The National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) recently set the tune for Culture, Peace and national rebirth: An agenda setting aimed at putting issues of culture and peace in the front burner of national discourse.
This is coming following the bitter fought 2023 presidential election which left the country more divided than before.
To the NCAC, this is the best time to begin the healing process as Nigeria seek to reposition on the path of growth and development in line with philosophy and objectives of the incoming administration .
The programme was a well attended one-day interactive forum with the theme Culture, Peace and National Rebirth organized by the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) at Kapital Klub, Abuja, on the 2nd of May 2023 to
The forum brought together leaders of Religious Organizations, Youth and Women Organizations, Civil Society Organizations, Traditional Rulers, Critical Stakeholders in the Arts and Culture sector, a cross section of the Nigerian Media and key resource persons in the field of culture, value re-orientation and social engineering.
The objectives of the programme include :To set an agenda for the rebirth of Nigeria.
To draw attention to the fact that Nigeria is a secular state and stress the need for religious tolerance.
To draw attention to what unites us as a people rather than what divides us.
To bring to the front burner, issues of the actualization of national rebirth within the ambit of national ethics, viz issues of peace, unity and national development.
To restore and sustain the confidence of the youths in the Nigerian nation state and project Nigeria as a place to be.
To provide a working template for relevant government agencies and Civil Society Organizations to embark on sustained campaign aimed at entrenching values that can engender a greater Nigerian nation.
To provide publicity thrusts/themes for the media as they place issues of national rebirth in the front burner of national discourse.
To elicit the support of the media as the gate keepers, in disseminating appropriate information and sensitizing the general public on issues that can enhance peace, unity, stability and the general growth of Nigeria.
To restore the confidence of the youth in the Nigerian nation state and encourage them to stay behind and contribute to the task of nation building.
To reduce the rate at which our youths migrate from Nigeria and draw attention to the limitless opportunities within.
In his welcome address, the Director General of the National Council for Arts and Culture, Otunba Olusegun Runsewe said the Interactive Session was motivated by the need to put issues of culture, peace and national rebirth in the front burner of national discourse as we seek to reposition Nigeria on the path of growth and national development.
He pointed out that there had been no time since after the Civil War that Nigeria had been so polarized along primordial and parochial lines than in the recent time, particularly during the 2023 General Election.
He said that the tension, bitterness, rancour, and acrimony generated by the electioneering campaign have further fuelled the embers of distrust and disunity among Nigerians.
He stated that these ugly social situations in the country have also negatively impacted on the Nigerian youths, manifesting in restiveness and all forms of vices. The Director General observed that the End SARS protest of 2021 and the growing rate of human capital flight fondly called the “JAPA Syndrome” are clear indications of a youth population with a sense of alienation, disillusionment and despair.
Otunba Runsewe stated that it was in strategic response to these social problems and the need to unite our nation and ensure that there is peace, social harmony and national development that the programme was conceived and implemented.
At the programme, goodwill messages were given by the Executive Secretary of National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), Alhaji Ado Yahuza, the Director General of National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR), Mr. Nura Kangiwa, President of the Federation of Tourism Association of Nigeria (FTAN), Mr Onung Nkeum, the President of National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP), Mr. Israel Eboh, the President of the Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA), Mr. Suleiman Muhammed, among other stakeholders.
They all commended the programme as a bold step on the right direction and stressed the need to sustain this and similar programmes so that the Nigeria of our dream can emerge.
Presentations.
Three papers relating to the theme of the programme were presented by erudite resource persons in the field of value re-orientation, communications, social engineering and peace building:
Engendering Religious Tolerance for Peaceful Co-existence in Nigeria.
Undue Attraction of Our Youths to Foreign Lands for Greener Pastures (JAPA Syndrome), Mobilizing Nigerians for National Rebirth.
In his presentation on Engendering Religious Tolerance for Peaceful Co-existence, Dr. David Manya Dogo observed that Nigeria is multi-ethnic and multi-religious nation.
He said that for there to be peaceful coexistence, adherents of the different religious faiths must understand and appreciate the values, beliefs and religious practices of one another. He stressed that religious tolerance is so important that it is listed in Section 23 of the 1999 Constitution as one of the National Ethics designed to shape the attitudes of Nigerians, and promote harmonious co-existence and national development.
He added that Religious Tolerance is also an issue of Human Rights as provided in Section 38 of the 1999 Constitution which confers on Nigerians the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
He enumerated the causes of religious intolerance to include Religious Bigotry, Religious Indoctrination, Ignorance, Factionalism, Hate Speech, Fear of Religious Domination, Competition and Rivalry, and the practice of Religion without Godliness among others.
He said that these tendencies manifest in Religious Conflicts, Suppression, Discrimination, Polarized Settlement Pattern, Religion Based Voting, Hatred, etc. He then submitted that the results of these anomalies are Disunity, Religious War, Loss of Human Capital, among others.
