his predecessor, High Chief Edem Duke, who was big on words but had little or no action.

In fact, it would be a shame if Mohammed, who has shown that he is a listening man, ends the way of Duke who espoused un-implementable grand ideas. 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/artists 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.

“Some of the leadership of agencies in film, music and arts need to take an honourable bow for more innovative people to steer the ship before this sector sinks to an irredeemable level,” filmmaker and festival organiser, Fidelis Duker, said in response to the actions the minister should take.

Obviously, some wrong choices were made to head some of the agencies by the Goodluck Jonathan administration and many had expected that the minister would have sought the permission of President Muhammadu Buhari to remove them, especially after having admitted himself, “that those that have been appointed to run those parastatals have shown lack of capacity to put the industry on the path of growth especially in this era of change.” Curiously, they have remained in office, adding no value to the sector while artists have continued to do it all by themselves.

Players in Nollywood, for instance, wouldn’t mind a shakeup in the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) and the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), two developmental agencies that they feel have since shirked their responsibilities and become direct competitors to the filmmakers.

Chair of the MOPPICON Review Committee, Peace Anyiam-Osigwe; President, Directors Guild of Nigeria (DGN), Fred Amata; President, Association of Movie Producer (AMP), Ralph Nwadike and Norbert Ajaegbu of the Film and Video Producers and Marketers Association, pulled no punches recently while condemning attempts by the NFC under the leadership of Dr. Danjuma Dadu to transform into a film commission without the knowledge of Nollywood players.

They were incensed that a bill had been sent to the House of Representatives with some clauses that would have neutered not just the guilds but also made the expected MOPPICON Law dead on arrival. Some of the clauses they found most galling in the bill that has been read twice at the House of Representatives but which the House Committee on Information magnanimously returned to the NFC  to include inputs from Nollywood include: the clause that seeks to regulate the activities of the guilds and associations (C 2416); composition of board with no clear provision on the pedigree of its headship (C 2416/7); that seeks to empower the commission to establish cinemas (C 2418); that seeks to manage all funds accruing to the industry (C 2418& C 2421). Others are the clauses that seek to acquire, distribute and exhibit films (C 2418); that seeks to make the commission a training centre (C 2418) and that seeks to establish MOPICON as part of the commission (C 2418)

The filmmakers used some colourful words to describe both the NFC and its Managing Director at a recent meeting with journalists and called for his removal by the Minister. They alleged that Dadu doesn’t know the mandate of the agency he heads and that the earlier he is removed, the better for the movie industry.

It’s the same with Ms Patricia Bala who has helmed the Censors Board since 2012 but who Nollywood stakeholders alleged has contributed little to their industry. Indeed, it wasn’t until the Minister threatened to ring changes in agencies with visionless and colourless leadership that she quickly organised an interaction with stakeholders around March. She similarly organised a stakeholders meeting on the National Enhanced Exhibition and Distribution System in November.

Sir Ferdinand Anikwe, Director-General of the Centre for Black Arts and African Civilisation is another person players in the culture sector won’t be sad to see Mohammed replace. Having built his reputation as a talented masquerader in his native Enugu State, many were surprised when he was seconded from the Enugu State Ministry of Information where he was a permanent secretary   in 2014 to replace the highly cerebral Professor Tunde Babawale who had taken the parastatal to glorious heights.  That Anikwe is out of his depths is evident in the fact that CBAAC has since been on a downward spiral with most of the workshops and foreign collaborations it is renowned for discontinued.

The DG, in fact, amused many at his maiden meeting with the media when he declared his intention to build an international centre for the study of masquerades in Abuja and that unlike his predecessor, he won’t be focussed on intellectual activities but mix things up. Anikwe’s present pre-occupation is the 40th anniversary of FESTAC 77 later this year.

Appointing substantive heads for the National Theatre, after the locust years of Mallam Kabir Yusuf, and the Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation, following Mrs. Sally Mbanefo’s dismissal should be done promptly.

Alhaji Muhammed also needs to beam his searchlights on the National Commission for Museums and Monuments and the National Gallery of Art which appears unable to manage its flagship gallery at the National Theatre, Lagos and see if retaining their respective heads makes sense.

He has outlined his lofty visions and entered into requisite partnerships but these alone won’t do. He needs to make changes in the management of some of the underwhelming agencies and parastatals if he wants to succeed, and the time to act is now.