NIGERIA PARLEYS GERMANY TO PRESERVE FILMS, CULTURAL HERITAGE

Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed made the revelation in Lagos after meeting with top management of Goethe Institute in Lagos.
He said it was high time Nigeria intensified efforts to conserve and preserve its monuments, archives and assets to grow its economy.

“I think in the area of culture the Goethe Institute has been working with Nigerian government for quite a while in the area of Theatre, film and the like, but for today they have come to offer their hand of fellowship and collaboration in preserving and restoring some of the old films about Nigeria.

“They are working in conjunction with the Nigerian Film Corporation to make sure that some of our old films are put in the proper form and many of them are brittle and if they are not preserved we might lose them. Today that is what is what we have come to discuss, of course we also discussed capacity building where they can train our young men on how to restore works of arts.”

He said the visit of German’s president who occupies a unique position in the European Union to the country is a further endorsement of the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, saying Germany has a robust economic and cultural relationship with Nigeria.

“One thing we must understand about tourism is that culture drives tourism , when people come to your country, they come to see basically the way you live , they come to see your monument , your ecotourism , so the first for thing for is how do we conserve and preserve the sites, monuments , how do we guarantee access to them. The easiest way to do so is to really involve the locals. Here the local governments must understand that they have a big role to play in tourism,” Mohammed said.

He said it is only when the locals know and understand that the project will drive their economy, provide jobs for them and that the tourists are not there to violate their culture that they will allow it to thrive.

“We need to preserve the monuments. We need to involve the locals, so that we could train them as tourist’s guard, as people that can tour and tell the stories. We also need to go to the issue about package and develop the tourist’s monuments. There is also the issue of hospitality industries, hotels and the rests.”

He lamented that the locals have been alienated despite the fact that they are the owners of artefacts and it is their culture.

Also speaking the Director of Goethe Institute Marc Andre Schmoctel assured that they will work within the ambit of the partnership and ensure that the country’s archives and monuments are well preserved.

Among films to be preserved are the films used to document the historic Festival of Art and Culture held in 1977, FESTAC 77, which was a confluence of artistic creativity from all African nations.