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Art Community In Endless Search For National Theatre’s Lifeline

By Omiko Awa
02 January 2016   |   11:54 pm
National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, for sometime now, has been in the news, because of government’s plan to give it to private developers for onward development and management.
National theatre

National theatre

National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, for sometime now, has been in the news, because of government’s plan to give it to private developers for onward development and management. With this stakeholders in Art and Culture feared that government has sold the edifice constructed in 1975 for the preservation, presentation and promotion of Arts and Culture in the country.

Though, previous adiministrations have tried to breath fresh air to the facility efforts have not yielded the desired result, which makes various agencies sharing the complex to doubt any information supplied on the place, especially, the way the contracts are signed and handled.

In 2013, stakeholders in the sector held a peaceful demonstration to call the then Jonathan-led administration to jettison the plan to sell turn the place into a cash cow.

But with the coming of President Muhammadu Buhari, the plan was revisited and government has assured stakeholders that it would not sell it. This assurance was given last week Monday, when the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed paid an impromptu visit to the facility.

Expressing government intentions, the minister said, “National Theatre will always remain a national monument and will not be sold for whatever reason.”

Stressing the need to improve on the edifice, the minister disclosed that government is not averse to a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement that will add value to the iconic complex.
Revealing that the process of selecting a preferred bidder under the PPP arrangement is currently underway, he said, “we will not allow it to go derelict or become a magnet for hoodlums. This monument is the pride of the nation, and it has always served as the point of convergence for Nigerians seeking fun and relaxation, especially during festive periods and also as centre for the promotion of arts and culture.”

However, while some art aficionados hail the minister for the visit and look forward to seeing him effect the changes, some others are still nursing the pains of merger art with the Ministry of Information and Culture. They are of the view that the art sector is big enough to have a different ministry and minister

According to Chief Lari Williams, a ministry for arts is needed to rebrand Nigeria. He is of the opinion that government should invest in arts, as it could serve as platform to rebrand, enrich and beautify the country. Doing this, he cautions requires the restructuring and building of an organised industry that can match the tempo and sophistication of today’s Art market.

He said: “This can only happen when government recognises the fact that it will require a separate ‘Arts Ministry’ to cope with the enormity of Art in its various forms, starting with the enabling environment for creativity in sculpture, painting, ceramic, photography and others. Until this is done, the dream, the predictions, will be a wild revelry and hope of a giant and vibrant entertainment industry will remain a dream.

Art is the spiritual bloodstream of a nation. There is no health in a nation that does not have well-structured and properly nurtured Art Farm. It is from the farm that wealth will spring to enrich the nation. Art keeps the world alive like dark nights are kept alive with sounds, winds whistling tunes and sleepless ocean roaring in constant rhythm, orchestrating the music of Mother Nature.

My emphasis on naming a ministry for the art is that there is so much to do in the arts that we are neglecting. Art is so multifarious and there are so much to be done. It is not a-one thing affair. Tourism is not it; tourism without art is like a desert walk, you don’t go out there looking at forest and trees, and then come back to sleep. Or build hotels and do a Dubai type of welcoming people with women and songs. That is not building a nation. If we want to build this nation solidly, make money, expose whom we are, tell our history, art is the sure way to go. Our relics, paintings, stage performances, dances, folklores and others are in the art; we have so much to introduce ourselves to the world. How do we expose ourselves to the rest of the world if not through the history and folklores, which is in our art,” he said.

Stressing the need to have a separate ministry, Williams disclosed that the people behind various art policies do not even understand the art. According to him, they see it as entertainment sector and treat it as such. They do not understand broadways, off-broadways and off-off broadways.

Policy makers do not understand the art in the first place, they believe its entertainment and so, it is not important. We need a ‘Broadway’ for theatres. That’s what makes America’s entertainment vibrant; having full house box office takings from Broadway, off-Broadway, off-off Broadway. Every local government council should have a theatre auditorium with sitting capacity of not less than 500. There is so much to be done to make arts vibrant and relevant in the global village. Therefore, a separate Ministry and minister with artistic capability and flair to carry out the assignment would be needed to build the arts industry,” he stated.