To engender religious tolerance therefore, Dr. Dogo posited the need for religious dialogue, mutual interaction and respect, awareness on our common humanity; upholding constitutional provisions and adhering to religious injunctions relating to religious tolerance, promotion of our core national values, addressing social problems like poverty, unemployment, drug abuse, etc, which are the key drivers of religious intolerance and violence.
In the second paper on Undue Attraction of Our Youths to Foreign Lands for Greener Pasture, by Rebecca Ede, She stated that the growing spate of human capital flight called the “Japa Syndrome” is borne out of ignorance and the false assumption of socio-economic fortune in foreign lands.
She debunked this assumption and stressed that no sooner do the youths get to those countries than they realize that the fortunes they expected are not there. They end up working all their life to pay bills, under very hostile and dehumanizing social conditions. They thus become frustrated and many of them live in a sub-standard life of slavery.
Stressing the need to expose Nigerians to the falsehood, deception and the risk of self-destruction associated with JAPA, Mrs. Rebecca called on relevant government and non-governmental organizations to work with the National Council for Arts and Culture to mount sensitization campaigns to enlighten the youths on the risk of JAPA, and expose them to the abundant opportunities in Nigeria.
As a contribution to this campaign, the HADID Consult and Event Management Limited is working with SABA Resources on this campaign predicated on the paradigms Proclaim, Profile, Position, Purpose and Pivot, she disclosed.
She emphasized the need for the youths to be carefully modeled and mentored to optimize their potentials in Nigeria, while those who must travel should be linked up with Nigerians with similar talents doing well abroad. She called for caution about those we promote as role models because school drop-outs with unique talents but devoid of the right morals can only attract the youths into immorality, if projected as role models.
She emphasized the need for the youths to be properly guided to leverage on transferable skills to develop themselves.
The youths should develop their skills in problem solving, relationship building, communication skills and technology skills which can be applied in various fields for personal development.
Dr. James Komolafe who presented the third paper on, Mobilization for National Rebirth observed that Nigeria of today is ravaged by the vices of ethnic and religious sentiments, tension, allegiance to personal and parochial identities, general feeling of apathy, insecurity, mistrust, suspicion, pervading violence among others.
He stressed the compelling need for national unity, peace, reconciliation necessary for harmonious co-existence and national development.
Stressing the fact that Nigeria is abundantly endowed with human and material resources, he submitted that for these abundant resources to be harnessed and channeled for national development, all Nigerians, young and old alike, must work together.
This entails the popularization and enthronement of the right values, attitudes and behaviours. He proposed the need for a cultural rebirth programme anchored on the philosophy of seven domains: Health Domain, Strength Domain, Wealth Domain, Depth Domain, Stretch Domain, Hedge Domain and Length Domain.
Explaining this philosophy, he said that the change we need must begin with us, adding that our cultural disparities should serve as our strength.
He said that we must study the environment around us and carve out strategic solutions by means of radical intervention. We must combine health with strength to build wealth and develop our nation. In doing this, we must identify areas of personal, family, institutional and regional strength and pool these resources together to drive the process of development.
While he acknowledged that Nigerians are courageous and resilient people, he stressed the need to build strong institutions so as to bring about a society where equity, fairness, hardwork, respect for law and order, will be the order of the day. This can only be done if we eschew selfishness and enthrone national values as the building blocks of national development.
Reviewing the papers, a veteran Nigerian journalist, Mr. Babajide Kolade-Otitoju stated that the right leadership is germane to the attainment of the Nigeria of our dream. Nigeria needs leaders who have the interest of the nation at heart and the transition to the new administration presents an opportunity for the rebirth of Nigeria, given the toright leadership.
He decried the high rate of stealing, corruption in Nigeria occasioned by the oil economy and the socio-economic retrogression of our nation as a result of bad leadership.
He posited that there is the need to deliver a country free from corruption and all forms economic crimes; a country that offers hope for everybody.
Bemoaning the collapse of our cultural values, he said that cultural revival is necessary for national rebirth. We must all be committed to delivering a better Nigeria, he said, adding that citizens should be courageous enough to speak the truth, no matter who is involved.
Youth migration can only stop if we create the enabling environment for all to actualize their developmental aspirations through good leadership and the entrenchment of our cultural values.
He expressed optimism on the capacity of the incoming administration to provide the necessary leadership for Nigeria to move forward.
At the end of the deliberations on Culture, Peace and National Rebirth, An Agenda Setting, the participants issued a communique which among other things tasked Government Agencies, NGOs to work together in propagating, promoting core national values while also stressing the need to encourage religious dialogue, emphasising the nation’s common humanity, upholding the constitutional provisions that seek to promote religious tolerance and
sanction against those who promote religious intolerance, hate and violence while promoting cross-cultural awareness.
At the end of the programme, certificates of participation were presented to the participants.
