Exhortation to the new helmsmen

Running the agencies like fiefdoms with the exercise of arbitrary power and self-conceitedness has been the bane of some past administrations, thereby truncating development processes. It is this kind of approach, for instance, on the misadventure at the National Troupe of Nigeria which, today, is comatose except on paper.

YES; at certain points during the current political dispensation, the culture sector was virtually tottering. This is not to say that we are out of the woods yet. The debilitating spirit is still spreading its miasma right through the sector, occasioned by, perhaps, the lack of political will on the part of the Federal Government to inject doses of professional discipline into the sector and bring practicality and creativity to the foreground in running the affairs of our cultural establishment. But as stakeholders gasp in the deluge of crises, a breath of fresh air creeps in.

Recently, five new helmsmen (one of whom is a lady) were appointed to head particular parastatals under the Ministry of Information and Culture. The National Gallery of Arts has a new Director-General in the person of Mr.Ebetem William Ivara. A new General Manager, Professor Sunday EnessiOdodo mounts the saddle at the National Theatre. Mr. Ado Mohammed Yahuza is the new Executive Secretary/CEO of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO). The National Commission for Museums and Monuments is being run by a new Director-General, Professor Aba Isa Tijjani while Mrs. OluwabunmiAyobamiAmao is appointed as the Director-General of the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation.

TALKING about the breath of fresh air, these new appointments seem to indicate that the Federal Government, through its supervising ministry, intends to pump new impetus into the administration of culture if, at least, to assuage the anxiety of stakeholders over the past few years. This is why the critical tone should be soft at this point in time.

Definitely, there may be temptations in the stakeholders to dither in view of past experiences with the shilly-shalliness of some – I mean, not all – culture administrators in handling their respective portfolios. The feeling of deja vu might creep into the contentions of stakeholders because of the dispiriting records of this category of non-performers. One’s admonition, however, is that the dithering spirit should, in the interim, be supplanted by one of accommodation, if only to give the new Chief Executives the opportunity to settle down, engage in thorough study of their inherited officialities, design innovative strategies and chart a new course individually for the implementation of relevant policies and programmes. Of course, this should not take a long time. Action is the keyword, but action matched with intellectual astuteness and praxis.

The new helmsmen should always keep it at the back of their minds that they are dealing with creative breeds – dreamers, visionaries, trend-setters, mobilisers, beautifiers, critics, etc.,  whose thoughts fly with the speed of light. They are the types who wake up in the dead of night to scribble powerful lines in their scrapbooks, pick up the recorder to drop sentient melody or dash into the studio to touch up unfinished paintings. Creativity nags. The creative individual can also nag. Time, for them, is habitually of essence because inspiration does not wait for excuses. There may be humanly-inhibiting factors on the way to the realisation of goals. Even so, the artist believes that, in itself, is an opportunity to explore the dynamics of creativity to overcome such obstacles.

Thus said, the new CEOs should strive to align themselves with the inherent will of the stakeholders in the creative industry – that is if they are not adepts in the creative enterprise themselves. And if they had ‘felt’ they were not, the reality should dawn on them now that ‘we are in it together’. Fowls do not devour one another’s intestines. Everyone among the new Chief Executive Officers listed above should divest themselves of the arbitrariness of power which had led  to the ruination of some federal cultural agencies in the past. Consultation is very important. They should examine critically the history of their respective agencies, build upon the positive ones and set new standards of universal rating.

THE National Gallery was recently undergoing a rescue mission from petty politicking, trying to bring its old collaborators in the profession into the fold. Suddenly, the unpopular idea of merging it with the National Commission for Museums and Monuments was thrown up. To good sense, there is no rationality in merging an institution for contemporary art with that for antiquities. Appointing a new Director-General for the NGA may signal the possibility that the statusquo will be maintained. This is one area that the new administration can relate to the yearnings of the visual art community.

The new General Manager of the National Theatre has been a first-rate organiser and leader in the Theatre sub-sector. Professor Ododo’s appointment was overwhelmingly applauded when the news came in, and one did not expect anything less in view of his distinctive track-record. But how to midwife the Central Bank’s initiative on the management of the cultural monument and its vast landed property without alienating theatre and allied arts practitioners and their professional interests remains a challenge.

The predecessor of Mr. Ado Mohammed Yahuza at the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), Professor Barclays Ayakoroma, brought the agency to limelight with far-reaching strategic programming, training of culture administrators and infrastructural development. He worked with a great team. Yahuza will do well to advance on the achievements, resource persons and multiple beneficiaries of its intellectual outputs.

Professor Aba Isa Tijjani, at the helm of affairs at the NCMM, will continue to tackle extant challenges of repatriating Nigeria’s stolen treasures, preventing the criminal activities of runners and providing incentives for the curatorial beats to come up with more historically relevant exhibitions. The educational programme of the NCMM should be further boosted. Let our children learn our history through direct sighting of the manifests of the history on a popular scale.

The various state branches of the Commission should be encouraged to host more exhibitions for students and tourists in general. All those works of antiquity warehoused in Lagos, for instance, should be packaged, classified as exhibits in various states and showcased. The Smithsonian Institute has this sort of culture promoting programme across the United States of America and it attracts teeming millions of tourists all year round from one location to another.

The Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC), in its over 40 years of existence, has only gradually and systematically projected its image into public consciousness. As the custodian of the legacies of the 2nd Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC 77), its mandate is global. It is, in fact, the major international face of Nigeria’s cultural relations. FESTAC evokes nostalgia in contemporary history, but CBAAC, has only been trailing that popularity.

There have been some landmark achievements, however. Under Professor Duro Oni, the media reach of the Centre was tremendous and so much was invested in capacity building for institutions and experts. Professor Tunde Babawale, in later years, gave CBAAC its well-deserved prominence on the continent and the African diaspora. After these salutary strides, a Director-General with a provincial orientation stepped in and lowered the standard. What one may simply suggest to the new Director-General of CBAAC is to study the books and emerge with an ace; to earn greater respect and prestige for Nigeria through the activities of the Centre locally and internationally, with dividends devolving around the Nigerian cultural intelligentsia and culture-producers.

ON the whole, our new Chief Executives of Culture deserve the co-operation of all stakeholders in the sector to excel in their assignments. But the goodwill of stakeholders needs to be reciprocated with result-oriented performance which would enhance opportunities for fulfilment at all levels.

Running the agencies like fiefdoms with the exercise of arbitrary power and self-conceitedness has been the bane of some past administrations, thereby truncating development processes. It is this kind of approach, for instance, that resulted in the misadventure at the National Troupe of Nigeria which, today, is comatose except on paper.

Tomoloju is a dramatist, theater director and culture communicator. _ HE can be reached at Email: [email protected]