For Bunmi Babatunde, Chairman, Universal Studios of Art, government has not given much attention to the art, especially, the visual art development. According to him, the National Gallery of Art, as it is today, just exists by name; there is nothing on ground to show it’s a gallery.

Nobody can come here and see anything as a museum or collection of art. What we are suffering is a carry over; I am not surprise at government’s indifference on the sector. Art is about the people, value beauty, direction of the people and the values one wants to propagate. It is about the value that would later become the culture. One of the problems of Nigeria today, is the lack of moral culture. Somebody is given the privilege to represent the country, he/she goes there to represent his or her interest or squander public fund; that is lack of culture and you could use art to address it.

Any government that wants the good of the people must promote art and establish the right culture for its people. During WWII, William Churchill was asked to reduce spending on art and culture so that Britain could effectively finance the war and he said: ‘What then are we fight for? What we are fight for is the things you have asked me to stop spending on.’ Art establishes the soul of the society, culture, value and interest of a people. The new government should pay attention to art and culture.

You may say art and culture are the same, but that is not true. Culture is static, while art is a creative thing; it is a transition and it’s what the people has created that becomes the culture. By not given art the due attention the culture of the future is in jeopardy.
“Art drives life and industries, the cars that are produced today are the works of arts from the engine to the finishing; so, art drives life. If you look at the festivals or carnivals, Calabar, Lagos, Abuja, Brazilian and others you will see array of colours. Carnivals are all arts and then tourism. Anywhere you go in the world you cannot separate art from tourism. Any government that relegates the art to the background will be flying with one wing, which is an impossible thing to do,” he noted.

Worried by this neglect, he called on all stakeholders and the art communities to start engaging government, put up advocacy to direct the new administration on the right path, especially as they are just settling down.

Differing with the two speakers, Abiodun Olakun of Nigerian Guild of Artist (NGA) believes the sector has always experienced a lot of changes and redesign over the years. According to him, it’s been the most flexible ministry, and whatsoever that happens now is not new.

He disclosed that our leaders’ and policy makers’ understanding of the sector is very shallow and would want the new Minister to call a stakeholders forum to further throw light on way to go.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed (left) listening to the General Manager, National Theatre, Alhaji Kabir Yusuf (right), explaining some points during the minister’s impromptu visit to the National Theatre, Lagos

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed (left) listening to the General Manager, National Theatre, Alhaji Kabir Yusuf (right), explaining some points during the minister’s impromptu visit to the National Theatre, Lagos

Describing the merger as a welcomed situation to save the sector, Adegbenro of Gbenro Dance Group, said, it did not come to some of them as a surprise. According to him, “Art had always operated under Ministry of Information and sometime Ministry of Social Development. It must be point out that even when the Ministry of Art and Culture was made to stand as independent ministry, it did not do much, to warrant its continuous existence.
“The Ministry was very slow compare to others. Nothing was happening rather the chief executives that were heading the parasatals that made it up were pursuing their self-ambitions, misinterpreting the aims and objectives that set them up,” he said.

Saying that since this new government is out to sanitise the society, curb corruption and check undue spending, it would be wise for some parasatals and ministries to be merged to check their excesses. He stressed that the most important thing is that the new minister has said art and culture would be used to re-orient the people and promote Nigeria.

Giving the dossier of some of the parasatals and ministries, especially NCAC, NICO, CBAAC and NT/NTN, Adegbenro said their performances do not call that they should be independent, noting that coming under the Ministry of Information and Culture is the best thing to happen to them. He recalled that art performed better when it was as an appendage than when it was independent.

You will find out that art performed better when it was under the Ministry of Information than when it was alone, as a ministry. Compare what it achieved while it was under information in 1977 to what it has achieved from 1999 to date, you will surely agree with me.

To tell you that the parasatals were not performing well just see how the new minister took their chief executives to task, saying that they do not know what to do to make the various parastatals viable. That they do not know what to do with the theatre that is the reason they want to sell it.
“You can now see that the whole national theatre that should be a beehive of activities is idle, with no electricity to light up the place. The whole facility is not working and not useful to the art community. So, when the minister said the people are sitting on a gold mine without knowing it, he was right; so we need to give him room to work,” he said.

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