Laraba MUREY
The Federal Government has announced plans to leverage Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage to drive economic growth and create jobs for millions of Nigerians.
Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, disclosed in Abuja on Wednesday while hosting Muslim and Christian faithful to iftar. she emphasized the government’s commitment to promoting culture as a vital tool for economic development.
According to Musawa, President Ahmed Tinubu is keen on building a strong, innovative, and dynamic creative industry that will benefit future generations.
While announcing a forthcoming project that will showcase Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage and promote national unity, the minister revealed that the government has signed an MOU with Mophie to open up Nigeria’s cultural assets and use them to drive economic expansion.
She said, “Being a Nigerian woman of faith at this time, is how both Muslims and Christian faithful are also having a time of spirituality.
“We’re celebrating Ramadan, our Christian brothers and sisters are also fasting and celebrating Lent. So, you know, it is a time of unity for me. You know, it just shows the importance of unity.
“We all belong to one realm. We all belong to Almighty. We all worship the same Almighty.
“It is really about unity. My message for the creative industry is that there are so many good times ahead. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been very keen in ensuring that we put up a structure, a ministry that will really add a lot of value and worth to Nigerians.
“He is so interested in building something different, special, innovative, dynamic for future generations. It’s not about this government or the next government. He wants us to build something very strong, fortified, to give the growing population, especially the younger demographic, a hope for the future.”
The minister further added that the president is confident that the creative and cultural industry holds a lot of worth in terms of what can be handed down to this generation.
“So what we have done in the last couple of months is really put up that strong institutional framework, that infrastructure that can really, really, really allow us to tap into the big, bigger potential in the industry. And I can tell you that we’re now at the implementation stage.
“So in the next couple of months, you’re going to see us roll out different programs and implementation. By the time the end of the year comes, you will really see a structure taking place, whereby I think the youth of Nigeria will have assurance in terms of job creation, in terms of capacity building, in terms of how we can use our creative industry to turn Nigeria into a creative and cultural hub of Africa. But I think most importantly at this stage is to see how we can add an economic expansion.
“And with this economic expansion is going to be distilled down to the different sectors and it will empower us only as a nation. And I really want to use this industry again to see how we can look at the different diversity that we have, but use it in a way that will strengthen us as one great people and one great nation.
On how culture can promote Nigeria’s unity, Musawa said, “We are one people, we’re Nigerians, but because we have a very beautiful rainbow of different cultures and languages, you know, that is used to show our differences. But no, it actually should be used to show how beautiful and very dynamic we are as a people.
“There’s a project that I’ll be announcing very soon. I think that project will really sort of personify how we carry the whole kaleidoscope of people along as one, where we recognise ourselves as one united people, but with a sheer appreciation of the diversity that lasts within us. Culture is who we are.
“Culture is our history, it’s our ideals, it’s our values and it’s our traditions. So we want to also tap into this and turn it into an asset. That culture is a national asset, is each of our national assets.
“And one of the MOUs that I signed today with Mophie will allow us to open up, you know, that asset, that national asset we have, and to use it into an initiative that will give us the economic expansion that we’re hoping to have.”
